But godliness with contentment is great GAIN

In addition to frequent mentions in the Bible, Gain is also a knob on the standard mixing console (also called Trim). You’ll also find a gain control on most amplifiers. For many guitar amplifiers, gain is the only form of volume control. But don’t let this confuse you, it is an input level and not necessarily an output. If it is your only volume knob, then yes, it directly affects the output volume. But on the standard mixing console, the gain works in relationship with the EQ and Fader to decide what the volume is for a given channel.

You need a gain control because different types of audio inputs have completely different volume levels. For example, your typical microphone produces a very weak signal and requires the gain to be turned up at least half way in order to be heard or even start to cause the meter to start registering. On the other hand, MP3 players can have a rather loud volume (depending on its volume knob) and needs to have a minimum amount of gain. (In fact, there’s usually a “Pad” button next to the gain to turn down these high level inputs even more).

There’s two ways to decide on how to set the gain level. I’m not in the position to say which is right or wrong, though I do have a preference. The audio engineer in charge at your particular ministry may have his or her own preference that you need to follow.

Option 1) Set the gain using the meters on the console. Fancier mixing consoles may have a meter above every channel so you can visually see the level of sound coming in to the channel. Other consoles require that you press the Solo or PFL button to see the input level on a meter in the center or right edge of the console. While visually monitoring the level on a channel, your goal is to get the gain high enough so that the meter is responding to more than just the first green light, but low enough so that it only peaks occasionally in the yellow. If you get into the red, the sound will distort. So make sure you test the channel at its loudest to verify that you have turned the gain down enough.

With this method, you end up with all the channels being about equal to each other. In other words, if you set the fader (the main output volume for a channel) to the same place for a microphone and guitar, they get amplified at about the same volume.

Option 2) Use the gain to set the volume you will generally have that channel at. Imagine you have two guitar players, one is playing the lead/melody parts, and the second is just doing rhythm. During the concert/worship, you’ll want the rhythm guitar to be quieter than the lead so it hides in the background and enhances the music. If you set the gain according to option 1, then you will have the fader for the lead guitar set to 80% or so, and the rhythm guitar set to about 55% output level. But you can also turn the gain down for the rhythm guitar and set the fader equal to that of the lead guitar. This way you can have both faders set to about 80%, but the balance you want between the two guitars is still there (because the gain is lower, the rhythm guitar will be quieter).

This method is particularly useful on the lower end boards that do not have a Mute option on the individual channels. When your only method of silencing a channel (instrument not in use, turning off a microphone, etc) is to turn the fader all the way down, then it is helpful to know that when you bring the channel back up, you can set it to the same volume level as every other channel, you don’t have to memorize the different output levels for different instruments.

Such a method does not provide as much benefit when you can mute the channel without losing your place (you can leave the fader up and simply tap the mute button to silence it), or when you can program scenes that automatically change volume levels based on preset mixes (odds are you won’t run into these types of consoles as a new volunteer).

As you gain experience (pun intended, sorry), you’ll likely find yourself in a balance between the two options and not necessarily strictly adhering to one method or the other. Using the LED meters is a great way to start when trying to figure out where to set the gain knob to. And as the rehearsal progresses, you can adjust the gain as you hear the differences between the instruments and their parts, or just fine tuning different singers with their own different energies.

Don’t forget: EQ also affects input level. If you get the gain set just right so it peaks in the yellow, but then turn up one of the frequency knobs, you may end up in the red after all. What’s EQ you ask? Hopefully I’ll get into that in a future post/chapter.

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