Running The Sound ... The Basics

No matter what the brand and style of sound equipment used, this will at least get you up and running reasonably quick. Hook up the microphones and speakers as you would normally do(assumes basic knowledge of setup skills). Turn everything on. If sparks don't fly and smoke doesn't come out of the equipment we can move on (otherwise replace what smoked and fried and then move on). Turn up the channel with the microphone on it until you just barely hear a ring. Then back it off until the ring goes away. It is always a good idea not to have too many people in the room during the setup as they would get annoyed at the testing of the equipment. That's really all I ever do when setting up the equipment initially. Once people arrive at your venue, no matter whether a church, theater, or concert, you will have your starting points set for your microphones. They are normally at a sufficient setting there to be heard at most non rock concert events. Concerts have a similar set of rules. You would need to be able to adjust the settings on the fly at these events. If your a novice at sound equipment then you won't be by the end of the concert. Concerts also have instruments to deal with as do some churches which just plug into the board and turn to a reasonable level (some people may not like to hear it as loud as you do). There you have some very basic running of the sound equipment rules and maybe ideas.