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Church and H.O.W. – Forums for HOW Sound and AV - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Church and HOW Forums => Church Sound => Topic started by: jackmoore on December 02, 2018, 05:49:35 AM

Title: New Church PA Desk
Post by: jackmoore on December 02, 2018, 05:49:35 AM
Hi all,

We're looking for a new PA desk at my church. But we're not too sure what to go for. It's a small but growing church of about 60 people. Probably need at least 12 channels for vocals, instruments, PC, aux and a couple spare.

What would you recommend?

Let me know if you need to know anything else?
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: John L Nobile on December 02, 2018, 01:09:29 PM
A lot depends on your knowledge of things sound related and your budget cause there's a ton of choices that will depend on those.

Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Taylor Phillips on December 02, 2018, 05:39:53 PM
Hi all,

We're looking for a new PA desk at my church. But we're not too sure what to go for. It's a small but growing church of about 60 people. Probably need at least 12 channels for vocals, instruments, PC, aux and a couple spare.

What would you recommend?

Let me know if you need to know anything else?
Hello, Jack!  I think the first thing we need to know is why you are looking for a new console.  Does the old one lack features that you need, or is it just getting old and starting to become unreliable?  We can recommend a number of good options that have 12+ inputs, but we wouldn't want to recommend product A if it doesn't have what you need while product B does.

Here are three extremely different options that meet the requirements you've stated so far:
Allen & Heath MixWizard (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1009359-REG/allen_heath_ah_wz416_2_wz4_16_2_mixwizard_mixer.html)
Behringer X32 Producer (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/969898-REG/behringer_x_32_producer_x32_producer_40_input_25_bus.html)
Soundcraft Ui16 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116791-REG/soundcraft_spirit_5056219_ui_16_remote_controlled_digital_mixer.html?sts=pi)

I hope this helps you understand the need for us to have more specifics here since prices, features, and form factors are so different between these things that all feature the same number of microphone inputs. 
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Corey Scogin on December 02, 2018, 05:55:53 PM
I'll go ahead and make a recommendation that I think fits nearly any small modern-ish church.

The Allen & Heath Qu series. They're reliable and fairly straightforward to use. There are a few quirks but the main functions are pretty well laid out. It's one of the easiest boards for volunteers to step up to and use.

When you have more funds, the companion personal monitor system is, in my opinion, the best in its market.

Plus it has a built-in multi-track recorder as well as simultaneous recording via a USB-connected computer.

I personally own a few X32s but the Qu was the better choice for my church given the simplicity. The X32 does more but isn't as straightforward to use and the personal monitoring system is limited.
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: jackmoore on December 03, 2018, 05:39:30 AM
Hello, Jack!  I think the first thing we need to know is why you are looking for a new console.  Does the old one lack features that you need, or is it just getting old and starting to become unreliable?  We can recommend a number of good options that have 12+ inputs, but we wouldn't want to recommend product A if it doesn't have what you need while product B does.

Here are three extremely different options that meet the requirements you've stated so far:
Allen & Heath MixWizard (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1009359-REG/allen_heath_ah_wz416_2_wz4_16_2_mixwizard_mixer.html)
Behringer X32 Producer (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/969898-REG/behringer_x_32_producer_x32_producer_40_input_25_bus.html)
Soundcraft Ui16 (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116791-REG/soundcraft_spirit_5056219_ui_16_remote_controlled_digital_mixer.html?sts=pi)

I hope this helps you understand the need for us to have more specifics here since prices, features, and form factors are so different between these things that all feature the same number of microphone inputs.

Ok, well we would be looking to keep it cheap. Around £500 ($650) is what we had in mind, but is that unrealistic? We would want to have a foldback output as well. What other features do you have in mind we need to consider?
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Scott Slater on December 03, 2018, 07:37:55 AM
Ok, well we would be looking to keep it cheap. Around £500 ($650) is what we had in mind, but is that unrealistic?

That is very limiting and most likely won't support your channel count unless you start looking at tablet based mixing like the XR18 or possibly a used analog desk from another church who is upgrading or has upgraded to digital.
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Rob Spence on December 03, 2018, 11:05:06 AM
A used MixWiz is a good choice. No computers. Good track record.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Taylor Phillips on December 03, 2018, 01:06:56 PM
Ok, well we would be looking to keep it cheap. Around £500 ($650) is what we had in mind, but is that unrealistic? We would want to have a foldback output as well. What other features do you have in mind we need to consider?
Your budget is optimistic, but not necessarily unreasonable for a smaller analog board.  That price point (USD at least) seems to be just below where the mid level quality products start to pop up for new analog.  Used analog you may be able to find something that's a step above the new stuff - just older and without certain fancy stuff.  I'd say the very least you would want would be at least one semi-parametric (sweepable) eq per channel and at least two aux (foldback) busses. Better would be two parametric bands and 4-6 aux busses.  You also want something with more inputs than your using, so since you said you currently have twelve, then 16 channels would be the very least.  Don't think that 24 channels is overkill for your situation.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: John L Nobile on December 03, 2018, 02:33:38 PM
The XR18 is probably your biggest bang for the buck choice and it would probably be what I would look at on that budget. But you'll need a tablet and a level of comfort with both digital mixing boards and wireless access.

Otherwise, Rob's Mixwiz suggestion is gold. Just buy one that's in good shape.
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: Matthias McCready on January 07, 2019, 05:18:35 PM
Not that this is necessarily a good idea... but atleast in my area lately I have seen a lot of medium-sized analog boards go for dirt cheap in great condition.

I saw a couple of GL2400's go for $200-300 locally.

If you are not a mobile church and have some space something like this could be a good option and it would give you some room for growth. Is it ultimately what you want? No, but I wouldn't plan on that with such a small budget anyways.
Title: Re: New Church PA Desk
Post by: lindsay Dean on January 08, 2019, 03:25:46 PM
More advice the xr18 digital's are great anything in the Exlines is great for the money that being said
 Please please please resist the urge to buy a Behringer analog mixer they will not help anything and they sound bad, very bad.
If you still are convinced to get an analog board in that price range the Yamahas sound fine