In this one I build a full worship mix on the X32 from start to finish, using my current layout that’s based on my advanced scene. We cover a lot of ground, so this is the one to watch if you want to see how all the individual pieces come together into a real mix. Here’s the walkthrough.
Routing: buses and DCAs
The foundation of the whole thing is the routing. My drums are all grouped together and going to a bus, not straight to the mains. Same with my vocals, they’re post-fader to their own bus. Then I use DCAs to control those groups, so one fader rides all the drums, one rides all the vocals, and the band faders handle the rest. Setting it up this way gives you way more control and lets you add processing across whole groups.
Drums
I get every drum input hitting around -18, then work in isolation. On the kick, the gate keys off 60 Hz, the compressor’s on 4:1 with the attack at 15 and release at 59, and I check phase between the kick in and kick out mics. On the snare, high pass at 100, compress 3 to 6 dB on a 4:1 with the attack at 24 and release at 20, and the snare bottom gets a hard, fast compression to knock the transient and add sizzle.
For the toms, the big trick is keying each gate off the fundamental of that drum, usually around 100 Hz, with a narrow Q so it only opens for the tom and not the cymbals around it. I set the attack around 3 to 4 milliseconds so I don’t get pops, and set the release to match how long the drum rings. Overheads get a high pass up around 200 and a low shelf so they focus on the sizzle up top while the close mics do the real work.
Then the drums run into a stereo bus with an 1176 doing a little glue compression, attack around noon and a fast release, and there’s a second mono bus you can feed the kick and snare into for parallel compression if you want more power. It gets gnarly and distorted on purpose, and it dirties the drums up just a little. Not a make-or-break move, but a fun one.
Bass, electrics, and keys
On bass, I love to compress it so it’s basically not moving. I set the 4:1 auto and let the makeup gain match how much it’s knocking off. That steady bass is your foundation.
For the electrics, I keep it simple, an upper-mid cut around 2 to 2.5 kHz and auto compression on a 4:1. I don’t like to over-EQ electric guitars because they start sounding odd. The best thing is to get the tone right at the source. On keys, a cut around 900 Hz and 4:1 compression, and I leave the pad mostly alone since it’s just a pad.
Vocals
Vocals are where the routing pays off. Since they’re going to a bus, I can stack a few compressors in the chain instead of hammering one. I’ll run a couple of compressors on the channel, both on a 4:1 auto, each grabbing a few dB at different times so they work in tandem, and then an LA2A on the vocal bus to glue the group together. That’s how you get a controlled, up-front vocal without it sounding squashed.
A room mic for your stream
One last thing I like to do is bring in room mics with a low cut, low shelf, and a little compression. In this mix everything but drums and vocals is direct in, so there’s almost no stage volume, which means the room mics are mostly picking up the PA and the crowd. Pushing that in adds a little realism and life, and it works great feeding a stream bus.
The point
A full mix is just all these small, intentional moves stacked together with smart routing underneath. Get your gain, handle each source, use your buses and DCAs, and polish the whole thing as a system.
Everything you see here, the scene, all the presets, and how it plays out with a live band and a full soundcheck, is in my X32 Pro Pack, plus a lot more on source tones and using the X32 in church.
