One of the greatest service opportunities for an audio engineer is being able to mix sound for their church. There are many different types of services and within a given church there may be different styles such as traditional and contemporary.
Traditional churches may vary with different types of praise music during multiple services. In addition, the size of the congregation at the multiple services may effect the sound. Always know what the sound requirements are going to be before you arrive so you have a plan to get mics in place quickly.
Early morning services may be a simple pastor, organ, and soloist. My approach for the early service is to go easy on the levels. The congregation should be able to hear every word without realizing the sound system is on. If the congregation is smaller at the early service, you will want to avoid exciting the room or physical structure by keeping the volume lower. This will provide a much more natural sound.
Subsequent services with more attendees will require increased volume. Pre-service chatter and gathering music will make it necessary to have the pulpit level up to get the attention of the congregation as the service starts. With more attendees the acoustic properties of the room will change and you can give more sound energy to the service.
The most important thing to remember is to let the spirit flow through and help you to mix the sound so everyone can understand the message and enjoy the music.
