It's to Loud!

So i have had this idea to build a web page and blog to help out those who serve week in and week out behind the sound boards of Americas church's both large and small. You would think that most of the large churches today are the ones who have it all together..... Well not so, now that's not to say that some don't because believe me they do! But for the most part they are all the same regardless of the size. In fact the one thing that all church sound systems have in common regardless of there size or cost, they can and usually ruin the worship and teaching for many different reasons!

Now I know some of you are gonna be upset with some of what I have to say and that is okay but the truth is the truth.

So.... what to tackle first?

I think today we can start with what is the most common mistake that all churches are dealing with today. That is defining the difference between a concert and a worship service.

So one of the special things i have realized sense moving to the South/Midwest (not sure how Oklahoma fits?) is the desire to have worship/praise bands that are soooo large! I have mixed for some very large groups before some professional (New Song) and some not so large (Gary Chapmin) We had a summer concert series at our church many moons ago but they were all great! New Song at PF Chang's what a lunch!

So what I see today is any where from 7 to 15 people singing on that same stage? Now this in it self isn't all that bad, but when they are all singing the exact same thing??? you have to wonder why? Is everyone really needed? In fact I would venture to say that most are not even in the mix!! Sorry for those who never realized this till now, but the sound guy really is in control! (thank you Lord) and is it really needed to have a full horns section how bout 2 keyboards and a piano?

I see so many church's not only here in Tulsa but in many other places I visit as well trying to capture a Hillsong United feel or something that is huge. Hillsong United is one of my favorite groups of all time, but even they sound horrible on tour for one of the same reasons your worship team sounds horrible on Sunday morning.

Simply, TOO LOUD! So don't stop reading bear with me please. I get told that things are to loud all the time just like you, but today there is a trend to really be to loud. Most people can deal with the volume of the band if it is consistent from week to week. How to deal with the volume issue at church,well remember we are talking about a worship service not a concert. Most church's have the wrong sound system for there building I have seen some setups that wasted so much money and didn't fix the issue. The quick rule of thumb for the actual db level is right around 85 db. One of the best pieces of equipment you can get is at your local Radio Shack, that is a db meter. You can simply place it on the table in the sound booth and get a very good reading of the sound levels in the room.

So once you have the sound meter you need to walk the room with it every row and isle. You will be amazed and the difference in sound levels from one row to the next. Now this brings up another issue of complaint. Our very favorite people sit in the absolute worst places! The blue haired group always sit in the hottest seat in the room right! direct line of sight with the horns (tweeters) of our speakers! This complaint always comes to us as to loud when on fact it's not db levels as it is the tone quality, it's actually to sharp and hurts their ears, and to be honest they are usually right, but the problem is that for everyone else to hear that seat is the worst in the house!

So how can we fix this issue?
If you are in the market for replacing your speakers you are the lucky ones, if not well I have some ideas that might help.

Those who are purchasing new speakers. The best piece of advise I can give is don't go to the local guitar center looking for pro audio speakers. What they have is good equipment but little knowledge of the proper installation. If you can afford it hire a sound engineer to design a system that works best for your room. If not (like the rest of us) You need to drop the standard trapezoid speaker design. They will cause more issues than they are worth. You will need to go with a line array design. We are very lucky today that all manufactures are now selling these speakers for all size rooms. In the past they were only built for large venues. Today you can have them just about anywhere. Why are line arrays better? They basically provide a speaker for each section almost each row and eliminate those nasty hot spots we talked about earlier. The last system I engineered was a church in Las Vegas and was build in basically square room (another no no!) that sat around 700 . Each stack had 7 speakers in them, the system in complex, I will share it another time. When complete I walked the room with my trusty db meter and there was only a 2db range any were in the room, from the sound booth to any corner of the sanctuary! It was amazing this really helped with a lot of things!

So what to day if you are not buying new speakers? So you can start with simply rearranging some seats. If you have pews well I will have to think of something else. So moving seats will make some ushers quite upset but you shouldn't have to move much to help. Take your readings and find those hot spots, sit in the seat and simply move forward or back until the sharpness is gone. Wow you say that's rocket science! I know this is a simple idea but give it a try and let me know how well that works for you, I think you will be surprised!

So I think that is all we will bite off for today!

God Bless!

First Post!

First I want to take a moment and that you for stopping by. Please feel free to post questions enjoy articles and share with the rest of the church sound world!