On snare, I always prefer to have top and bottom miked. The approach here is a boost at about 250 Hz or so with a cut at 500 Hz, which produces warmth. Then the bottom of the snare provides a sharp boost at 1 kHz to really give it a snappy, cracked sound.
I typically blend the two sources, with slightly more top than bottom. Finally, I like toms present, round, and resonating, but not overwhelming, and I prefer cymbals to be bright, but not harsh.
I find a lot of churches use enclosures (i.e., a plexiglass shield around the drum kit), which adds a certain level of complexity to the mix. I love the isolation, but I really hate how “boxed in” it can sound. You have to fight that in almost every mix of your kit.
Bass
I love a smooth bass line. I’m a bassist and really enjoy when I can’t pick out really weird sounding (or overpowering) bass in mixes. I had to accept it growing up playing the instrument, and we must accept it as sound engineers: bass shouldn’t be the loudest instrument in the band.
And by that I mean a nice round low end (I hate the sound of frets on a bass. Any uprights or fretless out there?) with a HPF at 60 Hz with just enough finger noise around 2 kHz or so to distinguish accented notes without overpowering the kick, or worse, the vocals. The kick and bass should be working harmoniously, not stomping all over each other.
Don’t be afraid to use ducking to get them to behave.
Keys
Pianos have been in churches for as long as both have been in existence. Nothing can replace a really incredible pianist. (I envy those who can “tickle the ivories.”)
Usually, I don’t do anything particular to keyboards and pianos because they were made to be left alone. That’s not to say I don’t slap on a HPF every now and again, but I do try to stay true to the piano and let it do it’s thing. The only thing I can say is make sure I can hear it in the mix.
Everyone mixes differently, and every congregation likes its music differently. Because of the generation in which I grew up, my mixes tend to sound a lot funkier and modern than some generations before me. (I also consider myself one of the most conservative.)
Always be careful to take care of your ears. I know exactly when I start to reach the 95 dB point (if you can get your congregation to even accept levels that high) because I begin to get uncomfortable. It’s actually been something I’ve been working on lately, sometimes my mixes are perhaps too quiet – a good problem to have if you ask me.
If you take one thing from this discussion, it’s this: listen. Really listen. If you just walked in off the street, could you understand what the vocalist was saying even if the words weren’t onscreen? Our job is a balancing act and when done right, it’s incredible.
