Can you really get professional-sounding live worship recordings from a Behringer Wing? Without expensive Waves plugins? Without a massive budget?

Absolutely.

I recently recorded the Be Loved Gathering—a conference for teenage girls in the Midwest—and captured the entire worship set using nothing but a Behringer Wing, some solid mic choices, and the console's internal plugins. No external processing. No Waves. Just the Wing and good decisions.

Here's the complete breakdown of how I did it, what I learned, and how you can apply these techniques to your own live worship recordings.

The Setup: Gear and Signal Flow

The Console

Behringer Wing — This was the heart of everything. I ran front of house and multitrack recording simultaneously from the Wing. The Midas Pro preamps sound excellent, and the internal plugins are surprisingly capable.

Microphones

Vocals: Lewitt MTP 950

I used Lewitt MTP 950s on all four vocal mics across the front. These are fantastic for live worship—they sound open and detailed, and they screw directly onto Shure wireless transmitters without adapters. Huge time-saver.

Drums:

• Kick In: Shure Beta 91A
• Kick Out: Audix D6
• Snare: SM57 (top and bottom)
• Toms: Audix D4s
• Overheads: T.Garden Audio PPC 125s

The T.Garden PPC 125s are my new favorite overheads. They're not pencil condensers, not large diaphragm—they're somewhere in between (mid-diaphragm), and they work beautifully for live worship. Great detail without being harsh.

Acoustic Guitar:

Rupert Neve Designs DI — This DI sounds incredible on acoustic. Warm, clear, expensive-sounding.

Bass:

Radial J48 DI — Solid, reliable, great tone.

Keys:

Nord running stereo into Radial DIs.

Recording Setup

Everything ran into a DL32 stage box connected to the Wing. I multitracked the entire night—every input, every vocal, every room mic. The Wing makes this easy with its built-in recording capabilities.

I also ran two shotgun mics as room/audience mics, though I'll be honest—they were too close to the speakers and didn't turn out as clean as I wanted. Live and learn.

The Mix: Techniques and Plugins

Here's where it gets interesting. I mixed this entire recording using only the Wing's internal plugins. No Waves. No external processing. Just the console's built-in tools.

Drums: The Revival Sample Pack

I used drum samples from the Revival Worship Drum Sample Pack by my friend Corey Brunnemann. These are specifically designed for worship music, and they sound incredible.

Kick: I went with the "Fall" kick from the pack. It has the right amount of punch and low-end weight for this style.

Snare: I blended three different snare samples from the pack with the live snare top and bottom mics. The blend created a snare that cuts through but still feels live and organic.

Toms: I used the "Slap Toms" from the Revival pack. Honestly, I use these more than expensive toms I've paid way more for. They have this perfect brightness and resonance that works beautifully in worship mixes. The live tom mics didn't sound great in this room, so I relied heavily on the samples.

Toms: Renaissance Axe Compression

Here's a technique I've been loving lately: Waves Renaissance Axe compressor on toms.

I know, I know—the Axe is supposedly for guitars. But try it on toms. Set the attack around 5ms and let it do its thing. It tightens up the toms in this beautiful way, pushing them slightly forward in the mix without making them sound compressed or unnatural.

I now use this on almost every mix. It's become a template staple.

Vocals: Parallel Compression and Decapitator

Parallel Compression:

Instead of one parallel bus for all vocals, I've started giving each lead vocal its own parallel compression bus. This gives me more control over which vocals I want to push forward at different moments.

The setup: Pre-fader send to a parallel bus, EQ to add top-end air and cut some mid-range mud, then heavy compression to create that "in-your-face" presence. Blend back in with the main vocal channel.

Decapitator on Vocals:

Another game-changer: Soundtoys Decapitator with very light drive (usually around 2-3 on the drive knob).

This adds harmonic saturation that makes vocals cut through the mix effortlessly. If it gets too bright, use the tone knob to roll off some high end. This plugin has become my secret weapon for vocal presence.

Softube Weiss De-Esser:

I've also started using the Weiss De-Esser (supposedly a mastering de-esser) on individual vocal tracks. It sounds incredible—transparent but effective. Worth checking out if you struggle with harsh sibilance.

Mix Bus: The 5420 Tape Machine

Here's the biggest change I've made to my template in years: Purified Audio's 5420 tape saturation plugin on the mix bus.

I used to be a Virtual Tape Machine guy (Steven Slate). That plugin is great. But the 5420? It's on another level.

The low end gets this smooth, expensive character. The low mids glue together in a way I've never heard from a plugin. It sounds like hardware.

I went through a bunch of presets and eventually landed on one I tweaked for my template. This plugin is now permanently on my mix bus. It's that good.

Glue Compression on the Mix Bus:

I've also returned to using gentle compression on the mix bus as a whole. I used to compress individual buses heavily, but now I'm doing more on the drum bus (where it sounds good) and using lighter glue compression on the overall mix bus.

This brings everything together cohesively without squashing the dynamics.

The Result

The final mix sounds huge. Professional. Expensive. And it was recorded on a Behringer Wing with no external plugins.

The key takeaways:

1. Good mics matter more than expensive consoles. The Lewitt vocals, T.Garden overheads, and Revival drum samples made a huge difference.

2. The Wing's internal plugins are capable. You don't need Waves to sound professional. The built-in EQs, compressors, and effects are solid.

3. Technique beats gear. Parallel compression, proper gain staging, and thoughtful processing decisions matter more than having the most expensive plugins.

4. Drum samples are your friend. When the live toms don't sound great, good samples save the mix.

5. Mix bus processing matters. The 5420 tape plugin and gentle glue compression brought everything together in a way that sounds expensive and cohesive.

Free Multitracks to Practice With

Want to try these techniques yourself? I'm giving away the full multitracks from this recording for free. Every drum mic, every vocal, every instrument—completely free to download and practice mixing.

Get the free Be Loved Gathering multitracks here →

And if you want the drum samples I used, grab the Revival Worship Drum Sample Pack from my friend Corey. They're built specifically for worship music and sound incredible.

Get the Revival Drum Sample Pack here →

Want to see the full walkthrough? I break down the entire setup, signal flow, and mixing process in this video. And if you want my complete mixing template for live worship recordings, you can grab that too.

Get my Live Worship Recording Mixing Template here →

Happy mixing!