What This Role Is
You're responsible for the sound everyone in the room hears during rehearsal and service — congregation, band, and anyone standing near the PA. Good audio is mostly invisible. People don't notice it when it's right; they definitely notice when it's wrong. Your job is to stay ahead of that.
This document exists because we had an incident. It's not meant to call anyone out — it's meant to make sure the next person running FOH (including you, next week) has a clear picture of what we expect and why.
Your Gear
- FOH Console: Yamaha DM7
- Monitors Console: Yamaha TF5
- System DSP: L'Acoustics
- Network Audio: Dante
- SPL Meter: Available at FOH — use it
You don't need to be an expert on all of it. You do need to understand gain staging, how to read the DM7's meters, and how to use the SPL meter. If you're unclear on any of those, ask before rehearsal starts — not during service.
Before Rehearsal
Load the scene. We keep a base scene from the previous week. It's a starting point, not a finished mix. The band changes week to week, so the scene will need adjustment.
Check gain staging before the full band plays. This means:
- Set channel gains so signal peaks around -18 dBFS on the DM7 input meters during a hard hit or loud phrase
- Main faders at unity (0 dB) or close to it
- Get a reference SPL reading at FOH with the full band playing — target is ≤88 dB
If you skip gain staging and just chase volume during rehearsal, you will lose control of the mix before service starts. It's much harder to fix a bad gain structure mid-service than to set it right at the top.
During Rehearsal
Rehearsal is your diagnostic window. Use it.
- Listen for balance, not loudness. If something feels quiet, the answer is almost never "turn up the main fader." Find the thing that's quiet and ask why — is it undermixed, or is something else masking it?
- Check SPL at least once during full-band rehearsal. Note the reading.
- Stage requests are binding. If someone on stage asks for a change, make it and verify it worked. A turn-down request that gets honored and then creeps back up is worse than one that never got addressed — it erodes trust.
- If you're unsure about something, flag it during rehearsal. Matt or the worship pastor are in the room. That's the time to ask.
During Service
Once service starts, you won't have direct talkback from stage. That means your feedback loop is the SPL meter and your ears — not someone telling you it's too loud.
Check SPL every song. Not once at the top — every song. Levels shift as the room fills, as musicians settle in, as energy builds through the set. A mix that was 85 dB in an empty gym during rehearsal can creep past 90 dB mid-service if you're not watching it.
Target: ≤88 dB SPL at FOH. If you're over, bring it down. Start with the loudest element — usually kick, snare, or guitars — before touching the main fader.
If the mix feels quiet, ask yourself first:
- Is gain staging correct? (Are input meters peaking appropriately?)
- Is there a balance problem — is one element masking everything else?
- Is the main fader already at unity?
If all of those check out and it's still genuinely quiet, a small fader nudge is fine. But that should be the last resort, not the first move.
Authorized interventions: If the worship pastor or a designated leader asks you to bring it down, do it immediately. If you're unsure what to adjust, pulling the main fader 2–3 dB is always a safe first move.
What Good Looks Like
- Gain staged and SPL checked before the first song of rehearsal
- Mix adjustments made during rehearsal, not chased during service
- SPL holds at or under 88 dB through the full set
- Stage requests honored and held — not just acknowledged and then forgotten
- You're listening critically the whole time, not just watching the console
When to Escalate
Talk to Matt if:
- You can't get a clean gain structure and aren't sure why
- A monitor situation is affecting your ability to mix FOH
- Something with the DM7 scene or DSP is behaving unexpectedly
- You're unsure whether a level is appropriate
You won't get in trouble for asking. You might cause a problem by not asking.