Please indulge my inner curmudgeon for a moment. Let’s talk about an imaginary conversation in which a young worship director is talking with the tech director about the way the music sounds on Sunday mornings. He asks the tech director if there’s some kind of plug-in they can use to make the mix sound more clear and distinct. You see, he strolled out into the seats with his wireless bodypack and acoustic guitar while the band was playing and was not pleased with the soup-y quality of the sound in the room… and reported to the tech director that it sounded like the Grand Canyon. “I saw a post the other day on BookFace talking about a “de-reverberer” plug-in that takes the reverb out and makes the sound real crisp and clean and clear,” he said. “Do we have that plug-in? Can we get it?” The tech director looks at the worship director like he has three heads and says, “Ummm… I don’t think it works that way.”
The worship director isn’t hearing him. “We might have to give up one of the eight processors on the stereo bus — maybe one of the MegaMulti-Band Compressors or the Magic Dynamic SuperParametric Automatic Equalizers or the Super Sound Widerizer or the Sooper Dooper Tube/Tape/Transistor Saturatorer,” says the worship director. The tech director shakes his head and ambles off toward the coffee machine.
Back to Earth
This stylized account is fictional and hyperbolic, but it is only slightly exaggerated. As a result of modern marketing and an increasingly saturated and crowded marketplace, developers of software (and hardware) are making increasingly bold claims about what their products are capable of doing, and one of the effects is that gullible young Turks are led astray — buying into the idea that every potential audio challenge or struggle can be resolved with a plug-in. “Take Your Mixes to the NEXT LEVEL!” scream the advertisements, and the youngsters we entrust with running our operation rev up the credit card to purchase the new magic snake oil. And lest I come across as a Luddite, I openly concede that there are some amazing new products available today — I use them in both live sound and studio domains. But it doesn’t take a whole lot of critical thinking to realize that computer code cannot overcome the laws of physics in an acoustical space. Maybe someday… but not just yet. So we must consider the acoustical properties of the space in which we hold our services. At least until the Mega Plug-in Corporation introduces the Super Clarity Magic De-Slapifier plug-in to get rid of the echo coming from that hard, flat wall in the back of the sanctuary.
I will now put aside my curmudgeonly hyperbole and address the primary topic of this article: Should we deal with our acoustical challenges in-house, or should we hire in experts? The very first step is to determine what the actual challenges are. It won’t do to just stand in the middle of the room and guess at why the mix sounds muddy and sloppy. We need to determine the shortcomings in the most scientific way possible. In fact, we need to determine whether this process itself will be executed by our own folks or by hired professionals.
To be fair, there are some great technologies available today to show us how energy is being dispersed by our loudspeakers, and we can get some pretty precise measurements with laser-based devices and all, but I would respectfully submit that most churches simply cannot compete with professional acoustical firms when it comes to scientifically determining the challenges posed by acoustical spaces. That said, not all churches will have the budget necessary to bring in the pros, so they must either ignore the problem or go it alone and do their best at determining how to improve the acoustics of their sanctuary. With any luck, they may have a parishioner who knows a thing or two about this stuff (or maybe the pastor’s wife has a cousin who does). Either way, this crucial stage of the process can’t just be left to luck — it’s absolutely critical to have a solid handle on what the problems are before we try to solve them.
The Next Step
Once we figure out why our mix sounds less than awesome, we need to figure out what can be done to fix it. Since time immemorial, the typical solution for a substantial proportion of acoustical struggles is to corral reflections. If the sound from our speakers bounces all around the room, it turns into cacophonous soup. If we can stop that sound from bouncing all around, we can make it sound clearer. A first step is looking at the speakers are pointed, and a minor change there can sometimes make a difference. Invariably, we will probably also need to deploy devices that absorb that sound and prevent it from reflecting to begin with. Or we might deploy devices that scatter the reflection rather than stopping it altogether. Either way, we need to determine what combination of these devices will increase the clarity and quality of our sound.
Again, professionals are going to win this competition, because they possess the gear that’s necessary to precisely measure the space and its acoustical properties, and they also possess the know-how to determine what can be done to improve it. Do we put absorptive panels on these walls? Should we position a bass trap above the front of house mix position? Should we slap some diffusers on the wall behind the platform? Simply throwing solutions at the problem and hoping (praying?) we’ve guessed correctly can be a financially risky proposition.
Fortunately, in the modern age, we have access to information via the internet that can at least point us in the right direction, so even small churches with virtually no budget can get decent measurements and choose solutions that are mostly on-track and will likely make at least some improvement. Indeed, the pros will almost always do it better, but at what cost? This question gets at the heart of what is probably the primary consideration for churches that want to improve the acoustics of their spaces: budget. If a church has piles of money, they can simply hire in the top experts to measure, plan and execute, arriving at a measurable improvement in the acoustics. Unfortunately, “piles of money” are not always available, and in fact, the vast majority of churches have small piles of money at best, and persuading those who control the budget that some of that money should be spent to improve acoustics can be a pretty tall order. Comparatively, it’s easier to sell the budget-keepers on sexy items that are big, noticeable and flashy. As audio professionals, we recognize the benefits of better acoustics, but that’s a harder sell. As a result, we are likely to be forced to manage with a less-than-adequate budget. This is our age-old challenge.
So we do the heavy lifting of researching the best and most efficient ways to make it happen. We do the best measurement we can and we reach conclusions about what kind of solutions will resolve the problems. We gather a group of volunteers from the church and build absorptive panels and/or bass traps and/or diffusers on a Saturday, fueling the process with pizza and coffee. Then on the following Saturday, we bring our crew back to deploy the panels, clambering up and down ladders, or maybe renting a scissor lift to help. While this mode of operation may not achieve the same success as hiring in the experts, it may still offer noticeable improvements. And the term “noticeable” is important here. If we were to hire experts, we would want to ensure that we would get a sufficient return on our investment, so we would want to know, in advance, what we should expect. If we keep the process in-house, there’s almost certainly more grace extended… folks will be happy if we can make it sound at least a little better, particularly if we saved a lot of money by going DIY. And there’s also the nice side-benefit of an opportunity for fellowship and tithing via labor if we do it ourselves.
At the end of the day, it almost certainly comes down to budget. Yes, the pros can do it better, but their services may simply be beyond our financial capabilities. It’s nice if money is no object, but if it is an issue, it’s not impossible for churches to make substantial improvements in the quality of the acoustics in their spaces.
John McJunkin is the chief engineer and staff producer in the studio at Grand Canyon University.
