What costs more? Or, what will give you the most bang for the buck? Did you know that for less than the cost of a fully enclosed drum booth, you can fix all of the acoustical issues of a typical sanctuary and not need a drum booth?
Here is a typical drum booth churches are buying. This booth retails for $4,300.00 and is often on sale for $3,000.00 plus shipping.
Here are all of the sound problems the drum booth solved. Keeps the drums out of the mix, and the people in the front of the church have less noise from the drum kit. The downside to all of this is that often, the drummer plays louder, which leads to many getting tennis elbow. Plus, hearing damage often occurs. There is one extra cost to include. Often drummers need headsets or floor monitors to hear everyone else on stage. What is often overlooked is that churches should have the drummer sign a liability waiver that the drummer will not sue the church for premature hearing loss and permanent damage to their arms due to tennis elbow. Drummers often have to play louder in order to hear themselves inside a drum booth or shield.
Here is an example of a modest church that decided to fix the worship space instead of getting a drum shield or booth. The material costs, including the paint, were $1,000.00. Three people over 3 Saturdays completed the installation. If you look carefully at the photo below, six months later, there is no drum booth around the drummer. They don’t need one anymore.
The following is a list of the planned sound issues solved:
No more standing waves
No more deadspots or hotspots
Eliminate flutter echoes often heard off the back walls on stage.
No more excessive bass
Bonus fixes included and no extra cost:
Better speech intelligibility
Increases the signal-to-noise ratio to 21dB throughout the room
Most of the floor monitor spill was gone
Less sound system distortion
No more bass distortion
Equalized the room to remove excess energy at 400 Hertz -20dB
Went from 18 inches to 38 inches of before feedback,
The room is +/- 1.5dB throughout the room
Makes the room easier for the musicians to perform
Improved sound for people with hearing aids
Before, about 15% of the congregation was singing, now it’s around 60% after 4 months
The sound team is having an easier time mixing.
No drum shield of any kind
Drummers are playing quieter without being asked to.
The drummer can hear everyone on stage with minimum floor monitor support
The pastor is less fatigued after preaching
No more sound complaints if the sound is too loud
The sound system sounds so much better
The bass from the sound system is much more dynamic
The bass from the bass guitar is cleaner and not overpowering any of the other instruments
These are all of the comments various church members, musicians, and the sound team shared after the first 4 months of the acoustical changes. All they were hoping for was less bass drowning out everyone on stage, eliminating hotspots and deadspots in the audience area and on stage, and stopping the loud reflections off the back wall affecting the musicians and the pastor when preaching. The diffusers gave them 23 improvements instead of just three of them. No other custom or “off the shelf” acoustical system can do all of that in one step unless you have unlimited cash at 30 times the cost.
Drum Shield or Fixing a worship space. For the cost of a drum booth, you can fix up a church seating to 800 with some sweat equity and not need a drum booth and all the supporting technology.
Diffusers are amazing tools when used properly in a church. They solve a variety of problems in one step. Nothing performs better.
One question that is often asked, can you turn the diffusers sideways? This is a great question, and the answer is based on our anatomy. As humans, our ears are on the side of our heads. This means we get our sound information for direction and clarity of speech on the horizontal plane or side to side. The time difference between our ears give us directional info to identify where a sound is coming from, and for speech, it helps us to focus on someone talking to us.
For diffusers to work correctly and to solve multiple problems in one step, their orientation is critical. When applied vertically, the diffusers can solve between 10 – 29 acoustical issues in one step. No other acoustical system can do this.
The problems solved or reduced are:
standing waves
deadspots
hotspots
eliminate echoes
eliminate flutter echoes
bass build-up,
speech intelligibility,
increases the signal to noise ratio up to 25dB throughout the room
eliminate or less floor monitor spill,
less sound system distortion
less bass distortion
helps to equalize the bass and mid frequencies
gain before feedback,
even distribution of sound,
elimination of delayed speakers in most cases,
better stereo imaging for stereo sounds (when the right equipment is used)
higher attention span,
makes the room easier for the musicians to perform
improved sound for people with hearing aids
better congregational singing
easier for the sound-person to get an excellent mix
it can reduce or eliminate the need for drum shields or both
makes the room less fatiguing for the minister to preach
fewer to no complaints if the sound system is louder
improves the sonic quality of the sound system
can add up to an octave of clear bass from the sound system
better bass from musical instruments both acoustic and amplified
it helps to make the room more relaxing to hear speech and music.
lowers the sound levels from HVAC systems
If your church has a pipe organ, you will want to know this. One of the most interesting characteristics we have learned with using this method is that for some churches that want to maintain a longer reverberation time, plus have all of the benefits of better speech quality, the half-round tubes can increase speech intelligibility without changing the reverberation time. No other acoustical system can do that. For churches that have a pipe or electronic organ and want better speech quality, this method allows a church to balance the need for music and speech.
When diffusers are installed horizontally, the list of benefits is much shorter.
standing waves,
bass build-up,
Helps to equalize the bass and mid frequencies
It can add up to an octave of clear bass from the sound system and musical instruments.
Can only reduce echoes, not eliminate them
There is more to these differences. Because we have ears on the sides of our heads, the rate of control is exponential when the diffusers are mounted vertically. One of the principals of how these diffusers work is by phase cancellation, which is the same technique as in noise-canceling headsets. The more random the sounds are scattered, the more the overall energy is canceled from the physics principle of phase cancellation. As a result, when mounted vertically, the diffusers can get up to 40dB of energy reductions or absorption by air friction. When you mount the diffusers horizontally, you will only get about 10dB of the overall reduction.
The reason horizontally mounted tubes are less effective is because you are creating large reflective surfaces on the horizontal plane that reflects enough energy back into the room, which it is adding noise back to the listener that in turn, reduces the signal to noise ratio. This cancels almost all of the benefits of using half round diffusers horizontally.
Here is a simple experiment you can do yourself. Find a round container that is at least 7 to 8 inches round. You can every use a large cooking pot, planter, or roll up some cardboard. Now say a bunch of words into the side of the container vertically. After talking for about 15 seconds, turn the container sideways, and talk for another 15 seconds.
What just happened? Like most people, they notice that when the container was horizontal or sideways, there is a distinct reflection. When you turn the container vertically, the reflection goes away.
This simple experiment demonstrates how powerful the half-round shape is. In the vertical position, when the half rounds are placed on a wall in groups, you can adjust the spacing between the tubes to determine how much reflection you want, plus shape and equalize the sound at the same time. This is a compelling way to manage church sound once you understand how effective and simple this system works.
Just as a reminder, for all churches, you have to have a balance between absorption and reflection. The half-round tubes are not always a one and done solution. It has to be part of an integrated system. Typically, for most churches, if you have carpeted floors and padded seating, that is often all the absorption needed. If your church doesn’t have carpet and padded seating, then you will have to add enough absorption to the walls to match what would be on the floor. That is a narrow window to get it just right.
For churches that play their music loud, some people wait in the foyer until the sermon starts or they wear hearing protection during the music portion of the worship service. With the half round system, it allows the sound system to perform 10 to 20dB louder with fewer people needing hearing protection. People turn to hearing protection when there is too much distortion in the sound. A distorted sound is irritating and painful to many. People turn to hearing protection, even when the sound levels are well below 85dBa. When a room is diffused properly with half rounds, it reduces or eliminates bass and mid-range distortion. With distortion out of the way, the sound at 85dBa becomes pleasant and easy to listen to. That pleasantness remains constant over 100dBc. Consider this – in a church with this kind of acoustical system with the right room shape and height, it is common for un-amplified congregational singing to be around 100dBc. When that happens almost no one complains. Why? Because there is no distortion. Half-round diffusers prevent distortion. This transforms any worship space into a music-friendly space at any sound level.
Church acoustics and amplified sound play a significant roll in the health of a church. When sound is good, it helps to grow the congregation. When sound is bad, it gets in the way of providing a clear message, that leads to less attendance which means fewer people tithing. In the end, there is nothing more important than preaching the Gospel in the best clarity possible.
To ultimately answer the question of Aesthetics vs performance, the smart answer is this. When an acoustical system works, people don’t mind how it looks. If anything, they grow to like it. When other acoustical systems are used, they often fall short on the expected and promised performance. As a result, those systems become more like wall furniture and in some cases, artwork. This drives up the cost of those systems. Here is the truth most experts and salespeople will never share or admit. To get the equivalent performance of the half-round tubes as a Do It Yourself project compared to ready-made products, the cost difference is 35 to 1. A church that fixes their acoustics with cardboard tubes as a DIY including paint and hardware for a 400 seat church may spend $2,000.00 installed. A ready-made system of equal performance will cost a minimum of 75,000.00 installed. That is equal to fixing 35 churches of the same size. Even if the same church buys custom made half-round diffusers, they may spend $20,000. When compared to other acoustical system costs, that is enough money to fix 3 churches.
There is something to be said about how people react to anything put on the walls. When people see cloth-covered panels, there is an expectation of good sound. When that doesn’t happen, people often resign to the notion that the problem is too complicated and too expensive to be properly fixed or that the problem is impossible to fix. Most people just put up with the problem and accept it as normal and don’t bother with complaining. That is a lie created by bad information and myths that keep churches from getting the sound they deserve. Sound excellence is a necessity, not an option.
When an acoustical system works, people don’t mind how it looks. When it doesn’t work as promised, it has to look amazing. Do you want a church that looks good and has fewer people attending or a church that is full all the time regardless of how it looks?
Is the performance of your worship space a priority? Is the message always crystal clear in every seating position, and over 60% of the congregation is singing all the time? If you say no to either or both questions, and you want your church to sound right for speech and music, the biggest obstacle is often the acoustics. The second is money. The third is aesthetics.
Fix the room! How? Follow what the Bible says, and you will not be disappointed. After all, it is God’s plan, not man’s idea. Do you think that the results will be less than perfect if you follow His plan completely? Isn’t the Bible the Living Bible? Since when did the Bible stop teaching us new things about science? Check out Solomon’s Temple, and the answers are there. They always have been. It’s just taken a while to join the dots.
But it costs too much! Oh, you mean the cost of a few floor monitors or a couple of wireless microphones considered too much? That is often the cost of the Bible’s way of fixing the acoustics or about $3.50USD per seat for a 300 seat church. (Not including the price for the knowledge of knowing what to do.) Replacing a mixer costs about $15.00-21.00 per seat. Replacing pews for chairs cost about $75.00 per seat. Buying 10 Shure SM58 mics with cables and mic stands – costs about $1,500.00. Fixing the acoustics of a church is cheaper than you think.
If the look of any acoustical treatment is a concern, ask yourself this. Are you there to worship God or the building? Fixing the acoustics is like saying you are more interested in hearing what God has to say through your minister. Putting up with acoustical problems, poor quality congregational singing, and accepting a sound system with limited performance is like saying the building is more important than the message and having fellowship with other believers.
It all comes down to priorities. The primary purpose of any building that is a dedicated House of God is the preaching of the Gospel. A place where the Gospel message can be spoken without distortion or interface. That includes making the room behave as God would want us to have it. The second priority is the breaking of bread and drinking of wine in remembrance of what Jesus did for all of us. The worship space has to support this event as often as each church chooses to remember. The next priority is congregational singing. There isn’t any other experience that can replace the joy and excitement of a room where more than 75% of the audience is singing. Songs that tell stories of Jesus, his atonement of our sins, and of people who follow Jesus are powerful in bringing people together. It takes the same quality of acoustics to hear clear speech as well as great congregational singing. These are the things that matter when you are a part of the Kingdom of God.
While I do have a business about church acoustics and sound, there is no possible way for one person or one company to fix all of the churches out there that need help. By making this public, it means that no one can patent it and force churches to pay a license fee. It means that no one can control it and inflate the cost of fixing existing and new churches. Churches should use the Bible’s methods with confidence, to apply in faith what God teaches, even without expert help. When churches take such a leap of faith, in most cases, the results are outstanding.
This information is being shared because I care more about winning people for Christ through better sound than creating a business empire. By revealing what the Bible teaches, by showing that science backs it up, that it is affordable for every church to have excellent acoustics, this is all part of the Great Commission. If more people with a passion and skills like mine, were to apply what the Bible teaches about sound, we could make a difference. Mat-7:15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (KJV) If you have the chance, read the rest of what Jesus said in Mathews 7:15-20. Don’t trust me. Trust the Bible.
Just another article on the ever increasing sound levels in church. Is it good or bad for the church community? When a congregation can singing at 105dB, are they damaging their hearing even though they are singing acapella? Click here and find out!
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