Home > Church Products and Services > Music & Audio
Your Church, July/Aug 2000
Music
& Sound
The First Rule of Sound
Good sound begins with good
acoustics. Now apply that to your sound problems
Gayla R. Postma
Nick
Colleran recently visited a church where the preaching was excellent, the music
terrific, and the sanctuary beautiful. So why did he leave with a headache?
"Sound was bouncing all
over the place, making everything hard to hear," he says.
Colleran, marketing director
at Acoustics First in Richmond, Virginia, says sound problems are relatively
new in the life of the church. "Two thousand years ago, Jesus didn't perform
acoustical miracles; he preached where it was acoustically beneficial," Colleran
says. A thousand years ago, churches put slits in walls and filled the cavities
with ash until the sound was right. Today churches that are designed without
considering acoustics are a setup for sound difficulties."
Sound
Problems
To test the acoustics in
a room, clap your hands and count the seconds till the sound goes away. If sound
is bouncing around the room five or more seconds later, you're inviting listener
fatigue and frustration.
• Faulty acoustics.
Whether you consult Anchor Audio, Mackie Designs, Telex Communications, or another
sound group, you'll discover that good sound starts with good acoustics. "Some
one trained in sound can immediately tell where the resonances are," says Carl
Lafky, vice president at Anchor Audio. "That will dictate the solution."
Mike O'Neill at Electro-Voice
agrees. "If the acoustics aren't right to begin with, there are a number of
remedies available," he says. "But fundamentally, anything we do to a preexisting
de sign is a Band-Aid approach. You can only minimize problems with sound reinforcement."
• Dated design.
The problem with some church sound systems is that they were designed as public-address
systems, says John Fuqua at All Pro Sound. Those systems are no longer adequate
for today's worship needs, which can range from traditional to contemporary
to a combination of both, and include everything from choirs, organs, and orchestras
to guitars, worship bands, and praise teams.
Contemporary music requires
less reverberation, which is also good for speech clarity. But when a church
alternates between organ and amplified instruments in blended worship, sound
is a problem. One solution is to install reflecting panels at the chancel end
of the auditorium so the choir projects out. If the space is too small, electronics
may be the only way to increase reverberation.
Sound
Problem at Crossroads
Crossroads Community
Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, needed a new facility to accommodate its growing
congregation. Bob Hoffman, associate pastor at the church, says the congregation
found a warehouse to lease in a desirable location, but a lot of work had to
be done to correct the acoustics.
"It's a fairly new building,
but it was just four concrete walls, a concrete floor, and a high ceiling,"
Hoffman says. The five-second echo delay was an acoustic nightmare for the singers,
rhythm section, and other musicians who led worship.
With help from Acoustics
First, the church began treating the hard services in the worship center. "We
added carpeting and fabric chairs," Hoffman says. "From the ceiling, we hung
about 90 sound clouds"; 4-by-8-foot fiberglass panels covered with porous plastic
that are hung vertically.
The walls were texturized
and painted. Then two different kinds of sound panels were put up: 80 flat,
two-inch-thick fiberglass panels covered with porous cloth, and, opposite the
speakers, diffusers, which are like acoustic panels but curve out from the wall.
Acoustic wall carpet was also installed around the room.
The envelope of absorption
worked. "We went from space that was worse than a school gym to a really great
worship space," Hoffman says.
Other
Trouble Spots
The narthex has
become a gathering place in many churches today. Noise can be a real sound problem,
especially for participants in a service that's just starting. Horrall says
the problem can be eased by installing sound-absorbing material in the narthex.
"Treat surfaces, walls, and ceiling," he says.
The fellowship hall was
the acoustical weak spot at St. Timothy United Methodist Church in Litchfield,
Illinois. "We had a tile floor with concrete walls," says Anthony Bell, pastor
of the church. "Sound just bounced around the room."
The church solved the problem
by installing about 20 Alphasorb panels from Acoustical Solutions around the
room.
Holy Cross Catholic Church
in Derry, New Hampshire, also solved its echo problem with Alphasorb wall panels.
"We bought 12 panels, and we're going to order more," says Mark Comeau, a member
of the church steering committee. "They're doing the trick, but we'd like to
get a little more bounce out of the room."
No matter where you buy
sound absorbing and diffusing materials, the challenge is to shape and install
them properly. So don't nail or glue anything in place till you've sat through
a worship service and really listened. Can you hear the drummer without wanting
to cover your ears? Has the preacher never sounded better? If so, your acoustical
environment is doing what it's designed to do.
Gayla R. Postma
(postma@mor-net.on.ca)
is a freelance writer living in Morrisburg, Ontario.
helpful
resources
Copyright © 2000 by the
author or Christianity Today International/Your Church Magazine. Click
here for reprint information on Your Church.
July/August 2000, Vol. 46, No. 4, Page 34
|
Subcategories
of Music & Audio
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
Your Church
Home | Archives | Contact Us | Subscribe | FREE Newsletter
| 
