This is an age-old Shure Notes saw, but it’s unavoidable – what are you trying to accomplish?  Answers to these questions will guide you in microphone choice and placement.

How big is the venue?
In a small venue, you may not need to mic certain instruments – they may be sufficiently loud on their own.  And there’s a flip side – certain sound sources – drums and guitar amps – may be too loud for a small venue and will need to be managed with shields or by asking the performers to turn down.

What are the volume sensibilities or expectations?
  This is a matter of the congregants’ ages, the type of music played and culture. Seniors tend to be sensitive to loud music, which in certain urban churches, feeling the spirit can mean turning the volume up.  A common error is mixing 10dB louder or softer than what the audience is expecting to hear – this comes off as ‘bad sound’ and greatly diminishes the worship experience.

An instrument that’s loud enough without in a soft room might need to be miked in a loud place.  Even at Willow, there are different expectations.  A Spanish service tends to be louder than some of the others while we’ve had jazz bands perform without any sound reinforcement at all.

“You need to strike a balance between intelligibility and art, understanding the factors that affect how intelligible the words must be.”

What kind of music/size of band/instrumentation are you miking?
Will it change from service to service or is the band the same all the time?

Is this worship or a concert?
Will the words be on a screen? Has everyone heard the songs before or are there new ones? You need to strike a balance between intelligibility and art, understanding the factors that affect how intelligible the words must be.  When the songs are new and the lyrics are not on a screen, the vocals need to be more “on top”.  If it’s the last chorus of a song that everyone knows, whatever sounds are most musical is where you’re aiming.  A worship leader with a great voice will end up higher in the mix than one who sounds like Bob Dylan.

What are the capabilities of the PA?
There’s no sense putting 40Hz from a kick drum into a system where all it will do is tax the amplifiers and damage the speakers

Do you need to mic everything, drums especially? Does everything you mic need to be in the mix?

Do you have input in determining where things go?
You know better than to position the choir right next to the drums or guitar or bass amp.

Are monitors present?
  For everyone or just a few? Mixed by FOH or a monitor guy? In-ears or wedges? I strongly suggest in-ear personal monitors for a number of reasons: musicians can hear themselves better, FOH doesn’t have to fight stage bleed, the mix is more consistent since the stage bleed isn’t messing it up in front and tuned correctly, in-ear personal monitoring can protect the performers’ hearing.

How many channels do you have on the FOH board
and the monitor board (if applicable)?  How many are just for the band, after the spoken word mics and other inputs are assigned?

Before we go straight to microphones, here are some essential truths. You’re probably not going to be successful without considering these:

Open Communication:
The musicians and sound crew need to work together, leaving their egos at the door. The right mics, the best PA in the world or the best sound guy won't fix this. You have to be able to ask the guitarist to turn down when needed, and have him/her go along with it. I’m fortunate in that the musicians I work with understand this. I’ve actually asked a few to turn up!

Rehearsal Time:
Musicians have to be rehearsed - if the source isn't happening, I don't have knobs on the board to fix that.

Time, Generally:
The band needs to get comfortable wherever they’re performing and the sound guy needs time to dial things in.

Tools:
And of course, a decent PA helps a lot.

Picking the right mic is not the issue. (The fact is, there is no one “right” mic.) There are many consideration in making choices: EQs, instrumentation, how the players play, musical styles, room acoustics … many, many variables. Here, though, are a few caveats:

If you always have the same instrumentation
and have a board with little EQ (not parametric), mics like Shure’s Beta 52/PG52 for kick drums with "built in EQ" can be helpful. “Hybrids” (Shure SM57 and Beta 57, for example) have some built-in EQ, and are still flat or generic enough that they can be used in a lot of places.  Look for mics like these.

If you have a board with decent EQ capabilities
(multi-band parametric), lean toward "generic/flat" mics (usually condensers) - KSM137s, SM137s, SM91s and  KSM32s.  You can tweak the personality with EQ easier on a flat mic than you can on one where the "personality" (built in EQ) is fighting you. As I move from venue to venue, I tend toward this approach - all condensers with the exception of the top snare mic.

Limited Resources
Shrinking or even non-existent budgets are a new reality. When the budget or finance committee fails to understand that nothing, not even a Shure microphone, lasts forever, here’s how you can make the most of the gear you have or the gear you may need to purchase.

“What’s most important in a church setting?  The words.  The message.”

Put your money into vocal mics
When you can't afford the mics you really want for every instrument, spend the money you have where it matters - on the vocal mics.  What’s most important in a church setting?  The words.  The message.

Buy a few good mics if that's all you can afford
Add more good mics as time and money allow. If you buy full complement of mediocre mics, the people that control your funding will assume they're done with funding you, and you may end up stuck with mediocre stuff for a long time. If you're patient, you can afford a good set of mics.

Avoid “unitaskers”
With the possible exception of the kick and vocal mics, avoid mics that only do one thing well. An SM137 or SM57 can be pointed at a lot of things and sound good with little work. Better to have those in your mic locker than specialty mics when someone comes in with some odd ethnic instrument you've never seen before (it happens!). Once you have every mic you need, you can splurge on a want/desire (a KSM44 for the sax is one of my guilty pleasures).

Take a minimalist strategy
Learn to survive with a few good mics until you can afford more.

Drums:
These are usually the prime culprits in running up the mic/channel count, so if you can minimize things there, you're in good shape.

You can often achieve good results with just one or two mics on the drums - two overheads (one if you have to) and one in the kick. Some very successful sound has been done this way, Geoff Emerick for The Beatles as an example. This assumes that you need to mic the drums at all. Over time, add what you don’t hear well (not what common wisdom or your eyes tell you).

Guitar amps:
it’s possible to have the guitars/bass only come from the stage. It’s a little unconventional, but if you and the guitarist trust each other, and he won’t “accidentally” turn up (a lot of them don’t know that they’re doing it, or their effects boards have such uncontrolled levels that this is impossible), you can sometimes get away with this. Of course, once they’re used to this, it may be tough to later ask them to turn down when you have mics for the amps.

I have mixed a rock band (two guitars, one bass, drums) with only one mic for the vocalist in a small club and it sounded good! In this case, the “sound guy” is not a knob turner behind the board, but a therapist, who needs really good people and communication skills! It helps to have a “sign language” established with the band members for this to succeed.  You’ve got to have some way to communicate during the performance.

Doing sound is more than standing at a board and turning knobs. Ninety percent of what you need to be successful are:

• musicians who will work with you and sound good (and are in a good mood)
• the right mics in the right places
• placement of amps and musicians to minimize ugly sounds coming off the stage or bleeding into other mics

“Here’s what I think makes a great worship set: an audience on their feet, moving to the music and singing their hearts out.”

All of that needs to be in place before you step behind the board. If it’s done right, the mixing is easy. If it isn’t done right, you probably won’t be able to fix it from the board.

And please, leave the booth and listen from where the audience will be sitting during rehearsal or a run through – it’s supposed to sound good to them, not you!

Here’s what I think makes a great worship set: an audience on their feet, moving to the music and singing their hearts out.  That tells me that the band and I have done our jobs.  Sounding good to me is a bonus.

If they’re sitting on their hands, silent and expressionless, the band and I have something to learn, no matter how good I think it sounds.