Shortly after I started working at the current church, someone pulled me aside and mentioned there had been some complaints from the older generation that the mix was harsh. Typically when someone describes a mix as being harsh, there is more often than not an issue in the 1khz – 3khz range. This is a common frequency range that can be painful for vocals and electric guitar. Now, this depends on many factors, the vocalist, the mic, the console, the PA, the room and so on…for us reducing around 2.5k on the master bus (via graphic EQ) largely helped smooth out the upper mid range.

The second change I made was to put a compressor on the master bus. Reducing the dynamic range of the main output by only 1-3dB depending on the style of song. Setting the compressor on the master bus is a bit of an art. For us, I wanted to compress the peaks and allow the compression to last long enough to supress the entire peak. I change the attack depending on the song, from 3ms to 7 or 8ms depending on the song. If your attack is to fast, you can lose definition in the high end, but you can compensate somewhat with an EQ. The release is set from 60ms to 120ms just depends on the phrasing of the song. This is controversial, at the end of the day, for me, if it sounds good do it. Light compression on the master bus just helps to smooth out the mix and make the mix sound tighter so its more controlled and not so much in your face. This is probably not something I would do in a concert situation, but for my specific church it has worked really well.