Listen on earbuds. Listen through a laptop. Listen on a phone speaker. Listen on a television if that’ s how many people in your congregation watch.
You may discover that the beautiful low end you hear on studio monitors disappears completely on a phone, or that a vocal presence boost that sounded fine through the PA becomes painfully aggressive in earbuds.
That isn’ t necessarily a reason to mix everything for the worst speaker available. It’ s a reason to understand how your mix translates.
Two Mixes, Two Different Jobs The biggest mistake we make with livestream audio is assuming that because the FOH mix sounds good, the broadcast mix should sound good too.
They’ re related, but they’ re not the same product.
The FOH engineer is reinforcing sound that already exists in a physical room. The broadcast engineer is creating the entire listening environment from microphones, direct inputs and ambience. One mix works with the acoustics. The other has to recreate enough of those acoustics to make the listener feel like they’ re there.
So, if your FOH mix sounds great and the livestream sounds terrible, don’ t immediately start changing the house mix.
Build the stream its own balance. Give it the instruments the room provides naturally. Add enough ambience to connect the listener to the congregation. Control the dynamics. Then put on headphones and listen to what you’ re actually sending.
Because the person watching from home doesn’ t know how great it sounds at front of house.
They only know what’ s coming out of their speakers.
Steve Sattler Steve is a Pasadena, California based guitarist, composer, producer, and audio engineer. With over thirty years of professional experience exploring musical gear— both vintage and modern, his lifelong passion for all things guitar continues to fuel his work as a recording musician and technical writer.
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