Pro EQ Tips for Live Church Sound

Good EQ technique is a big deal. It makes mixing easier and more forgiving. It can smooth issues with musicianship and arranging. It can help address challenging room acoustics and protect everyone in the auditorium from distracting squeals, piercing highs, and muffled mud that make listening difficult. It can elevate a good mix into something special.

However, making effective EQ adjustments can be tricky. Instead of having the recording studio’s luxury of finessing each instrument track to sound its best, EQ in live settings focuses on more basic challenges such as handling instruments competing for the same frequency ranges or addressing feedback. Each sound source may seem pristine on its own, but the combined result may become an unintelligible, muddy mess.

Here is a timesaving approach to enhancing your mix with pro EQ techniques for great live sound.

Covering the PreliminariesKey EQ Principles for Live SoundHandling the Soundcheck, Rehearsal, and Set

Covering the Preliminaries

Before we take the plunge on making the most of your live mix with EQ, let’s get some necessary sonic housekeeping out of the way. We’ll assume the basic room setup and equipment questions are addressed. Here are a few resources, just in case.

How Do Equalizers Work?Frequency and EQ ExplainedTime-aligning Speakers for Your PAHow to EQ Your Venue the Easy WayWhat Are the Best Songs to Test Speakers and Headphones?3 Secrets to Eliminating Microphone FeedbackHow to Prevent Feedback on StageHow to EQ a Kick Drum4 Solutions for Cleaner Church PA Sound

Of course, the room EQ will be modified once your space fills up with warm bodies. But with these steps covered, you’re off to a great start.

Key EQ Principles for Live Sound

First Things First

Instead of diving directly into setting EQs during soundcheck, initially set each channel’s gain and create a basic mix. This allows the band to start adjusting their in-ear mixes and begin practicing right away. Then you can make EQ changes in the context of the entire mix.

Why fix what isn’t broken? When possible, address EQ issues at the source by adjusting a mic or amp setting. Besides, professionally created instrument patches, multitracks, sampled instruments, and electronic drums are usually already EQed. Ideally, if you start with a good sound, then the only EQ tweaks needed are to help instruments blend with other instruments or to fit well in the room.

Good EQ technique removes what’s in the way so that good sounds can shine. Boosting a frequency range can push the gain staging into distortion or past the feedback safety net you created when ringing out the mics. Cutting is preferable.

The lowpass (high-cut) filter can be your friend, especially on anything you want to sit back a bit in the mix such as ambient keyboards, rhythm guitars, reverbs, and background vocals. It can also create a buffer to protect against instruments suddenly becoming harsh, such as a kick drum or a tom when attacked or a lead guitarist stomping on a modern-rock patch on a multi-effects pedal and digging in. Those upper frequencies may sound great in the studio, but they can contribute to ear fatigue in live settings and have the potential for the kinds of painfully harsh surprises that cause every head to turn and glare at the sound booth.

General Pro Techniques

Address EQ issues in the context of the overall mix (not individually soloed). An EQ change that may not make the instrument sound quite as pretty when soloed or in the studio could be just the thing to address a sound issue or allow another instrument to cut through the live mix. (This is a big distinction between studio mixing and live mixing.)

Make a surgical EQ cut sound more musical by adding a small, wide boost just above the cut (or on both sides of it).

Test your changes to make sure they help the sound by toggling back and forth between the changed EQ and the original.

While there are general rules of thumb, such as a kick drum’s punch living in the 40Hz to 80Hz range, every instrument has a unique sonic fingerprint. For a quick how-to on sweeping to identify frequencies, check out this “How to Hunt for Problem Frequencies Using Parametric EQ” article. Sweeping sounds terribly distracting during a live performance, however. Just like a musician takes time to develop their technique outside of band rehearsal, practice identifying and adjusting individual frequencies for those times when you can’t sweep.

If you’re running high volumes, then avoid desensitizing your ears to high frequencies by using even-spectrum, 20dB-reducing earplugs such as the universal-fit Etymotic Research ER-20XS high-fidelity earplugs.

While you rely on your ears, don’t trust them exclusively. In addition to hearing fatigue, ears tend to adapt to what’s around, including bad sound. Reference tracks can help keep you centered. Also, ears age. Sweetwater’s hearing aid system, Soundwave Sontro self-fitting OTC hearing aids, offers a free app and assessment so you can monitor your hearing health.

If you have a digital console with remote capabilities, then use an iPad or a tablet to mix from anywhere in the space so you can discover resonant frequencies caused by room features that can impact the congregation’s experience.

Handling the Soundcheck, Rehearsal, and Set

Win the “sound engineer vs. the band” challenge by being prepared, sticking to the basics, communicating well, and using the sound engineer’s secret weapon: the virtual soundcheck. Because most digital boards enable you to capture tracks from each channel (onboard or via a computer) for troubleshooting later, you can initially focus on getting the basic sound and helping the band learn to trust you and relax. When the band is no longer in the room, pull out the virtual soundcheck and tweak away!

Before Soundcheck

Speed is king when it comes to soundcheck. Give yourself a jump-start by making choices before arriving. You’ll reserve critical time for troubleshooting and creating a better mix.

Before the rehearsal or performance, do your homework. Becoming familiar with the band’s music and tonal preferences helps you anticipate potential EQ conflicts between instruments. For example, in a full-band mix, an acoustic guitar often plays a percussive role somewhat similar to a shaker or hi-hat; however, for a singer/songwriter acoustic set, the acoustic guitar functions more as a primary instrument and needs more warm lows and mids to fill in the overall sound and support the vocal. Anticipate how the music director and the specific group of musicians will use their instruments.

Listening to appropriate target reference tracks will help tune your ear.

Arrive as early as the church permits so that everything can be ready. If needed, check and flatten the room EQ, do line checks, ring out the mics, and preset your routing and buses before the musicians arrive. Everyone will be more relaxed.

Zero the board EQ, including each individual channel strip.

Prepopulate channels with presets if you use them for a starting place, especially if you’re working in a limited time frame or have an ever-rotating roster of musicians. Your console’s EQ presets were created to bring out the best of each individual instrument but not necessarily in the context of the overall mix; you will need to adjust each one appropriately. When I was mixing a roster of 108 musicians, I found it very helpful to compile my own presets for each musician and preset the board before the specific team arrived. Of course, the best practice is to hone your skills to quickly dial in the lowpass, highpass, sweet spots, and cuts for each instrument.

When possible, group related channels into a single mix bus that you can quickly EQ. That will enable you to reserve the individual channel-strip EQs for fine-tuning later.

During Soundcheck

Your primary goal at soundcheck is setting each channel’s initial gain level and creating a rough mix so the band can move into rehearsal. You’ll be able to finesse the EQ once the band starts rehearsing.

Know how much time you are given for soundcheck and stick to it.

While you’re setting each channel’s gain, quickly set the highpass filter to remove unnecessary low, mud-making sonic information, including rumble, plosives, room noise, instrument bleed, and flabbiness.

Tell the band as soon as gain levels are set so they can begin setting IEM levels. Ask them to run through their loudest song so you can create a rough mix. While they play, capture the channels in case you run out of time with the band and need to do a virtual soundcheck later.

When the band starts playing in earnest, your opportunity to make EQ choices begins. Covering these three priorities will make EQing much easier:

Establish clear, distinct, and present vocals.Get effective and non-muddy low end by separating the bass guitar and kick drum.Address harsh highs in cymbals, snare, guitars, and piano.

During Rehearsal/Run-through

This is your opportunity to dial in your EQ settings. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Per instrument:

Help each instrument stand out in their own frequency sweet spots and gently reduce low spots. Check out the Sweetwater Music Instrument Frequency Cheat Sheet for a helpful visual reference. The article “How to EQ (Almost) Anything” will give you a good place to start with simple EQ approaches for most instruments.

The lead vocal (VOX) is arguably the most important component in worship music, so it’s important to dial this in successfully.

Pro Tip: If your sound console’s channel EQ is limited and you need to cut frequencies on both sides of a range you want to bump up, then use a single cut with a wide Q to take care of both cuts and add a narrow boost in the middle to bump up the sweet spot. For example, engineers often cut VOX between 100Hz–350Hz to drop out the hollow boxiness and right above 1kHz to get rid of the nasal honk; then they’ll add a small boost to the vocal sweet spot that often lives between 400Hz and 1kHz. Instead of two individual cuts, reduce both by making one cut with a Q that’s wide enough to cover both areas. Then add the boost with a narrower Q swept for the warm sweet spot.

Overall check — look for the fights:

Pay special attention to pairs of instruments that tend to fight for the same frequency range to ensure compatibility and distinction (such as the bass guitar and kick drum, multiple guitars, the primary and background vocals, and so on). For specific tips, check out Sweetwater’s Instrument Pair EQ Cheat Sheet [LINK].

Spot-check for clear vocals, effective and non-muddy bass, any piercing frequencies, instrument distinction in competing frequency ranges, warm mids, air, and so on.

Double-check the overall level at 3kHz for piercing buildup. This is the resonant frequency of many people’s ear canals.

Don’t forget the wet effects. A highpass, a lowpass, and a tasty low-mid cut on reverb and delay can allow the instruments and vocals to shine through cleanly while retaining the impactful ambient effect. If you run in stereo or LCR, then try panning the vocals and the deep sounds such as kick and bass to the center, other primary instruments somewhat left or right as positioned on the platform, and your stereo effects and ambient sounds hard panned to the outside. Reduce reverb and delay on the primary vocal to clarify and bring it forward in the mix.

Save your settings at the end of the rehearsal for each musician (label them, please!) so you can quickly preset the board next time with a good starting place.

After Run-through

Even if the rehearsal will be followed by a service, you may still have a few golden moments once the band wraps up. Before hanging out and giving your ears a break, use the tracks from the virtual soundcheck to do any gentle finessing necessary to avoid instruments competing for the same ranges. Be careful not to boost mics as that could take them into feedback range once you return to live musicians. If playing virtual tracks through a DAW, then looping sections can help you really dial in key elements. If unable to play through the PA into the house, then use flat-response headphones.

During the Set

During the set, trust your ears and make necessary EQ adjustments. Remember that factors have changed. The vocalists and amp tubes are warmed up. Everyone is more energized, directly impacting the overall volume and tone. The congregation adds sound to the room with talking, singing, and clapping, and their bodies absorb some of the warm lower mids and highs. Because sweeping for frequencies can sound bad and be distracting to the congregation, it can be helpful to visually identify resonating frequencies with an RTA and Smaart, if available.

Diplomacy

It pays to be diplomatic with the band. While we all prefer to work with people who are pleasant to be around, sometimes it’s your role to point out problems or request help to address EQ issues, especially if stage volume or amplifier settings impact the mix.

When asking the musicians to adjust tone or volume, phrase your request in a way that communicates you’re trying to help them connect well with the congregation and be heard. “Hey, Steve, I’ll be able to bump you up a bit better for your solo if you can bring down the high tone knob of your amp two notches. There’s some harshness bouncing around in this room that’s getting in the way. Thanks!”

Build up the individual musicians at noninvasive times. Picking out specific details can go a long way to build their trust and confidence that you’re creating a good mix. “Hey, Steve, when you held that chord out at the end of the solo and increased the dynamics over the keyboard changes, the congregation really got into it. Sweet.”

If the instrument arrangement is creating sonic mud with musicians playing over one another, then gently work with the music director to craft distinct parts of the sonic pie for each instrument. “Hey, I noticed something you may want to consider... “

Collaborate with musicians using onboard EQ gear, amp settings, and pedals. “I find that once the congregation comes in and starts clapping that I have to notch out some of the highs in your channel or turn you down. It may sound better to just take care of that on the amp. Can you help me out?”

Know Thyself

If you can record your master bus send, then here’s a great way to test your EQ mix. Use a frequency-analysis tool to create a side-by-side comparison between your mix and a pro mix. To get an eye-opening image of overlapping or spiking instrument frequencies, consider capturing your individual tracks and testing them in a DAW with a frequency-analysis plug-in. Sending a screen capture to your musicians and music director may help them understand the significance of any issues and inspire them to assist in creating solutions.

With the MeldaProduction MMultiAnalyzer audio analyzing plug-in, you can layer multiple tracks to discover where frequency issues arise. Likewise, the Blue Cat Audio FreqAnalyst Multi real-time spectrum analyzer plug-in compares the spectral content of multiple tracks simultaneously and allows you to match an instrument’s EQ curve to a target version. The iZotope Neutron 4 mixing plug-in suite includes the Unmask Module, which identifies masking issues and seeks out instrumental imbalances and competing tracks to help you identify and clear up any muddy mixing. The FabFilter Pro-Q 3 EQ and filter plug-in has a frequency collision indicator to help you carve out sonic space.

Additional Resources

Instrument Pair EQ Cheat Sheet

Check out the Sweetwater Music Instrument Frequency Cheat Sheet.

Not Using a Digital Console?

Suppose you are using an analog console that lacks these functions and you don’t have access to a digital system. In that case, you may be able to accomplish similar results with an outboard EQ for your buses and external reverb/delay channel with products such as the affordable Behringer Ultragraph Pro FBQ6200HD 31-band stereo graphic equalizer, the mid-featured Golden Age Project EQ-81 MKIII 4-band equalizer, or the elysia Xfilter Rack 4-band parametric EQ.

Have questions about which gear will help your live channels sparkle? Your Sweetwater Sales Engineer has solutions. Reach out at (800) 222-4700 and start resolving your sound-clarity issues today!
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