The quality of church worship is critical to the
health of a church. The better the excellence of worship is, the stronger
the church will be. Quality of worship is not about packing the church
full of people for the sake of filling a worship space so much that it becomes
necessary to keep building bigger buildings. We worship God, not
buildings or pastors or knowledge. It is the Gospel, the Bible that leads
us to God. It is God’s words that keep us in a relationship with
Him. The strength of a church is not measured in numbers in the seats or
money. Jesus taught us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and shelter
the homeless. The Bible teaches over and over again that we are to live
by example (Psalms 1:1-6), to be a light in the world (Matt 5:16), when they
see that we are different (James 2:14-26), it will be that difference that will
attract people to God.
The strength of a church is measured by how people
support each other, and by how much a congregation supports each other as a
family first, as brothers and sisters, and then the local community. Is
the church feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and sheltering the
homeless? The modern version of Jesus teaching for us in countries with a
democracy and wealth should look like this. Is the church cutting lawns,
clearing driveways, cleaning people’s homes, fixing up members and non-members
homes? How often are church members spending time with the widows, the
singles who have never had a partner, or the elderly? Are these not the
things included in what Jesus told us to do? Are not these the same
teachings in the Old Testament? This is just a small sample of how
Christianity should look like to the secular world.
___________________________________________________________________ After reading the full article, please comment on it. We want to get this right as the church community needs this knowledge. If you have any questions, want to learn more or see a presentation about Solomon’s Temple and the Modern Church, contact me here – jdb@jdbsound.com
You church may be one of those that has great sound for all parts of the worship service. If it is, you should let everyone know as it will help to bring more people in. You should let us know so we can tell others. If you find this article helpful, please pass it on. Pass it on to your pastor, your friends and family. Give them the chance to learn what God can do for them today!
Thank you.
All modern churches can benefit from Biblical AcousticsAll older churches can benefit from Biblical Acoustics
Here is a simple test anyone can do to determine the acoustical condition of a church. Physics says that when the power* is doubled or when doubling the number of speakers, the sound level will increase 3dB. This result is real when outdoors. This outcome can be false indoors. When it is false indoors, it is because there are acoustical problems. Please notice that it is problems,not a problem. When adding a second speaker failing to increase the sound 3dB, this test shows that it is never a single acoustical issue. It is not a sound system problem. The sound system is exposing the root problem. (If the second speaker is wired out of phase, the sound will decrease in level.)
Outdoors, sound follows the basic rules of physics.
When outdoors, if there are two loudspeaker playing with the same volume of pink noise side by side or up to 6 feet apart, and set up a test microphone or SPL meter 30 feet away. (An iPad or phone with testing software can be used if it is calibrated.) When the second speaker is turned on or off, the sound level will change 3dB. This result is constant in physics. The reason this is always true is that there are no barriers around to limit the sounds from spreading out or returning from a reflection that can interfere with the direct sound.
When indoors, depending on the size of the room, often this is not true. This failure is noticed the most with Subs and sound energy below 500 Hertz. Doing the same test at 30 feet inside of a church, the sound level change is often 1, 1.5, or 2dB. If the result is 3dB, there are either a lot of open windows, lots of doors that are open, the church has more than 3000 seating or the church has great acoustics.
Indoors, sound is confronted with many other rules of physics which changes how the first rule works.
Here are the most common reasons for the sound failing to increase 3dB when doubling the power or speakers.
Standing waves
Dimensions of the room
Too much-stored energy in the corners
Too much high-frequency absorption
Standing Waves
Standing waves are excessive amounts of energy between parallel walls within a confined space. The effect of standing waves are not always apparent. Standing waves are usually excess mid and bass frequencies of energy that masks the highs. You can’t hear a standing wave but you can hear the effects of it. To identify if your church has standing waves, go between any parallels walls. Stand about 4 feet from one of the side walls. Make a loud, sharp noise like a hand clap once. If a person hears any rapid pinging sounds, this is a sign of the presence of standing waves. The sound heard is often a higher range of frequencies, and they usually called flutter echoes. Flutter echoes are a symptom of standing waves. Bass sounds, which have longer wavelengths can’t produce the same volume of sound to hear as a flutter between parallel walls. Whenever a person hears flutter echoes, excess bass energy present too. This result is also true for all other room shapes when flutter echoes or flutters from a simple hand clap occur
A second clue to standing waves is when standing at a pulpit or where a minister preaches from. With a hand clap, if the reflected sounds are coming from the side walls or behind you, the standing waves are the cause of it. The standing waves are masking the highs, creating the effect as if it is preventing a large portion of the sound from reaching the other side of the room, and what is reflected back is being canceled out by the standing waves a second time which in turn prevents you from hearing the returning clap. Standing waves have other detrimental effects too. It has the effect of isolating everyone from each other in the room. This result is also why the drums seems to sound so loud and yet, this is also why most drummers strike the drums harder than they have too. It is because they can’t tell how loud they are playing at any volume level. This outcome is also why many people sitting in the pews comment that they can’t hear themselves when singing, and it makes them feel alone in a room full of people. This is the number one cause of people being discouraged from singing.
Any church with parallel walls will have standing waves if there is nothing to manage them
The reason the sound doesn’t increase 3dB when adding a second loudspeaker is because of the excess bass energy created by the standing waves in the worship space. The excess air pressure is like putting a finger lightly on the woofer. The excess air pressure acts as an acoustical load on the woofer, and that dampens the amount of sound coming from the loudspeaker.
Standing waves can only be
removed with diffusion or some form of sound scattering.
If people try to use absorption to fix this problem, while it will remove the flutter or in some cases, shift the flutters to a lower frequency, the untreated bass energy will make the standing wave problem more pronounced. It will increase the feeling loneliness and discourage the congregation from singing even more.
The dimensions of the room
In churches with low ceilings or seating less than 200 people, the room is too small to be free from surface related sound inference reflections. In a larger church space with a flat ceiling less than 16 feet high, the room will have standing waves floor to ceiling which limits the ability to increase sound 3dB with just doubling the speakers.
The reason the sound doesn’t increase 3dB when adding a second loudspeaker is that the room is limiting how much the space can support. The excess air pressure from the extra speaker is like putting a finger lightly on the woofer. The excess air pressure acts as an acoustical load on the woofer, and that dampens the amount of sound coming from the loudspeaker.
The only option is to diffuse
all of the room if a small church. If a
low ceiling, diffusers will have to be added to the ceiling. Acoustical tiles and drop ceilings cannot
correct this issue.
Too much-stored energy in the
corners
Another principal of physic is
how sound is affected by boundaries. A
loudspeaker on a 10-foot pole measures 60dB.
We call that free space. When we
put the speaker on the ground, the speaker will be 6dB louder. That is referred to as “half space.” When we add a wall and the floor, we call
that “1/4er space” and the sound increases 12dB or doubles in loudness. When we add a second wall to the floor and
create a corner, that is “1/8th space,” and the sound rises
18dB.
Corners collect the air pressure that is created by longer wavelength sounds that accumulate on the flat surface of the wall. With nothing to direct the sound, the sound pressure moves in all directions. Eventually, the excess bass energy makes its way to the corners. Depending on a lot of variables, the amount of energy that builds up is often too much. Churches will low ceilings, large flat walls, or flat ceilings tend to have too much excess bass in the corners. All other church shapes, except for domes have varying levels of corner issues if not managed. Excess corn energy has a similar effect as standing waves. When there is too much bass, it masks the highs. This, in turn, creates hotspots and coldspots throughout the room. Hotspots and Coldspots are frequency dependent. If the sound level changes are of a narrow range of frequencies, it was most likely found them with instruments. When a person notices them with their ears, it means anyone with a hearing problem will miss out on some of what is being said, or what they heard and what was said was different.
When the front of a church is in the corner, everything is either 18dB louder or 18dB quieter when compared with churches that have the front on an end wall.
The reason the sound doesn’t increase 3dB when adding a second loudspeaker is because of the excess bass energy created by the bare walls in the worship space. The excess air pressure is like putting a finger lightly on the woofer. The excess air pressure acts as an acoustical load on the woofer, and that dampens the amount of sound coming from the loudspeaker.
Keeping excess sound out of
the corners is best done with diffusion.
It cannot be done with absorption unless the absorbers are as thick as
the wavelength of the sound waves.
Too much high-frequency
absorption
Sound arrives at our ears as
air pressure vibrating at a rapid rate.
The faster the air vibrates, the higher the sound pitch. The slower the sound vibrates, the lower the
pitch. The vibrations are referred to as Hertz.
Sound travel at 1130 feet per second.
At 100 Hertz, a bass sound has the wavelength of just over 11.3
feet. At 1,000 Hertz the sound waves are
1.13 feet, and at 10,000 Hertz the sound waves are 0.11 feet or 1.3 inches.
When there is too much absorption in the room, what is left is too much bass. The excess bass masks the highs.
For most churches, carpeted floors and padded seating is all the absorption needed. When this much absorption is add, the congregational singing is very dull and people have to be super motivated to see more that 20% of the audience singing.
The reason the sound doesn’t increase 3dB when adding a second loudspeaker is because of the excess bass energy created by too much absorption. The excess air pressure is like putting a finger lightly on the woofer. The excess air pressure acts as an acoustical load on the woofer, and that dampens the amount of sound coming from the loudspeaker.
The fix for such a problem is
by removing the right amount of absorption panels and replace them with
diffusers. Then complete the room by adding
more diffusion throughout the sanctuary to correct the frequency response of
the room.
These four issues are never a singular issue. They are often in combinations or can include all four. Along with these problems, there are often reverberation issues, echoes, excess late reflections, the poor frequency response of the room, and other room problems that have little to do with this simple 3dB test, but they are usually there as well. These problems can be heard when a person learns what to listen for. Looking at how sound system is equalized is another clue of room problems. The issues have the result of the high numbers of the congregation not singing. (In a church with good acoustics, they will often have more than 80% of the congregation singing every they are familiar with.)
Getting two loudspeakers and doing this test is simple and easy to do. If the sound doesn’t increase 3dB, this means that adding more subs or more speakers into a worship space will not get the expected outcome. For example. If the goal is to increase the bass in a worship space 3dB, and sound system has only one subwoofer, do this test, If the bass increased only 1.5dB with the second box, then it will take two more speakers just to get a 3dB increase for a total of 4 boxes. Think of the cost of adding three speaker boxes and all of the related hardware required to support that. An alternative would be to fix the room with diffusion, the gain will be 6 to 10dB of performance without doing anything to the sound system. It would be equal to adding 8 or 16 subwoofers depending on other acoustical or architectural considerations.
Science is amazing when appropriately used to provide real solutions. Pseudo-Science or fake data is often used under the disguise of science and can be used to lead churches to false conclusions. Many experts in audio and acoustics who see the same data, know these problems are present. If they are not being addressed, it is because they lack the experience in knowing how to solves such issues. If a person has done this test and the sound system provider or acoustical expert is not addressing these issue, they are not qualified for correcting sound problems in a church. It’s like asking a Doctor who specializes in kidney problems to do Brain Surgery. What is needed a Brain Surgeon who knows how to fix both the acoustics and to design a proper sound system.
Get the church correctly evaluated before investing in that next sound system. It can save those responsible a lot of disappointments down the road. Fixing a room can cost less than replacing a sound system, or it could mean reducing the size of the suggested new sound system.
* Doubling the power required calibrated volume controls or switches to
set up correctly as a viable test.
This is a Church Height chart. These are the minimum heights. Building new churches with lower ceiling heights degrade speech and congregational singing, and costs more to heat, cool, and maintain.
This chart shows the difference between the absorption rate versus decibels. For example, something that is rated as a coefficient value 0.5 is equal to 3dB of sound absorption.
How to Equalizer a church when you can’t afford professional help, or your EQ settings have been changed, and you don’t have time to get professional help. https://www.jdbsound.com/art/art537.html
Let us know if these files are useful. We would like to add more of them.
Was Solomon’s Temple a fairy tale? I don’t think so. I think Solomon’s Temple was as real as touching your own skin. Why? Solomon’s Temple was designed over 3,000 years ago. When you study the sound quality of the two rooms, it describes spaces that were purpose built for specific functions. The room that reflects modern day acoustics is the Holy Place or Sanctuary as we like to call it today. How can the design of a room from 3000 years ago be so good if it was never built or a fairy tale or myth? Do you think that King David or Solomon knew anything about acoustics back then? Did God tell King David and Solomon’s how to design rooms where hearing would be easy or difficult? Could the acoustics of the Holy Room reflect todays demanding needs of sound for worship? Yes. Absolutely!
The only difference between what a traditional worship space and a contemporary worship space would be the need for is adding carpeted floors and padded seating for worship team lead services. Churches with similar dimensions and shape as Solomon’s Temple have a way better worship experience over churches that have other room shapes. That is not to say you can’t have a good worship experience in other room shapes, but if you can remember your best worship experience in other rooms with good acoustical sound management, it is way better when the room is a rectangle. This only happens when the room is twice as long as it is wide, and with a very high ceiling that is 75% of the rooms length. With those dimensions and with the same type of acoustical treatment system as used in Solomon’s temple, regardless of your worship style, the only experience better than that would be in Heaven. And yes, the carvings of Cherub, Palm Trees and open flowers was actually an acoustical system designed by God. The updated version of it work great in modern churches today.
The modified version use half round shapes like the Palm tree. An affordable way to fix any church is with cardboard tubes. Such tubes using a water based glue meets fire codes in almost any place around the world, and does as good of a job as the carvings in Solomon’s Temple. For churches that have little to no money to spare, this is the cheapest way to breath life into all of those existing churches out there regardless of their room shapes. This is the only acoustical system that improves congregational singing (even is dead rooms), and doubles the loudness of the sound systems performance without distortion and without buying more equipment. (assuming that the equipment you already have is up to the task of performing at these levels in the first place.)
Now when I say doubles loudness of the sound system, it means that if you total the components of your speaker system, amplifiers and processors, and multiply the equipment 10 times, that is doubling the loudness. Remember that doubling the equipment or doubling the power only gives you a 3dB increase, but it take 10 times the power to double the loudness without distortion which is equal to 10dB. In most churches, an acoustical fix such as this has a one time costs of about $5.00 per seat. A typical speaker system for a church cost around $30.00 per seat and up. To get the same performance through sound equipment as a room treated with Cardboard Tubes, the speaker system goes up to $300.00 per seat or ten times the cost. If you do a reality check, you would actually have to spend more because you are still fighting the room to keep the sound distortion free. Even at $500.00 per seat, you may not be able to get double the loudness without distortion. To apply this kind of acoustical system as in a church as in Solomon’s temple, it lowers the cost of a sound system while increasing it’s performance. There is no other acoustical system that can do that.
Now Solomon’s Temple was built over 3000 years ago. How did they know how to do acoustical treatment that works in churches today? How is it that something designed 3000 years ago is so sound system friendly? The reality is, God inspired it’s design. Many Christians believe that the Bible is sufficient in all things and that should including church design and acoustics. Shouldn’t we be following what the Bible says and teaches, even in worship space design? (Ecclesiastes 1:9) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. If there is nothing new under the sun, then why do churches keep trying to design something original or different when there is nothing better out there? Worse yet, why don’t churches know that for preaching the Gospel there is no better room than a room with the dimension ratio’s as in Solomon’s Temple? Furthermore, why are so many churches determine to solve acoustical problems with electronics when they don’t have to?
Solomon’s temple was small. It could only seat around 150 people if used as a church today. Apparently, you can scale the room up to any size and have the same performance results. Why hasn’t the church community figured this out? (Why aren’t Synagogues built this way either?) From my own experience, if you use these dimensions, such a room will sound amazing as long is the walls have the right shapes added on them. At the same time this room will awful if you don’t include the same type of acoustical system as used in Solomon’s Temple. Please notice that I use the term “System”, and not “Treatment.” When you call it a system it is about a planned acoustical space or a system that treats the whole room. When you call it a treatment, it is as if the acoustical products are used as an after-thought. Such acoustical products are used only do spot treatments and they provide minor room fixes, and cost so much more expensive.
The most important roll of a House of Worship is to preach the Gospel. No other room shape, dimensions and wall finishing’s does it better. Why would any church design the most important room with a lesser goal? The foyer, fellowship halls, classrooms, office and the shell of the building can be any shape you want but the worship space should be designed for the sole purposes of teaching the Gospel and for a full worship experience. All other room shapes and treatments, regardless of the sound system design and equipment fall short in meeting the standard found in Solomon’s temple.
If you believe as I do that the Bible is sufficient, then it should be sufficient in the design on your next church sanctuary. Oh, didn’t anyone tell you? A room built to Solomon’s dimensions costs less to build, heat and cool and maintain. Solomon’s Temple is a fine example of “Nothing new under the sun.”
For the 400 plus churches that already have such an acoustical system, what further proof do you need that Solomon’s temple was real? If you want to take it a step further, since science cannot predict how this acoustical system works, a system that you have to apply in faith, does that constitute a miracle?
There are three key parts to what happens in church worship. There is the spoken word, there is collaborative/congregational singing, and there is performance singing. For a worship space to support these three events where speech is first, then congregational singing and performance singing, you need a specific design and dimensions to support these functions well. High-quality speech should not come at the expense of the music. Music should not come at the cost of speech. There is a balance, and part of that balance is to have enough ceiling height to support both speech and music in a contained space.
Unfortunately, churches these days are building lower and lower ceilings in their worship spaces. A person can assume that when so many churches have experienced only poor quality acoustics, many wonder what is the point of building a taller worship space.
When a church builds a low ceiling, it limits congregational singing and it makes you more dependent on technology, but guess what! The same things that limit congregational singing are what also limits the performance of the technology we affectionately call the sound systems. So, instead of getting 100% out of your high-quality, expensive sound system, you’re getting only 40 to 60% of the sound systems’ true performance abilities. It is actually cheaper to build higher than the added cost of un-needed audio technology to make up the difference. The chart below should clear the air as to the minimum height your next church should be. If you can afford to build higher, do it. Also, a taller worship space does not mean being stuck with longer reverb times. A higher ceiling means natural room reverberation can be adjustable and is tune-able. With a taller ceiling, you can change the frequency response of the whole room without needing a sound system or equalizer.
Church height is important for a worship space. One of the biggest parts of worship is singing. Congregational singing to be specific. When singing as a group, several elements are required for a good and healthy worship experience. There is chorusing, harmony, sound volume, or loudness of the singing and being able to hear yourself as well as the people around you. When all of these elements are in balance, the worship experience is like no other. The majority of people get a lot of satisfaction from the singing experience during worshiping in rooms that have ceiling heights that match the size of the seating capacity of the worship space. The above chart is the minimum of interior ceiling heights. If you want to build higher, you can as the singing experience gets even better.
High ceilings allow for better sound system performance with less expensive sound equipment. (A lot of pro audio contractors, installers, and equipment manufacturers don’t like hearing this.) Higher ceiling permits better gain before feedback and it becomes easier to isolate drums and floor monitors. The performance of the sound system is much better too when that is coupled with a good quality acoustical management system.
There are economic advantages too. The higher the ceiling, the cheaper it is to heat and cool when using a vertical displacement HVAC type system which is specifically designed for large gathering spaces for people. Such systems cost less to install, they use smaller HVAC components and cost about 30 to 40% less to operate annually. In addition, the cooling systems last 2 to 3 times longer before needing to be replaced. In a way, building higher cost less both in cost and in operation over time.
Another thing to consider. If building new, don’t build a flat ceiling that is parallel to the floor. (and it doesn’t count if you put in a sloping floor.) Many churches that are moving into commercial buildings are learning the hard way that flat ceilings limit the quality of live musical performances and congregational singing. Sure, there are acoustical panels that can slightly improve the room for amplified sound, but the cost doesn’t justify the returns. There is little that can help congregational singing even if you have the height. Vertical standing waves are harder to manage than horizontal standing waves. If you know what you are doing, horizontal standing waves can be controlled to create an outstanding room. It is part of the formula for that perfect worship space. Funny though, most concert musicians that perform in a church that I have fixed, they often make comments like, “I wish our concert hall sounded and performed as well.” That is almost like saying, “concert halls make for lousy worship space but worship spaces can perform better than a concert hall.”
Finally, there is the Biblical standard for church sound. For a 160 seat church as detailed in the Bible, the Biblical standard is the width of the room is to be 50% of the length and the height of the room should be 75% of the length. However, we now know that for anything over 45 feet high and less than 2000 seating, the extra height is not needed. It is the length to width ratio of 2:1 is key and a constant height of 45 feet or 13.7 meters. For those who don’t want long rooms, because of sound systems, we can use a length of width ratio of 2:1.7 or a room that is 100 x 70, and you must always use the room lengthways or you destroy congregational singing and speech.
God gave us the laws of physics for a reason. When we obey God, we reap the benefits. When we ignore God’s teaching, we will have our reward here on earth. The sanctuary of a church is a battlefield where the hearts, minds, and souls of people can be added or subtracted people from the Kingdom of God. The acoustics of a church plays an important part in either adding or subtracting people. The change is slow and often not noticed, but when you visit hundreds of churches that have their worship spaces upgraded to the standards of the Bible as best as possible, there has always been an increase years later, ( unless there have been leadership or church split issues.)
*Note* In most countries that have freedom of religion laws, the worship space portion of a church building has no roof heights limits regardless of local city building height restrictions.
**Note** The data is based on 1200 churches from around the world.
Churches use a lot of Cardboard Tubes in acoustical room fixes because they are very effective in getting the room performance they want and need. Cardboard Tube not only outperform all other acoustical products in churches but they are also the most affordable. There is nothing that can do what half-round tubes can do, even at 40 times the cost.
Ok then, what if you don’t like the look of cardboard tubes around your worship space. Here is an option some churches have been willing to spend a little extra for.
These look like standard 5 inch deep absorbing panels. They are not. These are Sono Tubes mounted in a wooden frame and covered with cloth.
The cloth was an added expense and it was worth it. The fire rated cloth is expensive and before covering the panels, you want to make sure the acoustical system is going to work and work it did. The church is very happy with the results and they are enjoying the room.
This is what the installation looked like before it was covered. The wooden frame has no effect on the performance of the half round tubes. The cloth only affects frequencies above 10,000 Hertz which means they have no effect on speech or music. In this installation, three sizes of tubes were used.
At the bottom is a huge video wall screen. On the wall are the Sono Tubes. Yes, the tubes will work behind a vinyl screen. If you notice the pattern of the diffusers on the wall. that pattern was needed to control lower mids and bass sound energy. This pattern was pretested in our test room.
Here is the finished installation of the video system. It takes three projectors for each screen. The center screen is a video wall.
Photos courtesy of Frederic Lachance of Northside Church in Coquitlam BC, 2017.
There are dozens of acoustical spreadsheets that come with the promise of a viable acoustical fix. Some sheets are for studios and some are for home theatres. There are also other spreadsheets for larger rooms. As rooms get larger, (as in Christian Churches and worship centers) those spreadsheets become less accurate. Sure, the better spreadsheets adds more variable to compensate for the limitations, but the limitations are still there. Furthermore, with all of the spreadsheets, you have to add an additional line to include a fudge factor. In some spreadsheets you need to add multiple fudge factor lines.
When a person tries to use an acoustical spreadsheet, they are only looking at one parameter of the rooms acoustics. You are only looking at “time.” The problem is, for churches, and I MEAN ALL ROOMS WHERE MORE THAN 150 PEOPLE GATHER TO WORSHIP – there are other parameters that are equally or more important than “time.” Acoustical problems always come in layers. The minimum number of layers of acoustical sound management in a worship space is 4 layers. As a worship space becomes larger, the more layers you have to attend to. “Time” becomes only a fraction of the real acoustical problems you are faced with. Obviously you can’t see them but you can measure them if you are trained to recognize when you hear them.
The problem with spreadsheets is that they are not looking issues such as standing waves – and every church – regardless of shape has standing waves (unless the space is acoustically managed in the first place which also means this article is not for you.) Spreadsheets are not looking at excessive noise from early and late reflections. They are not looking at bass buildup often found in the corners of a room. They are not looking at flutter echoes and full syllable echoes. These are all sound effects than can’t be dialed out with equalizers, delays, algorithms and the next miracle digital gadget or software. (Yet that is how most sound system designers try to deal with room acoustics.)
Regardless of a persons acoustical training, knowledge or experience, a spreadsheet cannot tell you when standing waves are masking flutter echoes. A spreadsheet cannot tell you when bass build up is masking a standing wave issue. A spreadsheet can’t tell you how much the early and later reflections are reducing music and speech intelligibility.
All that a spreadsheet can tell you is how much “time” it takes for a sound to decay in a room either as an average number. Some spreadsheets are much more detailed and they have been written as an attempt to calculate a room in octaves or by 1/3rd octaves. If it was only that easy. Measuring and calculating time is just a sliver of the acoustical signature of a space people worship in.
It takes a lot of training to learn Church acoustics. The same applies to Studio Acoustics, Recital Halls, Concert halls and lecture halls. All of these rooms have specific acoustical needs and they all require a unique set of skills to properly fix them.
What makes a church so complicated is in how a church is used. When a church is designed as a “church,” it becomes the most multipurpose space there is because of all the ways a worship space is used. When you say you want the worship space to be more “Multi-Purpose” or more flexible in it use, you are actually limiting what a basic worship space is supposed to be able to do.
At the end of the day, an acoustical spreadsheet is only a small snapshot into church acoustics. It can’t help with congregational singing, it can’t help with a noisy stage for a praise and worship team or choir and it can’t help with drum issues or speech intelligibility.
What often happens is with the spreadsheet, it will guide you to a solution that is based on absorption. When an acoustical fix is based around absorption, you wind up “killing” the room for all music – especially contemporary music and congregational singing – and the masking effects of the other acoustical issues get worse. Sure, the room sounds more tame than it was before, but the ability to understand speech is either no better than before or it has gotten worse. Before you know it, everyone gets in ear monitors and all of the members of the worship team have to sign an insurance liability waver stating that they will not sue the church for any future health problems with hearing loss. Seriously, is that the kind of acoustical fix you want?
That is what you get when you turn to an acoustical solution based only on spreadsheet calculations. To top it all off, the results are not much better when using computer simulation software programs. Simulation programs only show you the results at one frequency at a time. The computer generated image may be 3D but the patterns they show are only one frequency at a time – even when it is averaged out. To see large room acoustics in a simulation, you need to be able to see the results in 4D. Hologram can’t show you 4D images. That ability hasn’t been invented yet. You need to be able to see sound in 4 dimensions because all sounds are complex. Every sound made on earth is a combination of wave lengths that are generated at the same time. Some parts of a sound are measured in feet and some in inches. There is no way to visually see 100 Hertz, which is 11 ft long, and 4000 Hertz which is 3.5 inches long, at the same time in the same place yet in real life, that is what is happening with sound. We all take sound for granted but the complexity of sound is extensive.
But doesn’t sound follow the rules of fluid dynamic and other laws of physics? Of course it does, but only when you examine one frequency at a time and that frequency is never a pure tone. It is always complex. The only place you can measure and see a pure tone is in a machine like an oscilloscope and the moment you launch that sound into the air, it becomes complex. Just as sound is complex, so are the acoustical fixes for churches.
This is one way to test an acoustical solution before you recommend it to a church. Have your own testing facility. Whatever research is done in this room, it mathematical translates perfectly when it is scaled up into a larger space.
As a mantra, remember this: for all Christian churches, acoustical problems come in layers and whatever fix you choose, it has to address all of the layers in one step – which is possible if you want an affordable fix. There are many tools in the Acousticians Tool Box to fix a worship space. There are diffusers, resonators, traps and other devices that can address the needs of a church’s acoustics. There are also stand-alone electronic solutions that work in certain worship spaces. You need a lot of training to know which ones you need, what combinations you need and how to use them, and the last place you want to do your training and experimenting is on your customers.
If you are doing Church Acoustics or trying to fix your own church, don’t do it as an experiment and you know it will be an experiment the moment someone in your committee say something like, “lets try this as see what happens.” With those words, the acoustical solution is already doomed. Experts like myself can tell you the results the second you decide to try something and long before you apply the materials.
History shows that after a church spends it’s money on a thing such as acoustics, it will not be able to afford to fix any mistakes for decades. If the results makes the room worse or no better than before, then you are subjecting the church members to more sound abuse for years to come and we don’t want that. Spreadsheets don’t fix churches, good training and expert help does. (It’s also cheaper in the end to get expert help.)
Finally, consider this. The internet has become a treasure trove of knowledge. That knowledge is often presented as expert information offering sure fire solutions. I scan the internet often to see what is out there. There is a lot of great information and there are a lot of myths. When you collect all of that info, it only holds a fraction of the total knowledge about church acoustics. If we were to put a percentage on it, the internet holds about 2% of the total knowledge there is for church acoustics. The books hold another 8% of what there is to know about church acoustics. Church acoustics is so complicated that often, a seasoned acoustical expert like myself will have to fix one of a kind acoustical fixes often. Those unique fixes are often not shared because others may think that the one of a kind fix would be needed in every other church that has the same problem. You can have 10 churches with the same acoustical problem but in every one the fix has to be modified because of the other variables that have to be included. The rest of the knowledge about church acoustics is held by experts because the church community hasn’t taken ownership of that knowledge yet and there is no system in place for churches to share their experiences in order to avoid mistakes in the future. What is missing is the wisdomin knowing what acoustical fixes will enhance worship verse what acoustical fixes exchanges one set of problems for another set of problems. Problems which holds back and undermines the real worship experience the church leaders want you to participate in.
All church can have great acoustics and sound. If each church denomination or independent church were to set-up their own “Church Sound Standards” for the performance of their sound systems and worships space acoustics, churches will become the kind of places where people want to go. Once a standard is set, every church will have a Worship everyone can enjoy and appreciate.
Here is the first test you can do to know if you have good acoustics. Have two people over 40 years of age standing 40 feet apart in the sanctuary. Have one person on stage and the other anywhere in the audience. With the room empty, the sound system off, with the lights on and whatever mechanical system that are on during worship, have the two people start a conversation. The person in the audience area has to be understood by the person on stage equally as well as the person on stage to be understood by the person in the seating area. This is important as all churches are used to hear and communicate from both ends of the worship space.
If the two people can converse for 5 minutes understanding each other, chances are your church is in good shape. If hearing and understanding at 40 feet is not good, then move in closer until you do. When speech becomes clear, that is the free field distance of the room.
If you can converse at 40 feet well, try moving further apart. Keep moving apart until it become hard to understand or your up against the walls of the church. If your able to increase the distance for understanding speech, then as you get further apart, the better the room most likely is. This is step one.
The problem with spreadsheets is that they are not looking issues such as standing waves – and every church – regardless of shape has standing waves (unless the space is acoustically managed in the first place which also means this article is not for you.) Spreadsheets are not looking at excessive noise from early and late reflections. They are not looking at bass buildup often found in the corners of a room. They are not looking at flutter echoes and full syllable echoes. These are all sound effects than can’t be dialed out with equalizers, delays, algorithms and the next miracle digital gadget or software. (Yet that is how most sound system designers try to deal with room acoustics.)
That is what you get when you turn to an acoustical solution based only on spreadsheet calculations. To top it all off, the results are not much better when using computer simulation software programs. Simulation programs only show you the results at one frequency at a time. The computer generated image may be 3D but the patterns they show are only one frequency at a time – even when it is averaged out. To see large room acoustics in a simulation, you need to be able to see the results in 4D. Hologram can’t show you 4D images. That ability hasn’t been invented yet. You need to be able to see sound in 4 dimensions because all sounds are complex. Every sound made on earth is a combination of wave lengths that are generated at the same time. Some parts of a sound are measured in feet and some in inches. There is no way to visually see 100 Hertz, which is 11 ft long, and 4000 Hertz which is 3.5 inches long, at the same time in the same place yet in real life, that is what is happening with sound. We all take sound for granted but the complexity of sound is extensive.
Welcome to the world of Church Acoustics & Sound Systems 