Vocal Mic Setup for Worship Leaders | Best Microphone, Gain, EQ, Compression, and Effects 

For most male voices, a low cut that high would often cut the fundamental frequency they are singing, since the A below middle C is 220. An octave below that is 110. I suppose you might want to start rolling off a bit of that as you get real low if it gets boomy, but wow is that high to start cutting off.

Very nice. We got the Wing the first week it launched. It was our first digital board and it didn’t have a proper documentation yet nor any tutorials, so we struggled a bit at first but figured it out. That said, thank you for your content Jake. I do learn from these and love it. And you do provoke new ideas.

Telefunken makes great mics, for sure! Other considerations for Worship Leader Mics: Shure KSM9 -- perhaps the very best available. Outstanding Alternates: Audix VX-10 and Sennheiser 965. Great Worship Vocal Team mics: Audix OM-5 (OM-6, darker for women), Sennheiser 945 or 935, Shure Beta 87, Miktek PM9 -- Great mic with SuperCardioid pattern, if there is feedback concern. Best value mics ($100 range): SE V7 (outstanding on thinner voiced women). Sennheiser 835. Both these make every voice sound bigger. It's an awesome era for quality mic options!

Everyone will have different concepts for results, we all hear differently so these tips are for recommendations and great personal ways that are explained , this will be helpful for someone starting out. Good stuff and informative.

Yo Jake! Saw in one of your videos you were talking about ATV set only have stereo outputs. You can always upgrade the drum module to the Pearl Mimic Pro. It comes with an XLR splitter that lets you send 8 individual channels (they correspond to the mics they used when sampling, so for our set up we have kick, snare, two toms, hi hat, overhead L and R, and a room mic). This module uses Steven Slate triggers so your getting essentially the same sound options as what Trigger2 provides. Just figured I’d throw this out there before y’all give up on the Ekit entirely. We got our mimic used on Reverb for $1500.

Nice work really appreciate the whole process

Nice Work Jake!

M80, hands down the best mic. I own one as well and it’s so amazing!

Thanks bro. For your channel, your heart and your desire to help the church in this way. This kind of demonstration can be such a vulnerable experience. Especially because the internet can be pretty brutal sometimes lol. Regardless, your work has helped thousands of church techs and worship leaders, so thank you. For whatever it’s worth (which ain’t much) I do have some thoughts on the video. I’ll just list em out. Hopefully they’re helpful. - I’m sure your vocal sounds amazing in the room. But I wonder if because of your PA tuning you’re having to cut more in that low-mid range than you ought to. -I’d entertain the idea of having someone you trust come and EQ your voice-maybe because it’s your own voice you’re treating it with a certain bias? I know I would. -Personal Opinion* I don’t know if I like that mic on your vocal. I know it’s perceived to be ‘better’ and more ‘articulate’ in your ears compared to a 58, but that’s because the top end on that mic is CRANKED. Idk if that means it’s ‘better’ though, maybe just different. I think a V7 may be a cool middle ground for you and that M80. It’s $100 and give you a cool balance between your two mics of choice. Plus, I bet you’ll be able to get more gain before feedback in your position. -Your mix sounds great! I think I’d just be curious to hear what dialing back that HPF a bit would do to your voice for ‘online’ listening. Maybe back to like 225ish and a small wide-q dip between 200-280 to help with that mud that comes from proximity. Anyway bro, idk why I felt inclined to comment. The video is great and that Wing console is actually pretty dope. Thank you for sharing-this will be a great dialogue starter and resource for the community.

I really appreciate the detail about how the various features of the Wing work. Thanks for the video. After observing your settings, comments, and finding the graph chart for the M80, there may be some other issues pertaining to vocal microphone setup. If no wind screen, my general rule for mic distance is about 2-3 fingers away. People who "make out" with a microphone just looks and sounds awful...

Wow i love how the voices cut through the mix!

I'm making an effort to develop a whole new set of volunteers in my church, and while our mixer is not the Behringer Wing used in this video, I'll still send this to the team. Most valuable video. Don't think I'd want to be so aggressive on the HPF frequency, or set the Compressor ratio so high, but nevertheless this is an outstanding video, and session of training. Most generous.

Jake can you do a tour of your new churches sound booth setup or the entire audio setup?

I would like to know how many looked at the board for “the like button” Great stuff man excited about the new “RND” going on 🤙

great workflow intro for our new wing, thanks. I was told we were going to have a delay on the lead vox, not sure how we will set the tempo to each song, but I will watch for it. I am just operator during service and another guy is the setup guy & sound tech.

To be honest I'd low cut to a little over 200 and then let a multi-band compressor handle that low-mid information on the vocal. But everyone's got their own methods. Good tips Jake!

Great video Jake! Thanks for putting this together. However, it makes me want a Wing😬.

Hey Jake, have you tried the Heil PR37. I moved from the Beta 58A to the Heil PR35 and now to the newish PR37. Highly recommended.

It'd be fun to do an entire series of this type of video about all the different instruments.

Hey Jake! Curious if you are still using the broadcast template for the live stream? I have the wing as well and think I’m still going to route to Logic for the live stream but curious if you think the wing can do enough on its own?

Nice that youre showing these on the wing. Could you tell all there is to about daisy chaining stageboxes to a single aes50 port. Thanks very much.

I don't agree with his eq, but everything else sounded AMAZING together. If its too boomy, I've found if you keep some of the low end and cut a little of the boomy areas it helps add more definition to the vocal!

PERFECT TIMING im just starting to mix for live events!

Question... do your vocalists also hear themselves through the monitor with the hpf so high? And how is that for them?

I tend to agree with the comments that say the vocal didn't have enough lows. However, rather than lowering the cutoff frequency, could you just use a gentler cutoff slope? Perhaps 6db/oct? All that said, this is still a pleasant sounding mix, and I imagine it sounds even better live.

Awesome video brother 👏. U need more subscribers

Great video presentation! Question! Let's say we use QU-16 digital mixer, at what point in this video we would match PEQ Width, Freq, and Gain on QU-16 mixer with your setup? Basically when your setting your EQ LC and HC, is it the same concept as setting LF, LM, HM, and HF PEQ settings on QU-16 mixer? Thanks!

Greaaaaat vid! But that low cut is destroying the vocal lol

One thing I know, is that there's no recipe for church sound. Each one have different taste, and also different resources. In my case it's only one or two vocal and an acoustic guitar. If I remove the so much low end, it would sound terrible, but in your case it sounds good in the mix. One thing that I can't stand is the auto tune. It really sounds very digital... Love your videos, keep going!

Nice!

I don’t mean to hate but I don’t understand how the low cut at 230 Hz sounds better to you then it at 130 Hz. Also I am totally okay with you EQing for your room but you specifically call the low end “junk” You never mention that these tips or rules don’t fit every room. In fact 90% of rooms this eq would be less then ideal.

Jake wasssssup!

Needed❤❤

thank you

We have that same set up with wireless mics we have 8 of the black and red ones and 3 of the newer ones

What do you prefer to use as a second microphone to hear the congregation?

Nice console. Anything like this for the digital Dante world?

The low cut also eliminates low cross talk from the other instruments.

What in ears do you use? We have the dp48 system. Would like to know how to send post eq to those

Sorry Jake , the low cut takes way too much of the lower register. The room might need a parametric notch on all vocal mikes to fix it. As far as broadcast need more bottom end. Listening at home with KRK Rockit 6 and Sub.

If Churchfront at Indonesia, we may need your help 😆

Appreciate the video and seeing the wing. 380 on a low cut is extremely aggressive.

The Heil PR35 blows away every other dynamic mic I've tried including the Telefunken M80 and M81, all the Sennheisers, and even the Shure KSM8.

Question what EQ and compressor settings for a preachers microphone. We don’t have bands.

Great Video. Completely agree with the Low Cut setting. We a re a new church and are at a school gymnasium and I am as high as 380-390 HZ on some boomy vocals. You just have to know that the room affects the sound just as much as the traditional recommendations of vocal low cut at 100-200 Hz. Most are set in the 200-230Hz range, and then EQ to taste.

Hi .. How do I add fx to my livestream bus without adding any to my house mix.

First I couldn't hear an difference. Should't watch this on my phone...haha But in the end it was awesome. Thanks a lot fot this Tutorial.

17:50 is it possible to set the pitch correction a way, that you can add the non processed signal to get a natural sounding doubling?

To everyone complaining about the high pass - I agree that, on our headphones, it’s far too high and in normal situations this would not work great at all. BUT I’ve also been an engineer in some pretty shocking rooms and setups and had to do some really unorthodox things to make it sound acceptable. I’m sure we’ve all been there. Notice that he said it sounded better “in the room”. I think this is revealing more about the room. If I was consistently cutting that high to make it sound good in the room then my first port of call would be the global EQ on the master (or the speaker control system, if you have one). Rather adjust there first to balance the system to the room so that you’re not making so many corrective EQ choices on each input channel. This might be a situation where getting a professional to come in and setup the system for the room might be a worthwhile investment 😊

How does that mic compare with the SM Beta 87c ?

AMEN.

Bring more wing content xpecialy the effects on vocals and instruments

you wanna hear the difference get a sennheiser ie900 ...holly shit that mix 23:28 sound good with that bass that vocals fire

For $250 I would prefer a SHURE beta 87a, the price is pretty steep. I wonder how this new mic would compare to that one??? Interesting...

Great Video Jake. Is the Wing that good? I’m trying to decide the best mixing console for my church and I had landed on the SQ. But your liking for the Wing is making me want it instead. Kindly advice

When you apply the lo cut it goes from sounding like a concert to “clean up on aisle 9” Is that right

Not sure if I liked the pitch correction much more than natural. Autotune pitch correction is much better IMO. You can make it more aggressive, and still have it sound natural. It is nice that it is really nicely integrated. The new Behringer products have been impressive.

Just curious what your settings are for the red compressor.

Hi Jack

I have never seen someone using a highpass > 300hz.. wow

You need to check out the SEV7. trust me. you will be using after day in and day out after you hear it

Sir can I sponsors simple sounds system in our church pls

Sorry, I didn't quite get the name of the microphone. Was hoping you would post the amazon link.

Berhinger preamps sound crunchy upgrade to a Midas stage box soon! No point of having the wing if you are using berhinger preamps... do like the setup tho!

Muy bien pero puedes explicar un poco más del compresor?

13:20 it's all about the gain reduction value

And i thought my 160hpf was high 😂😂😂😂. Different strokes for diff folks, if it works for him it works for him!

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂I love how you throw stuff in with a straight face. 😂😂😂if you wanna sound like T-Pain

Is the vocal Bus pre or Post?

I notice, RU-vid's automatic sub titles works with music too

If you got $250 to spend on a microphone, check out Shure Beta 58A (dynamic) or Shure Beta 87A (condenser). In my opinion they sound way better and cost less. Please keep in mind that technology for dynamic microphones has not changed in 50 years. The warmth of Shure SM58 for vocals is legendary for a reason. Please stop misinforming people if your not sure on proper room tuning and microphones.

Digilive eq setting plis

As mentioned below...that is way too high..but prob not for that room. WHY? Because energy starting below about 400hz becomes hugely kinetic and between 100-300 (room dependent) will bloat because longer verb times without diffusion simply cause it to overlap and hang around. Worship is about the voice...so start with that and work everything else around it. Based on observable harmonics; Low cut should never be below 120 for female and about 100 for male (depending on Bass/Baritone register which can go down to 80hz...hehe like mine), then work with a low shelf starting at about 250 max. Much of what is mentioned below is def spot on. If you have that much RT60 in the room...even a basic measurement mic will tell you...its time to start fixing the room. Def dont want to be attenuating with foam panels and all those other myths...you will just kill high frequency and make it worse...must be diffusion like QRD or similar and tuned to the room issues (you can DIY with a bit of consult) ALWAYS work back from the room and end with the source. A quick hack would be to pull that 150-350 out of the FOH and hp 300 in your foldback...the subs will provide plenty of non directional bass...it doesnt need to be in the foldbacks (assuming you are using iem+monitors): quick exercise is to do a FOH mix with NO foldback, then compare Low cut live is all about bleed control only. If you are jamming the mic because you cant hear yourself...change tack. As soon as you move that close to a dynamic cardioid (or even worse on hyper) its no wonder the bottom end is so woolly and bloated...cant change the proximity physics unfortunately This is a pic from a low male vox, reasonably bad room: NT3 into awful Behringer midas on XR18 (sure the nt3 has a built in 6k hype of about 3db). Thats a max proximity of about 50mm (two fingers wide away from mic). drive.google.com/file/d/1VeWymEBMZLdu_pTkgAeVMiW7u5KilBJE/view?usp=sharing Once that is sorted, make room for the vocals in the instruments, not the other way around...its not a gig :-) Im not a fan of the behringer midas pres...after transitioning to the Yammy (steingberg ur drpes) the mix is so much more midrange bold and doesnt suffer the same flat image...as soon as you switch the iems on...plug some mics in, its like WOW. My point is also, stop relying solely on eq and use some frequency keyed side chaining to clear the bottom end bloat AND get the bass player to stop turning the amp up so loud: get them on iems...the stage sound and consequently the auditorium will be miles better for it. Do you know how long a 50hz wave is? Thats why they cant hear themselves standing by the cab but the congregation is loosing fillings. This alone will be over 50% of the issue (and deep keys) @churchfront Jake...love absolutely so much of what you do! This one...with deep respect...no no no. Get a consult in, fix the room and the bass...try it again. The warmth and power will come back. Whats funny is that some female vox has a built HP at 300 hehe...I dont dare add any tops to theirs and usually has essy 6k...thats where a blue e100/300 is the best hit :-)

How much is it..lf l wat to buy

❤️😍

TEAM JESUS

The comments on this video are great. Anyone shocked about the highpass would also be shocked if they heard the solo tracks of their fav artist, especially a lot of the pop and rock records of the 80's and 90's...the golden age of recording. If you can't fathom high passing vocals at 300-400 with a full band, more than likely, the rest of your mix is mud from 400 down, and of course its going to sound thin high passed that high. This is why mixers need to stop listening to the damn solo button...just listen to mix and it'll tell you what to do with the inputs.

That low cut it a bit much lol but I understand it's probably different in the room. It's really aggressive online, it's the right idea tho

Just me or the high mids were distoring just abit in the chorus after the, before after delay demonstration?...

21:34 that's the Abbey Road reverb.

300hz....? Ouch. Would love to hear your church's sound engineer's thoughts on what it sounds like on a Sunday morning. This is not really a good starting point for your listeners, seems like you might be working around a problem with the room/PA arrangement, (most churches suffer from this unfortunately) Hopefully all gets better!! Thank you

Sorry Jake but you can’t high pass that far. Well you can do what ever you want but it’s bad advice. The fundamental of your low notes are below your high pass. That’s not good. Yes you get a little woofy down by 200hz but you just need to notch a little out down there. That resonance is known as vocal “formant”. Everybody has a resonance or two that needs to be dealt with. It’s best to use a dynamic eq for that if you have access to one but you can’t remove it completely.

That low cut is crazy, like thats so much!! you're literally getting rid of all the body and warmth from your vocal. round 150 to 200 is were the warmth of a vocal is and your just getting rid of it. If its sounding good in your room then your PA isn't set up properly. If your room is muddy like you have said in the comments then you need to sort that out with your PA cause it defiantly has to much low end on it or you're not taking enough out of the system. IF YOUR ROOM IS MUDDY AND YOU KNOW IT IS. SORT IT OUT😂😂😂😂😂 like ive said before,

05:37 Yet another reason to update our X32 to the Wing; access to the “Like” button 😂

this high cut dough

25:44 or a guitar player uses an effect unit, what causes an aggressive, boxy sound or there is a saxophone player with a bad clip microphone or some crosstalk I have to get rid off.

Gain sweet spot -12

do you deal with dropouts from those mics?

oh boy....

Digilive eq setting

Perfect distance from the mic that I tell my vocalists is to do is to be able to put your index and middle finger inbetween your lips and the mic.

My dude! Where is your pop filter? Don't remove plosives in processing, get the sound correct at the source. The foam tops might look tacky, but they work.

Church Sound is not at all easy, make sure you get your room tuned good or by a professional and use reference headphones like Shure SRH 1540s. If you have a separate broadcast setup you absolutely must have an accurate listening position period, no excuses no shortcuts on that. If you skip that step you will have subpar mixes guaranteed.

Jake. I do like your videos a lot but seems like the vocal EQ and compression is quite much. Also to say that someone is wrong about the EQ and compression is not right as each church has their own room acoustics and types of speaker cabinets. I was quite saddened. I could POSSIBLY see the vocal EQ HPF at that level if you had a 10-15 vocalists all singing at the same time on songs but majority of the time, this is not the case. To each their own.

Lo cut 320hz

You're gain staging literally makes no sense. Why would you not use your gain properly and get it to the level you want and then use your DIGITAL trim to get it to the right level. If your pre isn't at a good level and letting in enough signal then you will not get as much low end and body to the sounds the pre isn't getting enough juice. If you use your digital trim to get it to the right level, your not using the full advantage of the pre but as-well, your boosting the noise floor which can cause problems. You're reasoning for doing this was you wanted you're EQ and COMP to get the right level. If you're wanting to do this then properly gain stage. This isn't proper gain staging for Microphones!!!!! If your gonna do a video and telling people what they should but also sell courses and give this info out, you gotta do your research and know the info. Only reason im saying this is because gain staging is the source of mixing, its were it all starts mixing wise and if your giving the wrong info, your setting people up for a potential fail

“Customasidable”

300 on the HPF?!?

😂😂your pastor will send you a pink letter

The one with lows sounded better to me