This is the simple way I run our livestream at church from the Behringer Wing. The big idea is that I treat the livestream as its own main out, separate from the house mix, so I can process it and ride it independently without overcomplicating anything.
Use a main out for the livestream
The Wing has four main outs. For this, picture main 1 as the livestream and main 4 as the house mix. All my channels run like normal, out to their buses, and those buses go to the mains. The difference is how I handle a few things per main. My room mic channel, for example, is routed to the livestream main but not to the house mix. So it only shows up in the stream.
I don’t overcomplicate it with a bus send or a matrix. I just treat the stream as another main. It’s post-fader, it’s at the end of the chain, it keeps the same panning, and best of all I can leave that room fader up and active during the service. When the congregation starts singing or speaking, I just reach down and push the room up in the stream by feel, then bring it back. I’m not even monitoring it, it’s just another thing I can actively mix into the stream.
Process the stream differently than the house
Because it’s its own main, I can put processing on the stream that the house never touches. On my livestream main I like to use the Combinator, which is multi-band compression. I’ll widen out the mid-range band with a wider slope, push it up a dB and a half or two, and then bring the threshold back down so that mid-range is getting tamed even as it’s pushed forward. That gives you a little more perceived volume. It’s a subtle thing I picked up from the studio world, kind of like squeezing the mids with a Waves C6.
After that I’ll sometimes add a Pultec for a little low boost, maybe a high boost. In a lot of rooms it isn’t strictly necessary, it just depends what you’re hearing.
Finish with an enhancer or a limiter
To end the chain you’ve got options. A lot of people reach straight for the Limiter, and that’s fine if you want it louder. But I really like the Enhancer. You can add a little bass, mid, and highs, and I’ll usually take the stock setting and add a touch on the top and bottom plus a bit of low-mid spread. It adds a little stereo width to the signal that I like. If you’d rather use a Limiter, add a little input gain and slow the release down to around 240 ms so it’s just catching the peaks and keeping you from clipping.
Add bus compression to glue it
The last piece is bus compression on the stream. I’ll use something like the Neve bus compressor, knock off just a few dB with a low ratio, around 1.5 to 1, a slow attack, and a few dB of makeup gain. The point isn’t to crush it, it’s to tighten the whole stream up a little so it can sit louder without getting squished. Go easy here, because it’s really easy to clamp down your whole mix.
That’s the chain. It borrows a lot of studio techniques and brings them into a live setting, and the Wing makes it fun to get creative with. This is just one combination that’s been working well for our church lately.
All my Wing settings and presets are in my Wing Worship Preset Pack.
