A lot of places I visit, whether it’s a portable church, a wedding, or even a conference, they usually have a volunteer running sound. And they are usually fighting the fine line between “loud enough to hear” and screeching feedback. Most places I find the compromise normally ends in the speaker having a distinct ring bordering on feedback.
The first time a volunteer looks at a sound board it scares him (or her!) because there’s a gazzilion sliders and turny knobs. Then they realize that it’s really not that hard, it’s just the same few controls repeated for each channel. But there’s more to good sound than just learning the controls.
There’s a lot to be said for proper speaker placement, eliminating stage sound, and teaching people how to use a mic, but I want to give you a simple solution from the sound engineer’s point of view.
I always tell my non-proffesionally-trained sound volunteers to remember 2 things about EQ. Because a bad EQ can ruin an expensive mic. You can crank it up as loud as you want, and the audience will still be straining to make out what the speaker is saying. These are my 2 simple solutions to a good EQ:
1) Turn EQ controls DOWN, not up to adjust the sound. Instead of cranking the bass, try turning down the highs and mids a little.
2) If you learn nothing else, learn this… the 1khz is the sweet spot. When the speaker is mic checking, or even speaking, start turning down the mids very slowly until he/she sounds great. All of a sudden the mic will lose all of it’s mudiness, and will sound crystal clear, even at lower volume. If your board is a little more advanced, you may have adjustable high-mids and low-mids. Playing with these controls will be magic for your sound. Basically, you want to cut the 1khz, or a little either side of it, and it turns an ameteur sound mix into a professional sounding conference/wedding/church service with very little effort or training.