Here is one of the many letters we get from churches worldwide. If you have a testimony you would like to share, send me an email, and I will post it here.
Hi Joseph,
Question: May I have permission to quote from ‘The Recipe’ section of your ‘DIY Church Acoustic Treatment’ document please? My mother and I have a website where we share resources for teaching children (www.kidsbiblesource.org), we also have pages with information for church teachers on various topics, and I am currently writing a page about classroom acoustics.
I also want to say thank you and God bless you, for the information that you have shared on your website. I teach the kids at my church, and I also run special kid’s programs at camps. After everyone struggled to hear our singer one year it occurred to me to use what I was learning from your website, and I haven’t looked back. Wherever I teach now I setup the room with acoustic columns, disguised as classroom decorations, and as you would know, the difference is amazing, the kids just think the place looks great, but some adults have commented about ‘what a good PA’ it is, everyone can hear, and the room is pleasant no matter how many noisy kids are in it. Even the noise from teens shouting and stomping on the ceiling above us one year was barely noticeable until we took down the decorations.
I am particularly thankful because I have significant hearing loss, but with my classroom acoustically treated I can usually hear ok and will be able to continue doing what I love to do. I have attached a photo in case you are interested.
What does the best sounding church for worship sound like?
Is it possible to have the best balance for speech, music and congregational singing?
Does the quality of the acoustics and sound system at your church honor God or Man?
The battle for a person’s soul is a constant war on many levels. The people involved are ministers, preachers, scholars, experts, archeologists, historians, prayer warriors, educators, and ordinary Christian people who provide different ways of bringing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The tools we have are Bibles, books, reading materials, colleges, universities, missions, donations, churches, multimedia, sound systems, and more.
Christians are taught in the sufficiency of scriptures. Many believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and never question it. Some of the knowledge in the Bible is still teaching us today. It is only now that we are learning how relevant it is for all Christians and Jews.
Since the beginning of when Jews, and later Christians, started to build larger spaces for teaching and worship, most projects would run into common problems. These problems have been like a plague for Synagogues and Churches alike. The solutions to those issues seem elusive or beyond reach and yet the remedies to most of those issues have always been in the Bible.
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.
The Bible has a lot to say about how a modern church should be designed. Solomon’s Temple was not just a house for God to dwell in, it was also meant to be a tool to help preach and spread the Gospel in the present.
After reading this article, please pass it on and make comments below.
This article is the most comprehensive study of King Solomon’s Temple I have ever written. If you believe John 1:3, then you know who really designed Solomon’s Temple. King David only penned the details of the new temple. King David told his son Solomon that it was the hand of God that guided his hand. What was so important for God to design the temple rather than letting a man design in with whatever came into his thought?
This article gives a stronger case for what the “Inspired Word of God” means.
Winning people to Christ is not a game or something given to chance. We need all the tools possible to have an impact on this world. Jesus is Lord, and if your church is dedicated to God, Jesus is Lord over your church building too.
Late last year, Kevin Young, freelance music and tech writer, professional musician, and composer ask to write up a profile article on JdB Sound Acoustics. After several interviews, he submitting the article to Church Sound Magazine which is part of Pro Sound Web. Pro Sound Web has published a number of my projects over the years and they are a great resource for churches for all things about church sound, lighting, and AV.
Back in 2006, I wrote this original article about how sharing microphones can pass on colds, flues and other illnesses. In 2009, the manufacturer, Point Source Audio asked to update the article to promote good microphone etiquette after the SARS in 2008. Now with Covid-19, this is another opportunity to educate people about how to better protect themselves from communicable infections. Since Jan 12, 2020, thousands of people have read or downloaded the article. I thought it was time to dust off the original post from 2006.
Here is a link to the original article. Personal Microphones as toothbrushes 2006
The footnotes are interesting. Here is an example. I can’t authenticate this clip, but it is a great story.
There was a story about Elvis when recording – all morning they did take after take, none sounded right. During lunch, someone pulled the windscreen off his special mic, rinsed it in the sink – to find a bunch of black junk coming out of it. Did that a few times, put it on a low-heat hair dryer, put it back on the mic. After lunch, Elvis “hit it” with just one take.
From Blake Engel, All Church Sound
*** UPDATE ***
I’ve mentioned on other posts about using plastic food wrap or balloons over microphone capsules and windscreens. This idea only works great if the plastic is removed between the uses of a microphone. Passing microphones around is not a good idea either. If you can get a second mic, the better.
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.
Welcome to the world of Church Acoustics 