Church sound systems

[chrisp]

Hi everyone

Our church is embarking on a major revamp of the audio system, replacing our 48ch Allen & Heath analog desk with a more modern digital desk, upgrading the 10 year old FoH and working on our foldback systems.

Anyone want to chime in with their experiences? The A&H desk has served us well but is showing its age - we are familiar with the A&H workflow so we are likely to stick with them as a brand unless there is a reason to move.

Our FoH consists of a pair of hefty 18" subs (a recent acquisition which we will keep) and a pair of flown 2-way speakers - we run a 'dual mono' scheme so the same mono signal gets fed to both L&R FoH in most cases. I'm thinking a couple of linear array modules which can be expanded if and when we build a bigger venue, which we have plans to do. We have the usual array of DriveRacks, amps, room EQ, AUX FX which we will fit into the new arrangement as needed.

Foldback at the moment is a pair of be!@#$%^& wedges for up to 6 singers and up to 8 band members. It totally sucks but we get by because, well, that's all we have. Again, grateful for any insights and experiences.

Budget is $10-$15K

[Kurt]

Keep the FOH, upgrade foldback, use change to help the poor or something useful...

[a.beck]

I tend to agree. I really don't get the compulsion to "upgrade" a 48 channel A&H. Those desks sound pretty good. More modern doesn't necessarily mean better, in my experience.

[walding]

if you are happy to stay with A&H desks, the QU series are a handy little desk that are stable, sound reasonably decent for the money and are very easy to use.. QU24 is what maybe 3k or less now.

If you want to go to the next level the A&H GLD's are a very nice sounding digital desk, but harder to use.

Believe it or not the X32's are a very decent board with the M32's being a smidge better (better pre's and board layout, all else the same)

Re Foldbacks, I'd get the QSC's, reliable, sound decent, go for ever...

[chrisp]

Unfortunately both the A&H desk and the FOH are failing, 10 years old. So we don’t have a lot of choice, Losing channels at a rate, aux busses becoming flaky, etc. could get it repaired but the cost of a new console is the n the same ballpark.

Will look at your suggestions, thanks everyone. QSCs are already on the list, thanks Walding, I’ve seen them in operation and been impressed.

And yes Kurt, we don’t neglect the poor, supporting homeless care services here in Canberra, educational services, indigenous and remote healthcare, development work in Burma and so on. That is all already funded, it’s the music gear we need the cake stall for,

[walding]

Unfortunately both the A&H desk and the FOH are failing, 10 years old. So we don’t have a lot of choice, Losing channels at a rate, aux busses becoming flaky, etc. could get it repaired but the cost of a new console is the n the same ballpark.

Will look at your suggestions, thanks everyone. QSCs are already on the list, thanks Walding, I’ve seen them in operation and been impressed.

And yes Kurt, we don’t neglect the poor, supporting homeless care services here in Canberra, educational services, indigenous and remote healthcare, development work in Burma and so on. That is all already funded, it’s the music gear we need the cake stall for,

BTW I'll be in Canberra on the 29/30th of June, not sure where you are based but I may have time to come out and assess it for you.

Ps I've been doing live sound for over a decade in melbourne so I know a thing or 2.

[chrisp]

I'll be in Canberra on the 29/30th of June, not sure where you are based but I may have time to come out and assess it for you

Thanks Mark

Will PM contact details

[gigpiglet]

we have done a couple of installs recently "on a budget"
one we used the DBTechnology boxes which i think where AMAZING for their size/ weight/ price.
dont get me wrong, i know its not a world class speaker (we use D&B for most our touring work) but for the money ithink they sound excellent.
a pretty big step down, but again amazing with the "bang for buck" we used Cerwin Vega cabinets for another cheap install. they have a 10 and horn powered box that sounds great as a monitor and is somewhere around 500 bucks.
im a firm beleiver in the "appropriate thing for the job" and not wasting money where its not needed. your church band (not touring, not meeting riders etc) would probably be beyond impressed with a half dozen of the CV-10 boxes for mons.

the small A&H digital consoles are very good for the money as already mentioned also.

[chrisp]

Hey Gigpiglet

Good advice about not overspec’ing a system for the actual need. While balancing a degree of future proofing as well.

I’ll check out those speakers you have listed, thanks for heads up.

And a HUGE shout out to Mark “walding” Ludwig who gave up a couple of hours yesterday to come over, check out the venue and proffer his words of wisdom, all for the price of a latte and a spot of lunch. And drastically improving our foldback eq in about 10 seconds.

I love being able to put out questions like this on this forum, The is so much actual experience and insight compared to other forums I could name. Thanks Rick for continuing this sandbox and letting us play.

[walding]

Always a pleasure to meet and help other T'rockers,

Let me know how ya go Chris

[chrisp]

Set up drum screen and mics at rehearsal last night, plus used some Senny digital wireless sender receiver sets on the Vox mics. Desk is.being set up off site so we can play with it a bit before using it live. Fun times! Shout out to Kieran at Turra Music, old school salesman in that he actually knows the stuff he is selling.

I was surprised at how much more control the drum screen gives the sound engineer. Not just volume, although that is a key part of it in our venue, but in terms of being able to separate out each element of the kit. Best drum sound we’ve ever had, and big smile on the music director’s face when she heard them.