Yamaha EMX-5000-20

[Crash006]

Hey,

So i am relatively new to this world (running sound for about 5 years all self taught), i currently run sound for our small church and i want to learn more to improve on what we hear each week. Our current board is Yamaha EMX-5000-20 and we run two main speakers direct from board and 1 Aux line direct from board (neither the mains nor the monitors are powered). We have one wireless mic and 7 wired mics ( very old wired mics), we have a Keyboard and an electronic drum set that run through a jam hub and into the board. I have always had problems trying to get the gain structure set and the EQ right. Prior to me stepping in they did not use the faders but used the gain as volume! My first major complaint about what i am hearing and i have tried to fix it is when groups are singing and S sounds are right sharp ( so sounds like ssss, ch's, T's), I play with the hi and the Lows then to the EQ but it does not help, I want to put "air" under them to clarify it but it always seems muffled to a degree... I will attach pictures of what i have set up, please take it easy as i like doing this but just want to make it better. Any questions asked i wil do my best to answer.

[Enzo]

All my microphones are really old too. They work, what more can I ask of them?


Exaggerated SSSS sounds is what we call sibilance.

Goosing that highest EQ band like that is not helping your sibilance.

Play some recorded music through your system, set all the tone controls on the channel at mid point. Then use the graphic EQ sliders to get the overall tone you want. The hi and lo controls on each channel are there to tweak that channel only. If you set them up first, you are ignoring the overall tone of the graphic section.

There is a very nice book put out by Yamaha titled "Sound Systems for Worship", which covers the basics, you might look into that.

[Leo_Gnardo]

What Enzo said ^^^. And what are those "very old" wired mics? Typically all the warmth is obtained by using your typical Shure SM58's & 57's & similar at practically no distance from the singer's mouth. It's called "proximity effect". Back up that mic to 3 or 4 feet away, all you get is sibilance. Over at ElectroVoice, engineers concentrated on making some mics that minimize proximity effect - called "Variable-D" mics - they may give you some advantage in choir miking. Which is all well & good if you can get your hands on some Variable-D's to try out. But I suspect the church is on a typical zero budget so it's "go with what you got," in that case you'll have to cut highs & carefully boost lows & mids on the channel strips & stay out of the feedback zone as well as you can. I have some idea about the "air" you're trying to go for - it's there on recordings made with super high quality microphones (condenser mics by Neumann, Telefunken, Schoeps, AKG etc.) Keep in mind, those recordings are made without any PA system on in the room iow no fear of squeeks & howls as the gain's turned up. It's an awful hard thing to get live, especially with average quality mics and PA gear.

[Enzo]

That is the skill of an experienced sound man to get good live sound. I have toured with that job, and I like to think I did well enough at it, and I have heard many soundmen who clearly had no clue.