Biltmore FOH Start Scene

Biltmore FOH Start Scene

Welcome to the user guide for the Front of House Start Scene at Biltmore Church!


The Five Ws of the Start Scene

What is a Start scene?

  • A Start Scene is a saved snapshot of mixer settings for a routine event.

Why is there a start scene?

  • This allows us to create a baseline to maintain efficiency, ensure consistency, and unify our audio standard.

Who uses the start scene?

  • There is a start scene in place on every Biltmore Campus's Front of House console, and every operator at Front of House recalls this scene first.

When do we use the start scene?

  • If we have Wednesday night rehearsal you will recall the start scene on Wednesday night, save new with the following Sunday's date and your name. At the end of rehearsal pull down KIckBass,VOX and Band DCAs and update the scene. This should be your starting place the following Sunday morning.
  • If we do NOT have Wednesday night rehearsal recall the start scene first thing Sunday morning and save new with the date and your name. At the end of service pull down your KickBass, VOX, and Band DCAs, update your named/dated scene, and turn off the console.

Where do we customize?

  • We have worked hard to streamline a workflow that we believe works for everyone. This workflow takes into consideration personal preferences of our operators and reflects some requests from our Worship Directors, while maintaining sonic quality and efficiency.
  • Because customizations are User specific and not scene specific we are asking all FOH operators to use the Custom Fader Banks and UDKs we have provided for you. Please refrain from adding Custom Fader Banks and UDKs that change the workflow and affect signal flow. (Example: Mute Groups)
We ask that no one setup or use Mute Groups. The way that we have set up the DCAs renders Mute Groups unnecessary. When one operator adds a Mute Group and doesn't communicate to the other operators, this creates confusion


Left Bay - Inputs (DM7)

Your Left Custom Fader Banks will lay out your inputs in the following order.

  • Drums - Drum inputs, percussion tracks, and drum FX
  • Instruments - Bass, guitars, keys, tracks and band FX
  • Mics - Vocal mics, BGV tracks, handheld and headset mics, and vocal effect returns
  • FX - All band, drum, and vocal effects
  • IEM - these are the white double patched channels specifically for monitors, click, guide and any talkback channels
On your Custom Fader Banks you will only see the left side of your stereo channels. To access both sides of your stereo channels
you to your inputs.


Left Bay - Inputs (CL3)

Your Left Custom Fader Banks will lay out your inputs in the following order.

  • Custom 1: Drums and Drum FX
  • Custom 2: Band/instruments and Band FX
  • Custom 3: Utility (Graphics, Announce, etc) and Vocals


Center Bay - Service Elements and Outputs (DM7)

Not every campus has the exact same instruments or inputs on stage, so some banks may have descreptnecy

Your Center Custom Fader Banks will lay out your inputs in the following order.

  • Worship - This layer is a collection of inputs, effect returns and DCAs to put key elements on one fader bank for quick transitions and maintain balance.
  • Vocal Mics, Background vocal tracks, vocal effect returns, and KIckBass, Vox and Band DCAs
  • Transition - This layer is designed to put inputs needed during the transitional elements of our service accessible on one layer
  • Vocal Mics, headset and handheld mics, and Vocal effects, KickBass, Vox and Band DCAs
DCAs - All needed DCAs on one fader bank
  • Drums - Should only have your drum mix bus. Due to the inserted compressor on the drum mix bus we want the mix bus in the drum DCA as apposed to the individual drum channels. If you use the individual drum channels in the drum DCA it will effect the amount of signal going into the compressor, which changes when and how much the compressor engages.
  • Bass - Bass input channel & Bass Dirt (This channel is a double patch of your bass with an inserted amp simulator and high pass filter. This channel is to add bass attack to your mix without sending more to your sub) and Moog
  • Electric Guitars - a stereo pair for each electric guitar
  • Acoustic Guitars - two acoustic guitar channels
  • Keys - a stereo pair for each keyboard
  • Trax - Just the stereo pair labeled tracks, not all track channels
  • Band FXs - drum and band effects return channels (i.e. Band Verb, Snare Verb, and Drum Verb)
  • Vox FXs - vocal effects return channels (i.e. Vox Verb, Vox Delay, and Vox Wash)
  • KickBass - Additional Sub control to mix low end to taste - Kick, Bass, Toms
  • Vox - Worship Vocal Mics and BGVs
  • Band - Drum Mix bus, bass, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, keys, tracks
Outputs - Worship Mix Buses (i.e. Drums, Vox, and Band) Stereo Bus and PA matrices and KickBass, Vox and Band DCAs
IEM Outs - Monitor mix buses - a stereo pair per wireless pack, additional mix buses for MEs and booth


Fixed Faders ("Master" section on DM7)

On the far right side of your front of house console there are either two or four fixed faders.
  • On the CL and DLive there are only two faders - Stereo bus and Lobby Matrix
Your Lobby matrix should NOT be powered from your stereo bus but the worship mix buses, Announce and Pastor mics, graphics, FOH Player, and Resi. Refer to  This section ⁠ for reference
  • On the DM7 there are four fixed faders - FOH player, graphics (GFX), Resi, and Lobby Matrix


User Defined Keys

  • Custom Fader Bank Navigation - On your start scene Custom Fader Banks have been created for you. This is designed to help you access the inputs needed for different parts of a service quickly.
  • FOH Talkback On/Off - allows FOH operator to communicate directly and privately with stage or crew members through their monitor mixes
  • Tap Tempo - Rhythm tap control button used to control the speed of time based effects. For this particular Tap Tempo it is the timing of your vocal delay.


Signal Flow

Above are the three consoles we use at front of house. This shows you exactly where your signal is traveling through the console and where in the signal chain your tools impact the signal.
Signal flow is the path the audio signal travels from its source (i.e. mic, instrument, etc.) to its destination (i.e. speakers, IEM packs, etc.)


Inputs Channel by Channel

Recommended processing per channel of the Start Scene

  • Kick In - Inserted L76 Compressor, onboard EQ
  • Kick Out* - Polarity flip, onboard compressor and EQ
  • Not every campus has a Kick Out mic, so ignore if inapplicable to you
  • Snare Top - Inserted L76 Compressor, onboard EQ
  • Snare Bottom - Polarity flip, onboard EQ and FET limiter
  • Tom 1 - 5043 compressor, onboard gate and EQ
  • Tom 2 - 5043 compressor, onboard gate and EQ
  • Overhead Left and Right - highpass filter (HPF), onboard EQ
  • Bass - Onboard EQ
  • Bass Dirt - Double patch - shared gain w/ Bass channel, inserted Amp simulator, onboard eq and compressor
  • Electric Guitars 1-3 - Stereo pair per guitar - inserted 276 Compressor, onboard EQ
  • Acoustic Guitars 1&2 - inserted 5033 EQ, HPF
  • Keys 1&2 - inserted MBC4 multi-band compressor
  • Click & Guide - Flat, HPF
  • Percussion Tracks - Onboard EQ
  • Tracks - Onboard EQ and compressor
  • Background Vocals Tracks - Onboard EQ and compressor
  • Utility Tracks - additional tracks to in place of a stage position (i.e. bass, keys, etc.)
  • Vocals - Inserted PSE*, LA-2A compressor, and dynamic EQ, onboard EQ
  • *CLs have an onboard expander in place of the PSE
  • Announcement Mic/ Handheld - inserted PSE and dynamic EQ, onboard EQ
  • Pastor Mic/ Headset - inserted PSE and dynamic eq, onboard EQ
  • Talkbacks - HPF only
  • IEM Double patch channels - Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Keys and Vocals -
  • Front of House Player - HPF only
  • Graphics (GFX) - HPF, mild EQ
  • Resi - HPF, mild EQ as needed
  • Effects Returns - stereo pair per - varies per effect

Output Routing

  • Drum Mix Bus - All drum input channels, drum effect returns, and percussion tracks should be sent here
  • Band Mix Bus - Bass, guitars, keys, tracks, and band effect returns should be sent here
  • Vox Mix Bus - Worship vocals, background vocal tracks, and vocal effect returns should be sent here
  • Stereo Bus - Drums, Band and Vox Mix Buses, Headset and handheld mics, Graphics, Resi and FOH player
  • PA Matrix - Just the stereo bus
  • Subs - Kick, tom 2 & 3, SPD, percussion tracks, bass, graphics and FOH player at varying levels should be sent here
  • Lobby Matrix - Drums, Band and Vox Mix Buses, Headset and handheld mics, Graphics, Resi and FOH Player
  • Allen & Heath MEs - Direct out of drums, bass, IEM double patch channels of guitars, keys and vocals, any -ME mix buses (i.e. FOH-ME, TB-ME, etc.)
  • ME Mix Buses - a summation of grouped input channels to be controlled by a single channel on the ME units
  • IEMs - four stereo pairs of mix buses - one per vocalist to be tailored to the preference of that vocalist
  • Effect Mix Buses - the effect send - the summation of input channels desired to go to the specified effect processor
  • Snare Verb - Snare Top and Bottom
  • Drum Verb - All Toms
  • Band Verb - Acoustic Guitar and others to taste (i.e. Keys or Electric guitar)
  • Vox Verb and Delay - Worship vocals and BGV tracks
  • Other Matrix - varies campus to campus

Your overall console should be routed as follows:

  • All instruments and vocal mics are sent to buses for processing, then sent to the ST Bus. Other sources, such as the announce mics or the GFX computers are simply sent straight to the ST Bus without the need for bus processing
Note how the Lobby Matrix is routed. Instead of sending the ST Bus directly to the Lobby matrix, the Band, Drums, and Vox buses, along with a few key sources (Resi, GFX, etc.) are what is sent. This allows the compressor on the Lobby Matrix to not do as much "heavy lifting" by giving the Matrix more evenly leveled inputs.


Abbreviations & Acronyms

  • Drums
  • Kick I, K IN = Kick Mic in Kickdrum
  • SN, SNR, S = Snare
  • Snare T, SNR TOP = Top Mic
  • Snare B, SNR BOT = Bottom Mic
  • T1, T2, etc. = Toms
  • OH = Overhead mics (captures the cymbals/an overall sound of the drums)
  • SPD = Roland SPD-SX Drum Pad
  • AG, EG = Acoustic Guitar/Electric Guitar
  • VOX, VX = Vocal
  • IEM - In-Ear Monitor
  • xxx-L / xxx-R = Stereo Channel (an instrument or source with a Left and a Right signal path)
  • TRAX / TRX = Backing Tracks (synths, keys, guitars, etc)
  • PERC = Percussion Tracks
  • FOH = Front of House (main audio console)
  • GFX = Graphics Computer (plays countdown)
  • Resi = The preaching stream sent from Arden
  • HPF/LPF = Highpass Filter, Lowpass Filter
  • Send Types
  • Pre-Fade = A source sent before the fader (volume changes made by FOH are not heard in the in-ears)
  • Post-Fade = A source sent after the fader (volume changes made by FOH are heard in the in-ears)
  • Talkback Types
  • MD-TB = Music Director
  • WL-TB = Worship Leader Talkback (triggered by Hotshot or Radial JR1 pedal)
  • FOH-TB = Front of House Talkback
  • LD-TB = Lighting Director Talkback
  • Effects Types
  • Verb, VRB = Reverb/Echo
  • DLY, V DLY = Vocal Delay
  • V VERB = Vocal Reverb
  • V WASH = Vocal Long Verb
  • D VERB = Drum Reverb
  • S VERB = Snare Reverb
  • B VERB = Band Reverb
  • ME-1
  • ME-FOH = a blend of FOH channels for the band (ie, Announce mic, Resi, etc.)
  • ME-VOX = a post-fade blend of all vocal channels, sent to a single mix bus
  • HH = Handheld
  • HS = Headset