Lee ( founder and designer of BASSBOSS speakers ) in stating that the goal should be to get a good sound at the source . Then craft a balanced mix . Then reproduce that mix in fullrange at scale taking into account the physical space at hand . Those are the only hard and fast rules to creating a good mix . If the source ( musician / vocalist , etc .) is great , the engineer is knowledgeable and effective , and the room is decent — a quality stereo PA rig will go a long way .
Immersive may add even more to the overall sonic experience . But as I ’ ve noted in past articles , let ’ s always make sure that we ’ re balancing whiz-bang tech buzz with the resources at hand . Would the gap between a rockin ’ LR or LCR mix and a full immersive system warrant the cost and complexity in your environment ? Or might that time and energy ( and dollars !) be better spent tackling acoustic issues or better training for the audio and technical staff ?
All in all , we are excited to see where immersive tech leads us . While it might sound a bit negative in my summary above , that wasn ’ t the case at all . When done well , immersive is rather amazing . Studies have proven that it can lead to a more ‘ spiritual ’ feeling in congregants ( see https :// joom . ag / 3n0d / p88 for more on that point ). I think we all just wanted to stress the need balance of church needs and likely sonic outcomes — a call for a careful and pragmatic approach . It ’ ll be cool to come back around in a year and see where immersive audio has ended up as far as its popularity in various houses of worship scenarios .
LIVE SOUND STATE OF THE UNION
What is the latest and greatest tech and buzz in the live sound space for 2025 ? Well , if our panelists are correct in their assessment — immersive audio , artificial intelligence , audio training , and virtual soundcheck lead the pack .
On the immersive audio front , we had a bit of a repeat of many of the same themes as the dedicated immersive panel session . Immersive is cool , but probably not quite ready for primetime at scale for every church out there yet . Once again , focus on getting a good LR or LCR mix . Oh , and on that point , Allen & Heath USA Live Sound & Touring Manager Mike Bangs was adamant in his proclamation that all systems should be in stereo . “ Don ’ t mix in mono , last I checked humans have two ears ,” quipped the ever-insightful industry veteran .
Bangs shared that he often works with churches to spend the 20-30 minutes it takes to convert their mono systems over to stereo — much to the surprise of the audio techs who run the system each weekend . “ It isn ’ t as difficult as you ’ d think to convert a mono system over to stereo ,” noted Bangs . “ Often times it was crafted that way to save the system designer time , but the jump to stereo is always worth the little bit of effort to fix things .” So perhaps the takeaway from this panel on immersive is to make sure you at least get stereo done first !
On the topic of artificial intelligence , I had to bite my tongue . As a PhD student in philosophy myself , this topic could get VERY deep and go way off the rails . I did get a chance to at least broach the idea of whether artificial intelligence ( like ChatGPT ) could ever actually be intelligent in the way we would classify intelligence in humans and other sentient animals .
My co-host Doug Doppler shared the rather interesting take that in his view his friend ’ s Tesla was intelligent since it could get him to the destination via auto-pilot . Hmm … I think my response here was something about the
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