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1)Start with a plan

If you are going to build a decent system and have limited funds, you need to start with a plan. If I was starting out, I would look at the needs of the building and what you think you will be using the system for. Is it for amplifying the preaching, a choir, a worship band? This will determine to some extent what your plan will look like. Then think about the layout of the building, how many loudspeakers you will need and where to place them. What power amplifier will you need, how many speaker outputs. What size of mixer, number of channels, monitor outputs.

You will also need to think about stage monitors if you have a worship band and try and judge how many you might need. Collect as much information you can at this stage to come up with your plan. Then you will be in a better position to allocate money to each area and think about what specific gear to purchase within your budget. If you are ok with computers, put it all on a spreadsheet so you can see what you need and track your costings. Use the tools within the spreadsheet to add up your potential spend and compare to budget. This way, when you change some gear, you will be able to see if you have kept within budget or not.

2)Allow for contingency

If you are working to a tight budget, it is tempting to plan to use every penny that’s available. However, my experience with designing systems is that 9 times out of 10, there’s something you will have forgotten about or a piece of hardware you weren’t expecting to buy. Sometimes from the time of design to actual purchase, prices may go up. Even on a small budget, I would advise setting aside about 10% of the budget for contingency. You need a bit of wriggle room to give you the freedom to buy that extra bit of gear or buy an upgraded model of a piece of equipment that perhaps wasn’t in your original planning. Even if you don’t spend all the money now, there may be small items you will need in the first year of operation of your new system.

3)Prioritise your needs

When you don’t have a bottomless pit of money to play with, you will need to prioritise. Which bits of your proposed sound system is absolutely necessary? Are some items, over-specced? I’m guessing as a tech person, you love gadgets and there can be a temptation with us techies, to go for high spec gear when something much simpler and cheaper will do. If you have a rolling maintenance budget, you could focus on your core system just now and perhaps use cheaper microphones for the time being and then buy better ones the following year. Go through your plan and try and gauge what your top priorities will be and what is lower down your priority list. This will make it easier to make difficult decisions.

4)Don’t scrimp on quality

When you are trying to save money, it can be tempting to see gear you find online or in a music store that might not be a known quality brand name, but it’s cheap. If you really want a good system that is going to enhance the worship and is going to last, then please don’t scrimp on quality. For your core audio system, your PA amp, speakers, mixer, cables, you want to go for the best quality you can afford. If you buy poor quality gear, you could spend many months dealing with problems down the line and trying to figure out how to solve them. Even worse, you could end up throwing in the towel with a poor PA system and going back to your church leadership to ask for more money to buy a new system all over again!

5)Focus on core sound system

I kind of indicated this above on priorities, but the core of your sound system is so important. If you lay a good foundation, then you will have the makings of a great sound system. If you are planning to use passive speakers, get a really high-quality power amp with low SNR, a bit more power than what you think you will need and enough speaker outputs for the size of your buildings. If using powered speakers, get the best you can for the money. Purchase a well-known quality brand mixer with enough channels for what you will need. I can recommend the Yamaha MG20XU and have written a post about it here – live mixer review

6)Do your own installation

Some churches get a company in to do their system design, installation and wiring, or some buy all the gear and pay for someone to wire it up for them. It’s certainly one way of saving a lot of money if you can do your installation in-house. As a rough comparison with some recent examples I have seen, there could be a difference in price of x5 when you compare a DIY install to hiring a company to do the whole thing for you. Also, if you can get volunteers to build a sound booth or desk for your mixing console, that can also save a lot of money.

7)Look for sound gear bundle deals

When you come to maker your actual purchases, look around for gear bundle deals and you can save some cash. These are quite common especially with smaller items, like microphones that come with mic stands, or wireless mics that come with a set of four microphones for example. On my Recommended Gear page, a number of my posts point to current deals and bundles – worth checking out.

8)Consider alternative PA configurations

When planning a sound system, you may have a particular configuration in mind, but due to budget restraints, you might have to redesign your system. If having a power amp and passive speakers is going to be too expensive, try and work out a configuration that uses active powered speakers or vice versa. One of these options could prove cheaper than the other. Or maybe in your original plan you were thinking about 4 loudspeakers, but it’s proving too expensive. What if you got two larger loudspeakers instead? Would that work in your building, where would you place them? Would it be cheaper to do it that way?

These are the kind of questions you can ask when designing a system and your projected spend is going way over your budget. Sometimes you need to think outside the box a little bit. I know of one church plant using a school gym hall that had to set up and tear down their sound system every Sunday, which was taking a long time. I helped them look at replacing their existing system, but this time round designed their new system around x2 Bose L1 compact power speakers and a small mixer. It works great for them and takes a lot less time to set up and tear down.

9)Get what you need now, but plan for the future

Churches change and audio needs change. What works for you today, might not work for you in the future. So I would advise that you try and think ahead for what you might need if certain things were to happen. For example, at the moment you have a small worship band, but there are plans to involve more people and add more instruments. If that happened would your sound system be up to the job? If not, how could you buy something that is adequate for just now, but could be used in the future with a bigger band? The main piece of gear that could be impacted is your mixing console. Does it have enough channels to cope? Does it have enough monitor outputs, if you need more floor space for your expanding worship band?

10)Save money by making up your own audio cables

You won’t save a huge amount of money with this tip, but you could save some in the long run and it is a very good skill for a sound tech to have anyway. If buying cables, I advise buying the highest quality, which can be expensive. However, if you were to buy a large reel of quality audio cable and a box of XLR and 1/4 jack connectors, male/female, you would be able to make up your own cables. The only other things you would need are an electronics engineer’s soldering iron and solder station, some reels of solder, a toolkit with pliers, snips, screwdrivers and a small mini-vice and you are all set.

With some practice, you could be making up cables just as good as any you could buy in a store, and you will be able to make them to the exact length you want. Also, you will be able to repair any faulty cables you have without having to big them.

11)Get some quality used/ second-hand audio gear

This is one tip that has actually saved me quite a bit of money. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for every piece of gear, but for some things, it’s great. Item’s that have a higher likelihood of breaking down like a mixing console, I would think twice about buying second hand. But things like microphones or even floor monitors, you might be able to source cheaply. I once bought a really good quality 31 band stereo equaliser unit for $75 on eBay. It’s also worth checking out local music stores, as they sometimes have PA equipment that has been sitting for a while and they need the shelf space. Remember to do due diligence though, buy quality even if it’s second-hand! If you look hard enough its amazing what you might find.

12)Borrow equipment from another church until you can afford to upgrade

If there are any large churches nearby that have a great sound system and a sizable tech crew, it is highly likely they have spare gear lying around. Ask if you could borrow for a while until you can afford to buy. Churches that have plenty of money are swapping gear out on a regular basis, upgrading mixers, power amp, floor monitors, eq. Ask around and see what you can get. Some groups of churches or denominations often have Facebook groups for sharing news and ideas across a city or state. Why not put something out there and say exactly what you are looking for? Someone might be able to help.

13)Ask for a bigger budget

I left this one to last, as it is kind of a last resort if you have exhausted all the suggestions above. I often find churches greatly underestimate just how much a new sound system is going to cost. It could be that the bottom line is your budget is just way too small and you were never going to build a decent church audio system on that budget no matter how hard you try. If you are going to ask for more money, you need to be armed with detailed information as to why you need a bigger budget.

You need to justify every dollar and make sure that this time round you have adequate resources to do the job. Before bringing this to a church leadership meeting, it might be best to run it past the pastor and treasurer to let them know your thoughts and reasons and get them on board first.