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[Dan Stevens]

I am having trouble setting up our Eurodesk soundboard to accommodate the volume of our pastors voice. Our pastor goes from almost whispering to shouting at the top of his lungs in the same sentence. There is no gain setting that I have found that works, I have to set the gain high so I can hear the pastor when he is talking quietly, but when he begins to shout, the system begins to clip badly. There is no way I can manually adjust the board fast enough because I can't predict when he is going to shout. Is there any solution to this problem?

[Mark Cadwallader]

Yes. This is a job for a compresser. Lots of posts about compression here.

[Dan Stevens]

Yes. This is a job for a compresser. Lots of posts about compression here.

Thank you Mark, I will look into getting a compressor.

[Mike Caldwell]

When they go into the shouting portion is the channel input overloading? If your using a wireless does the transmitter overload?

A compressor inserted on the channel will help tame the overall levels in the mix but will do nothing to keep the channel input from overloading.

[Nathan Riddle]

Set the mic gain (both wireless and sound board) for the loudest portion of the sermon (yelling).

Ride the fader or insert a compressor.

Profit.

[William Schnake]

Set the mic gain (both wireless and sound board) for the loudest portion of the sermon (yelling).

Ride the fader or insert a compressor.

Profit.

Nathan, you beat me to it.  Gain structure, gain structure, oh and did I say, Gain Structure.

Bill

[Nathan Riddle]

Nathan, you beat me to it.  Gain structure, gain structure, oh and did I say, Gain Structure.

Bill

 

Great minds and all that 

[Nathan Riddle]

Dan,

If you need help going through each device let us know. Otherwise, I'm going to assume you are doing some research about gain and how to accomplish what we're suggesting.

50% (Arbitrary) of a good mix is gain structure.

I am having trouble setting up our Eurodesk soundboard to accommodate the volume of our pastor's voice. Our pastor goes from almost whispering to shouting at the top of his lungs in the same sentence. There is no gain setting that I have found that works, I have to set the gain high so I can hear the pastor when he is talking quietly, but when he begins to shout, the system begins to clip badly. There is no way I can manually adjust the board fast enough because I can't predict when he is going to shout. Is there any solution to this problem?

[Chris Grimshaw]

Going from a whisper to a shout will always make the engineer's life more difficult. My first bet would be to talk to the pastor and explain what he's doing and why that makes it difficult to deliver his words to the congregation.

If you're going to use low gain and a compressor, make sure you apply make-up gain at the compressor. That should keep your fader position somewhere sensible.

With whispering + low input gain, you might find you can't push the fader up far enough to make him audible. That's where the make-up gain comes in.

Chris

[Stephen Swaffer]

Going from a whisper to a shout will always make the engineer's life more difficult. My first bet would be to talk to the pastor and explain what he's doing and why that makes it difficult to deliver his words to the congregation.

This is why one of the best preachers I ever heard (from a technical delivery standpoint-not talking about his message in this forum) taught that it was best to use a handheld mic-not a lavalier or headset.  He also railed on sound guys that used an automatic compressor or manually "compressed" him-but he was an expert at handling the mic and controlled his own volume incredibly well-he could anticipate the changes which neither a sound person or an automatic compressor can do.  IMO, that is still the best way-and if someone is going to being a preacher/speaker they should learn to use the tools of the trade just as any master craftsman should.  But we have developed a culture that values quick and easy over mastering a craft/trade.

Of course, the readers of this forums job is to support the preacher/speaker/artist the best we can whatever their skill level.