AUDIO
AUDIO CONSOLE SELECTION : PART 2 - NARROWING IT DOWN | Jeff Hawley
This month ’ s ‘ Audio with Jeff Hawley ’ takes our results from the initial audio console requirements gathering phase and gets us to a bit more of a workable specs / features matrix to help narrow down our list of possible console candidates . As you ’ ll see , some of the questions we asked in the last phase are very straightforward in their application to our specs / features matrix , while other questions may require a deeper dive and additional questions . Just as with last month ’ s Part 1 of this series , I ’ ll do my best to include any ‘ gotchas ’ that I ’ ve come across in the past to help keep you on track and avoid common pitfalls .
NARROWING DOWN OUR OPTIONS :
You ’ ll recall that we boiled down the requirements gathering phase into three key questions , starting off with ‘ What purpose ( s ) or function will the console need to serve ?’ The sub-question that kicked off our first major requirements subset was ‘ Will it solely be mixing live sources in an acoustic space ?’ We can generally translate the answers to these connected questions as a way to decide whether we are looking for a ‘ live sound ’ console or a ‘ broadcast ’ console . While the lines can be fuzzy at times between the two lands , there are quite a few operational differences between a desk designed primarily for live mixing vs . one that is made to live in full-blown broadcast world .
For our purposes here , I ’ ll assume that the vast majority of churches will be more focused on the ‘ live sound ’ sort of console . Purposebuilt broadcast consoles will include things like mix-minus busses / bus-minus faders , off air conference busses , etc . and tend to lean on a narrower range of EQ and compressor tools that are focused on processing spoken word sources vs . complex combinations of musical instrument and vocals . Again , this is a broadbrush generalization and doesn ’ t rule out using a ‘ live sound ’ desk for high level broadcast purposes - but you can likely remove a console designed for radio broadcast mixing from your list of options for front of house .
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT :
We also asked whether our Goldilocks console will need to provide a means to record the