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[TylerCWells]

Good afternoon!

I am the Student Pastor/Media Director/Sound Guy for my church. (Although there are a couple of us that are all trying to 'figure' this thing out. We have a church of about 50, and we just recently finally acquired our own building and property. Our sanctuary is about 38ft long by 40 ft wide. We are using two peavey speakers for the house monitors and two for the platform monitors. And as it stands we are using a self power system that doesn't require an additional amp... I am very 'unlearned' in this area of church functioning lol. But we are trying to upgrade and get a mixing board, and are trying to decide the best route....

We are wanting something that will allow us to output to a computer(recording) device for audio recording, which will lead to live streaming services... but also something that we can output to monitors for musicians... specifically these type. (http://www.adorama.com/AVIMIX6Y.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwycaqBRCSorjE7ZewsmUSJABWzM54bfz2W2gIymnhhuInWiKWmu0z7K-bkpU8nSsWRP38KhoCZ7Tw_wcB)

The board we are looking to get right now is this one
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-SX3242FX-BEHRINGER-EURODESK/dp/B001HS0X8S

My question is would these work together...or does anybody have better suggestions for a small church without a HUGE budget?

Thank you in advance!

[lindsay Dean]

I know its cheap but.... its bad quality
stay far away from behringer, All of it.

 

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Good afternoon!

I am the Student Pastor/Media Director/Sound Guy for my church. (Although there are a couple of us that are all trying to 'figure' this thing out. We have a church of about 50, and we just recently finally acquired our own building and property. Our sanctuary is about 38ft long by 40 ft wide. We are using two peavey speakers for the house monitors and two for the platform monitors. And as it stands we are using a self power system that doesn't require an additional amp... I am very 'unlearned' in this area of church functioning lol. But we are trying to upgrade and get a mixing board, and are trying to decide the best route....

We are wanting something that will allow us to output to a computer(recording) device for audio recording, which will lead to live streaming services... but also something that we can output to monitors for musicians... specifically these type. (http://www.adorama.com/AVIMIX6Y.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwycaqBRCSorjE7ZewsmUSJABWzM54bfz2W2gIymnhhuInWiKWmu0z7K-bkpU8nSsWRP38KhoCZ7Tw_wcB)

The board we are looking to get right now is this one
http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-SX3242FX-BEHRINGER-EURODESK/dp/B001HS0X8S

My question is would these work together...or does anybody have better suggestions for a small church without a HUGE budget?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Tyler.  Behringer makes some OK stuff, but the Eurodesks don't fall into that category.  Right now the used market is flooded with analog gear that is perfectly good, but has become obsolete due to digital technology.  You should be able to find something like an Allen-Heath MixWizard or Mackie VLZ-Pro series board for a few hundred dollars that will be actually a non-crap piece of gear.

[Bill McIntosh]

+1

I would add Soundcraft to the list, and SOME Yamaha (not the MG series).

How many inputs do you actually need?  What instruments, vocalists, and speakers; and how many at one time?  What is your budget, and do you still need to buy mics, stands, cables, etc. etc.?

Also, add your location to your profile, there may be a member nearby willing to chat with you about how to get the best value and use it properly.

[Irvin Pribadi]

How many musicians and vocalists do you have now and possibly in the near future?

I for one can attest that the more recent Behringer equipment (2012 and up) are very good and unbeatable for their price.

For mixers, I’d save or prioritize towards a digital mixer.
I came from using a Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro with 4-5 rack processing equipment to a Behringer X32 and the difference is leaps and bounds: the versatility and amount of functionality is like 20x over.

I don't know if the Aviom system you reference is an indication for your budget but for over $5K I’d certainly prioritize on a digital mixer.

For personal monitors, my worship team has been using the Behringer P16 personal monitor system for 5 years with no issues. It's 1/4 the cost of a similar Aviom system.

[TylerCWells]

So....I just typed an entire book out...and I didnt to the 'captcha' and i just lost it all... >.<

So I will condense now lol...

We are wanting the board to be able to handle personal mixers that preferably run on ethernet cables...such as the AVIOM...but not neccessarily the AVOIM since they are CRAZY expensive, wejust had the opportunity of using them at a church conference we did worship for and it was AWESOME!!...the 'Behringer P16 personal monitor system' would be a less expensive option, that we will definitley entertain, just not sure what you have to have to make it work...as far as set up and such!

As far as musicians and singers we would want it to have enough for:

Mic'd Drums
at least 6 praise singers
Keyboard and Mic
Aux Keyboard and Potential Mic
Podium Mic
Speaking Handsfree Mic of some type.
Guitars(Electric and acoustic)
Bass
(I'm not sure if it is wise to run the guitars through a the sound board or give them their own amp? What do ya'll think?)
Also want it to have an output to run to a recording device to do digital audio recording.

Our budget for everything would probably be preferably under $2000-2500.TOTAL.....But would really like to keep it well under $2k if possible...

[Corey Scogin]

We are wanting the board to be able to handle personal mixers that preferably run on ethernet cables...such as the AVIOM...but not neccessarily the AVOIM since they are CRAZY expensive, wejust had the opportunity of using them at a church conference we did worship for and it was AWESOME!!...the 'Behringer P16 personal monitor system' would be a less expensive option, that we will definitley entertain, just not sure what you have to have to make it work...as far as set up and such!

As far as musicians and singers we would want it to have enough for:

Mic'd Drums
at least 6 praise singers
Keyboard and Mic
Aux Keyboard and Potential Mic
Podium Mic
Speaking Handsfree Mic of some type.
Guitars(Electric and acoustic)
Bass
(I'm not sure if it is wise to run the guitars through a the sound board or give them their own amp? What do ya'll think?)
Also want it to have an output to run to a recording device to do digital audio recording.

Our budget for everything would probably be preferably under $2000-2500.TOTAL.....But would really like to keep it well under $2k if possible...

Your cheapest option (and a pretty good one) is the Behringer X32 series with the P16 personal monitoring system.  I would personally pick the P16 over the Aviom.  That console will record stereo tracks from any 2 channels or buses or it can connect via USB to a computer/DAW for 32 channels.  Your budget needs to be at least twice that though, probably more like 3-4x.  You're not going to get far with $2500.

Keep in mind that for that many inputs, you will need the ability to create sub-mixes because the P16 system can only handle 16 channels like most of the other personal monitoring systems. That makes setting up the mixer a bit more complicated. 

The cheaper option is to start with just a console (like the X32) and mix monitors from there.  The cheapest option that has been mentioned is to get a used analog console (A&H, Soundcraft, etc) and either mix monitors from there or also get the P16 system.  Again, you won't be able to send all of the channels you list to the P16 system.

[Keith Broughton]

Your cheapest option (and a pretty good one) is the Behringer X32 series with the P16 personal monitoring system.  I would personally pick the P16 over the Aviom.  That console will record stereo tracks from any 2 channels or buses or it can connect via USB to a computer/DAW for 32 channels.  Your budget needs to be at least twice that though, probably more like 3-4x.  You're not going to get far with $2500.

Keep in mind that for that many inputs, you will need the ability to create sub-mixes because the P16 system can only handle 16 channels like most of the other personal monitoring systems. That makes setting up the mixer a bit more complicated. 

I agree.
Not all Behringer is bad and the X32 series has proved to be economical and works well.
You could look at the full X32, the  Compact or the Producer.  As an example, the Compact is $1999 fro BH Photo.
Just to clarify, you can record directly to a USB stick, on the console, or connect to a laptop and record multi track.
This can be done while you are sending to other outputs for web casting.
Yes, a bit of a learning curve with the digitals but well worth the effort.

[Irvin Pribadi]

Behringer has a new tablet based digital mixer called the X Air X18 (and its rack variant) is only $700 and has many similar capabilities as the X32 and can natively connect to the P16 monitoring system via ethernet. Tablet not included of course.

Like mentioned above, you'll need to combine some channels (like the drum, bg vocals) into a bus and then run that to the P16.
The X Air X18 has 12 busses which is way more than most analog mixers <$500.

Four Behringer P16-M consoles can be used by the musicians (drummer, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist); that's about $1K.
If using an analog mixer, you'll need to add the P16-i plus a bunch of cables to convert each analog channel into digital.

For vocalist monitoring, likely you'd have to go wireless in-ear which more $$$. I'd just say for vocalists stick to stage wedges for now.

Word of caution, please ensure your musicians are at least somewhat onboard with the idea of in-ear monitors.
I know some musicians are strongly against in-ear monitors.

If they are supportive, then I'd say you may get away with no guitar amps whatsoever which saves on budget too.

For recording, you'd be surprised that recording house outputs may not sound as properly balanced once heard offline.
The answer to this again is to run a bus (or two for LR) for recording which you can mix (and probably compress) differently than your main house outputs.

[TylerCWells]

Thank you guys for all of the feedback! My mind is a little overwhelmed right now..lol Like I said I am very unlearned in this area, and we are praying that God sends us a sound system guru with a burden to help lol. But I've been trying to learn!

It sounds like our best bet is going to be the X32 or the X Air... To be honest the X air sounds really nice, but I'm not sure how well we would be able to run it being all on the tablet...

Question about the P16 personal mixers, it was said we would need to 'bus'(which I guess means combine two or more channels into a single -sub-channel and then put it into a single input on the personal mixer?) But with 16 different channels on the mixer...Why would I need ot bus? I don't understand that part...

Which also leads me to another question...

Is there a good video or post in this forum that can help sound noobies on terms and ideas on what to do and how to mix and get the best sound out of what you have?

THank you guys so much for all the tips so far!

You guys are awesome!!

[ProSoundWeb Community]