Ya, a lot of Churches will hand out the CD's as people are leaving the building! They also post the service on line as well as live streaming to a internet radio type system.
Various results can be achieved depending on the sound persons ability.
It is a huge topic on Gear slutz as many people ask these questions all the time. There are probably more sound systems in churches these days than in night clubs and bars.
When I hear compressed audio I think back to those Sony table top cassette recorders. You first hear a loud CLUNK then hissing room noise, then the person starts to speak and the compressor kicks in after one second and you can't hear anything!
They now have a modern version of this with the Tascam, Zoom etc handy recorders. But the compressors built into those can trash the sound in the same way so I don't use it. Record at a safe level.
As example if I recorded direct to Wave Lab at a safe level, it would take less than a minute to edit the file and normalize it to .5 db. Give me another minute and I could apply the Loudness Maximizer and boost it another 2-4 db. With a multi CD burner set up those CD's would be ready in about 6 minutes.
If they use that compressor on a podium mike it won't make it louder. All it can do is catch the odd peak ( set the attack fast) This is OK if there is no one on the sound board and your looking for automatic attenuation when someone gets rowdy on the mike. But the job of a sound person is to ride the faders and keep an eye on the little red lights.
I'm afraid adding magic boxes like feedback destroyers or compressors to a podium mike is not the solution to achieving more volume.
Good quality mikes, proper speaker placement and lots of power. A properly set up compressor just to catch a few peaks is a bit of a luxury at best.
Compressors have to be 100% wet, in other words, the entire signal has to pass through any dynamic processor to work properly. There is side chaining but that is a different topic.
So EQ 's, Limiters and compressors always are
in line with an input or output signal.
The insert jack patch point is designed to facilitate this properly. Or in a pinch you can patch directly in and out with the correct cables on hand.
Sending a signal out of an aux t a compressor and back to the board would do nothing other than increasing the level of the signal. Most of the signal would be going direct to the Master un processed.
Aux send / return is a
parallel pathway used to blend effects like reverb and delay with the main mix.