Analogue desk quick guide

Eight steps

For desks with a knob or a button for everything. Once, with your leader, fill in the box and take the desk photo: the whole desk from above, at its normal Sunday settings. Keep this page at the desk (Chapter 14).

1. Before anyone arrives. Desk on first, speakers on last. Set every knob to the desk photo. PFL, BREAK and STANDBY off. Phantom power only if a mic needs it, with the channels muted.
2. Gain, every channel. Fader down, press PFL, and ask for the loudest Sunday level (“Could you read me a paragraph as if the room were full?”). Turn the gain until the loudest words light about 0, now and then +3. PEAK never. No PFL? Turn up until the signal light comes on with the loud words, and the peak light stays dark. Only a peak light? Turn up until it just flashes, then back until it stays dark. Release PFL. Write the gain as a clock position in the channel list.
3. EQ. Low cut on for every voice, off for the kick and bass. Cut before you boost, in small moves. Swept mid: boost, sweep until the problem jumps out, then cut 3 dB there.
4. Monitors and in-ears. Use the pre-fader sends: one send, one mix. They follow the gain and EQ, not the fader, so set those in soundcheck and leave them. The mute test, once: send a channel to an aux, listen to that aux in headphones, and press mute. If the sound stops, mute cuts the monitors: once a singer's part is over, pull their fader down instead of muting.
5. Effects. Speech mics: FX knob at zero. Bring the FX return down for every spoken word, and up for the next song.
6. During the service. Speech faders together, named on tape. Spare speech mics muted. For a prayer: the leader's mic up, the band's faders (or group) lowered, not off, the backing singers a little lower, and the FX return down. Group or main, never both.
7. If it rings. Pull down the fader you last moved. Can't tell which? Main fader down a few dB, fast. Fix it after the service with the 31-band graphic EQ: the slider nearest the note, 3 dB, two or three sliders at most.
8. After the service. Main and faders down. Changed something on purpose? A new photo, and a line in the handover note. Then speakers off first, desk last.

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