Mackie’s DL32R provides complete portability for The Grove Church
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: The Grove Church has purchased Mackie’s new remote-controllable DL32R mixer to aid in the production of upbeat and contemporary services at its main Titusville campus in Florida. Jason Decter, who mixes sound for The Grove Church when he’s not on the road as front of house engineer for Blink 182, served as production consultant for the design of the church’s main sound system and selected the mixer to add a new dimension of portability to the setup.
The mixing system provides the church with 32 channels that can all be operated solely from an iPad using the Master Fader application. ‘The Master Fader control app is so easy to learn, and the on-board preamps and effects sound so good, it made the DL32R an easy choice,’ explained Mr Decter. ‘The fact that there's no physical console surface means the engineer is no longer tied to a desk, which is very cool. You can walk around, hear the sound in different locations and make adjustments. For monitor mixes, you can actually go on stage with the musicians and dial in each mix on the spot.’
With full mixing functionality achieved from within the application, the church is also benefitting from splitting mixing duties across two devices. ‘The first time we used the console, I handled both the FOH and monitor mixes,’ Mr Decter continued. ‘The following week, I split FOH and monitors between two engineers, and each had their own control surface. We could actually treat it like two separate consoles, just by adding a second iPad.
‘The interface is also so easy and intuitive. I had no problem teaching my mixers everything they needed to learn inside of an hour,’ he added.
The campus in Titusville regularly welcomes up to 1,000 parishioners, and is housed inside a gymnasium – a less than desirable environment to host the rock-style services the church favours. To help control the space, sound absorbing pip-and-drape has been put up around the perimeter, and a new Mackie HDA line array has been installed. ‘It's a great speaker choice for the room size in terms of focus and control,’ he explained. ‘It definitely does not sound like a gym!
Summarising his new mixing experience, Mr Decter enthused: ‘These days, every digital console has some sort of wireless app, but they tend to be limited. The fact that the DL32R literally has no physical control surface shows just how powerful the Mackie Master Fader app is – you have real-time control of everything, including input trim, DSP, EQ, even setting and recalling scenes. It delivers everything we need for The Grove, and a lot more. This means we have room to grow, and it still costs far less than any comparable mixer. We're really happy with it.’