What changed in the guide

October 2026

In Sanctuary Mix and Sanctuary Mix Essentials

• The Sunday ladder at the front. The path a new volunteer climbs, in small steps, with a Sunday at the end of each level. Sanctuary Mix opens with Your path: six questions to find your step, and what to read for it. Essentials opens with Start here and Level 1.
• On your path. The first page of each chapter says which step of the ladder it helps with.
• Sunday first aid. A new one-page sheet for when something goes wrong in a service: the first move for no sound, a silent mic, feedback, a wireless mic that dies and a power cut.
• A sign-off sheet for your steps. Your path: sign-off sheet lists what to learn at each step, for your leader to sign once you can do it without help. Essentials has Level 1's.
• One first move for feedback. The feedback flowchart starts the way Chapter 9 does: pull down the fader you last moved, or bring the main fader down a few dB if you can't tell which mic it is.
• QR codes that open a lesson. 31 sections of the full guide (6 of them in Essentials) have a QR code beside them. Scan it with your phone's camera, or type the short address under it, to open the matching lesson in Sanctuary Mix Training. The training comes with the team licence.
• Links you can tap. In the PDF, tap a chapter named in the text to go to it, "Contents" at the top of a chapter to go back to the list, or a sanctuarymix.com address to open it. On paper, the chapter names and addresses look the same as before.
• Help, and this date. The copyright page now says where to write if you're stuck or find a mistake, and when the guide was last updated.
• Leave a review. What next, near the back of Sanctuary Mix, and the last page of Essentials have a QR code to sanctuarymix.com/reviews/write, where you can tell other churches how it went.
• Analogue desks. Chapters 4 to 6, the line check and Our desk guide now say what to do where an analogue desk works differently: no PFL button, a switch for the high-pass, the FX return fader, a photo of the desk instead of a scene, and whether mute also cuts the monitors. Essentials points to the free Analogue desk quick guide at sanctuarymix.com/analogue.
• Channel colours in Our desk guide. Where to set them on an Allen & Heath SQ and a Behringer X32, from the makers' manuals, and coloured tape on an analogue desk.
• A weak acoustic guitar, step by step. Chapter 4 and the EQ cheat sheet give the order to check it in: the guitar's own volume and EQ, its battery, its EQ set flat, phantom power for an active DI, and last, the DI's pad.
• A five-string bass. Before this Sunday, Chapter 5 and the EQ cheat sheet now say to high-pass a five-string at about 30 Hz, and the cheat sheet says it matters most on small speakers.
• Reverb and delay starting points. Chapter 6 now gives starting numbers for a vocal reverb, after listening to your room first: a decay of about 1.2 seconds for fast songs and up to about 2 for slow ones, and a pre-delay of about 20–80 ms. It also says how to tap the delay in with the beat or the click as each song starts.
• Feedback and open mics. The feedback flowchart's third question is now about the sermon or a reading: once the band has finished, bring the band and vocal DCAs down.
• The line check, before the day. With a band, the line check sheet now says to do it the day before, or during the week if your gear stays set up. With no band, it's still done before the doors open.
• Who signs you off. The sign-off sheet now says an experienced mixer your leader names can sign off steps too, as well as your leader and anyone at your church with Level 3.

In Sanctuary Mix only

• Before this Sunday, and ten words you'll hear on Sunday. The seven things to do before your first Sunday, already in Essentials, are now in the full guide too, with the ten desk words a new volunteer hears first.
• A colour code for your channels. Chapter 2 gives each family of sources its own colour (yellow for speech, blue for vocals and so on), and the channel list has the key.
• A key on the stage plot sheet. The stage plot worksheet shows a simple drawing for each mic, DI box, wedge, in-ear pack and the rest, with the colour families. Chapter 12 and the stage plot, output patch and in-ear mixes sheets point to the free stage plot tool at sanctuarymix.com/stage-plot.
• The channels that never reach the room come last. The channel list's suggested order ends with click, cues, ambient mics and talkback, as Chapter 2 groups them.
• A desk map in Our desk guide. Mark it once with your leader: what a new volunteer may use, what to ask about first and what to leave alone. It takes the place of "Channels you'll use most".
• A Safety mark. The four safety notes, in Chapters 2, 3 and 10, now start with a warning triangle and the word Safety.
• What next. A page at the back on where to go from your step: the training, help and updates.
• The in-ear sheet says who it's for. The printable "In-ears: the band's guide" starts with a line saying it's for every musician on in-ears, and that your sound team fills in the set-up once and copies the page for the band.
• About the author. It now says Rikus and Lené are part of the pioneering team planting Missio Potchefstroom Church.
• Mixing on an analogue desk. Chapter 14 ends with a new section for desks with a knob or a button for everything: what the controls are called on five common desks, gain without a screen, EQ with fewer bands, monitors and the mute test, effects, a group or your hands instead of DCAs, a photo instead of scenes, ringing out with a graphic EQ, and buying a desk. Other chapters, three checklists and two flowcharts have a line for analogue desks where they need one.
• Analogue desk quick guide. A new one-page cheat sheet: an Our desk box to fill in once with your leader, and eight steps from switching on to switching off. It's free for anyone at sanctuarymix.com/analogue too.
• The computer's sample rate. A tracks or stream computer plugged into the desk digitally runs at the rate of the desk's USB port or network card (look in the desk's audio settings), usually 48 kHz. On some desks that isn't the desk's own rate (Chapters 9 and 14, and the glossary).
• Five new glossary words. Analogue desk, Graphic EQ, Home positions, Insert and Mute test.
• Spend in this order, as a drawing. Chapter 13's Talking about budget draws the four steps as a stack (Figure 13.2), and adds buy once and grow without replacing. It points to the free church plant gear plans at sanctuarymix.com/gear-plans for current prices.
• Build your own panels, and a drum screen. Chapter 10's two short boxes are now guides with drawings: what panels can and can't do for an echoey room, how to build and hang one and where they go first; when a drum screen helps, the drummer's ears inside one, and when a closed booth is worth it. Three new safety notes cover fire, handling the wool and fixing it up, and never sealing the drummer in.
• Two build sheets. Build a panel and Plan a drum screen: the cut list, what you need, the steps and the four people to ask before anyone builds. Shops and prices, with the date we checked them, are free at sanctuarymix.com/room.
• A shorter Sunday morning. With the band's line check done before the day (above), the soundcheck starts from your default scene and takes no more than 15 minutes (Chapter 9), so the typical morning in Chapter 12 starts 75 minutes before the service, with the band arriving an hour before.
• Teardown in one order. Chapter 12's Remember this now says it as the checklist does: mute, save, then switch off. On the analogue desk quick guide: faders down, a new photo if you changed something, then switch off.
• Power cuts. Chapter 9 says some things switch over on their own and some by hand, so write down which is which.
• Rest. Chapter 13 gives a guide to how often is too often: nobody serves more than three Sundays in four, depending on your volunteers and services.
• A free fix for the front rows. In a small hall, leave a couple of metres empty in front of the speakers (Chapter 10).
• Two more meter apps. Chapter 10 names two apps by Vlad Polyanskiy beside the free NIOSH Sound Level Meter app: "Decibel: dB Sound Level Meter", free to start, and "dB Meter & Spectrum Analyzer", which you pay for.
• The author photo. About the author now says who took it.
• Where the ambient mics go. Chapter 8 says where to put the pair that lets the band and the stream hear the church singing, and which mics to start with as your budget grows.
• A video switcher with OBS. Chapter 14 adds a small hardware switcher for the cameras after OBS on a Mac, and how it can carry the stream if the Mac fails.
• Build the mix from the drums and bass upwards. Chapter 7 now starts the band mix with the kick and bass, then adds the rest of the band, with the lead vocal on top. The soundcheck checklist says the same.
• Nobody left with no sound. Chapter 7 gives one rule for the moments between songs: nobody who might sing or speak next is ever left with no sound. Whoever leads keeps their mic up until their part is over. Under a prayer, the band is lowered, not switched off, and the backing vocal mics stay open, a little lower. Chapter 12, the cue sheet, the checklists and the analogue desk quick guide follow, and Chapter 9 brings the band and vocal DCAs down during the sermon and readings, rather than whenever anyone speaks.
• One keys patch. Chapter 7 says to keep one default keys patch, used every week. A guest player's own sound? EQ it at the desk first, and if it still doesn't sound good, ask for your default patch.
• Scenes. Chapter 7 says what recalling a scene changes, the band's in-ear mixes included, so everyone at the desk learns it. Recall safe is a choice, not the rule, and the default scene is recalled as you set up, before the band arrives.
• Tracks, the simple way first. Chapter 14's tracks section starts with an iPad running Playback or Prime into a stereo DI: the click and cues on the left, to the in-ears only, and the tracks on the right. A Mac with an audio interface is the bigger step, and many churches need no tracks at all, so the setup checklist now says "If you use tracks".
• The mute test. If mute cuts the monitors on your desk, Chapter 14 now says to bring a singer's fader down instead of muting, and only once their part is over.
• The next speaker, and the pastor. Chapter 7 now has each speaker's mic unmuted at their level before they come up: they unmute the mic as they start, or a production volunteer does. The pastor's mic stays up through the response song: whenever a pastor speaks, at any time, there is sound. A short note, For speakers, says what to tell everyone who speaks. Chapter 7's cue sheet, Chapter 12 and the service checklist follow.
• The keys under a prayer. Chapter 7 puts the keys and pad on the band DCA, so under a prayer they come down with the band. In an a cappella chorus, the band DCA stays where it was: the band simply stops playing.
• Level 2, with tracks if you use them. The Sunday ladder and the sign-off sheet now say Level 2 means mixing a full band, with tracks if your church uses them.
• The stream. Chapter 14 sends the stream mix to the video switcher as well as to OBS, so the switcher still has the desk's sound if the Mac fails, and Chapter 11 high-passes the ambient mics at about 200 Hz.
• Subwoofers in the middle. Chapter 10 now says to put the subs together in the middle (with one sub, the middle is best too) and the main speakers on their own stands. It also says how to spare the stage and the front rows, and what to do if the middle can't work. Its Safety note adds when a speaker may go on a pole above a sub.
• The line check on the morning. If you can only set up on the Sunday morning, Chapter 9 now says to do the line check first, before the band arrives. Chapter 12 and the setup checklist say so too.
• Talkback, and any click and cues, in the in-ears only. Level 2's item on the sign-off sheet now reads like this, so a church without tracks can tick it too. Chapter 8 says how to prove it, with or without tracks.
• If your band uses wedges. Chapter 8 has a new section for a band on wedges: where to put them, how to ring each one out, and how to build each mix with its musician. The click and cues never go in a wedge. Chapter 12 and the soundcheck checklist now say in-ears or wedges.
• No stream? Record and listen back. Chapter 11 now says what to do at a church that doesn't stream: record the service from the desk, listen back in headphones and once on a phone speaker, and write three things to change in the problem log.
• Six questions to find your step. Find your step, in Your path at the front, has two more questions, about the band's channels and a full band service, so someone who already mixes a band can start in Level 2 or 3. The sign-off sheet says what to do at a church on wedges, without a stream, or without some of the gear.

In Sanctuary Mix Essentials only

• Our desk guide. The worksheet from the full guide for your own desk: how to power up, where things live, who to call and a desk map that marks what a new volunteer may touch.