Front Of House EQ
The Good The Bad and the Ugly
At most churches, the sound guy is a volunteer with no formal training at all. One of the first issues you run into is the Equalization. It is not easy setting a room to get that nice warm sound your people are looking for and your worship leader is dreaming about. As soon as something goes awry or a certain frequency is too hot you hear about it. Well here is some help. check out this article from The Church Collective.
Front Of House 101: Equalization
by FOX WATTERSON
In its most simple terms, equalization (or EQ, for short) refers to the boosting of desired frequencies and cutting of undesirable frequencies on a given audio signal. In broader usage, it can be used to correct specific problems on that signal, to overcome deficiencies in the frequency response of a microphone (or the timbre of an instrument), allow contrasting sounds from several sound sources to blend together within a mix, increase separation between audio signals by reducing the frequencies that cause “leakage,” and to alter a sound purely for musical or creative reasons. Equalizers are used to “dial in” a certain instrument or voice to add clarity and make it sound is good as it possibly can. Separating frequencies with equalization leads to a clean audio signal from the source, and therefore a much, much cleaner overall mix.
ABOUT FOX WATTERSON
Fox is the Technical Director for Generation Church, located in Mesa, Arizona. Fox is a graduate of the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences with a masters in Audio Engineering. He has been a Front of House engineer for over a decade, exclusively in worship ministries. He also writes music and works in post-production for film and television.
