Sunday Playbooks
Service flow
How a service actually runs from the booth — the moments, the transitions, and which controls you reach for at each one. Your DCAs and mute groups do the heavy lifting here. Set those up first →
The tools you'll live on
Two controls carry most of the service. If they're built and labeled, the rest is easy:
- DCAs — group faders. Ride the whole band, or all vocals, with one hand. Setup →
- Mute groups — one button to silence a set. Especially the sermon mute. Setup →
Walk-in / pre-service
- Background music or a pad playing, set to a comfortable level.
- Speaking mics down or muted until needed.
- A last glance that everything's where your "ready" scene left it.
The worship set
- Bring the band up. Keep the lead vocal clearly on top — the congregation is following the words to sing.
- Ride groups with DCAs, not individual faders where you can help it — the vocals DCA, the band DCA.
- Watch for the ring. Feedback announces itself before it screams; if you hear it, pull that channel or DCA. Feedback →
- Dynamics are the point in worship — let the quiet moments be quiet and the big moments build. Don't flatten everything.
Transition: worship → sermon
This is the move to have wired cold:
- Bring the band DCA down as the set ends.
- Make sure the speaking mic is up and live — check it before they start talking, not after.
- Fire the sermon mute group — everything except the speaking mic goes quiet in one press. No fader-by-fader scramble, no open stage mics bleeding during the message. Mute setup →
Practice this one until it's automatic. It's the transition most likely to go wrong live.
The sermon
- The speaking mic is the most important channel of the morning. Keep it clear, consistent, and feedback-free.
- Everything else down or muted.
- Stay attentive — if they move off-mic or get quiet, that's when your compression and a steady hand earn their keep. Spoken-word settings →
Transition: sermon → response / closing
- Release the sermon mute group.
- Bring the band DCA back up for the closing song or response.
- Speaking mic stays available for prayer or closing words.
After the service
- Speaking mics down.
- Walk-out music if that's your pattern.
- Save and back up before you leave — don't skip it. Recall & save →