Hello my friends. As I go through my daily work with houses of worship, I am always looking for something meaningful and helpful to write about. My recent experiences with a couple of churches may appear to be unique individually, but I think the theme has much wider implications. Let’s talk about “discovering” the sound level that is acceptable to a particular house of worship.
As far as sound goes, one church’s whisper is another church’s roar. In all the years I have been involved with worship sound reinforcement, I don’t think I have ever experienced so much diversity with regard to volume. So, the obvious question is — what is the game plan for dialing in each individual house of worship so that the staff and the congregation are satisfied? Well, as you know, you can’t make everybody happy all of the time. So, why bother?
Finding A Happy Medium
The fact is there is always a happy medium in worship or secular sound. You just have to find it. Most recently, I have been taking my decibel meter to my church gigs because I have been two worship houses that have given me specific dB guidelines.
One is a Lutheran church where most of the service is spoken word and when the choir sings, they cannot exceed 90 dB. This church is a piece of cake, mainly because there are no musical instruments. The choir is totally acapella and not that loud or powerful on its own. I simply set my dB meter on the top of the mixer and adjust the volume levels to the exact requirement. Of course, without a dB meter, this would be very difficult to accomplish. My ears aren’t calibrated for decibel levels like they are for frequencies. Don’t get me wrong, I know loud and I know quiet, it’s the in-betweens that can elude me sometimes. Anyway, my other church is more of a challenge.
At this particular church, I have a full rock band with guitar, bass, drums, keys and about five singers. The pastor at this church really wants the band to rock. The only problem is that the congregation is a little older and mellower. So, as with the Lutheran church, I also have a 90 dB limit on my mix. Here we have some real challenges. The first is the guitar player. He is a total shredder and plays at the church as a hired gun. He is not a member of the congregation and is not a believer. Now, I don’t have a problem with the guy’s profile, but during the rehearsal before the service I was getting 100 dB of guitar off the deck. This was completely unacceptable, especially if grandmother decided to sit in the front row.
Two Extremes
The good news was the guitar player was cooperative and allowed me to put his amp in a closet just off the stage. I miked the amp and ran it back through the personal monitors that the band was using. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that everybody was on PMs except for two Hot Spots for the singers. Without the PMs, I don’t think I could have controlled the sound. Next I had to deal with the bass player. This guy happened to be a member of the congregation and believed he was called on by God to play bass. I guess you could say I was experiencing both extremes with regards to these two players.
At any rate, the bassist was great to work with and we just ended up going direct and bypassing any type of bass amp. Drums were my next challenge. The drummer was caged in plexiglass, and it was a good thing because he was a hard hitter. Every drum was miked, but I only used a little of the overheads and a touch of kick drum in the mix. Remember, I can’t go over 90 dB. The pastor played the keyboard and, of course, it was direct and rolled back though the PMs.
90 dB Rule
The only issue left was the singers. This was probably the biggest challenge of all. This churched has two powerful singers that can blow past 90 dB even at a dozen yards. There were also some average and one very quiet singer. It all boiled down to balancing the monitors, balancing the mains and balancing the egos. Just because I am working in a religious setting, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any ego issues. Thank God (and I mean that) they aren’t as common as in the secular music world. I actually had a talk with the singers about the 90 dB rule and how important their role was in helping me follow the rules, and at the same time, serve the congregation. One thing you will find in the worship biz is that serving the congregation is way up on the list of priorities.
Whether you are the minister, in the band or the guy making coffee, it is a common goal to serve your people. So, whenever I am having some difficulty communicating with a band or staff member, I will ask them what best serves the congregation. It gets us both on the same page every time.
Jumping Through Hoops
Let’s get back to my 90 dB service. The fact is, I couldn’t quite make it. Even with all the hoops I jumped through on my way there. But I did get it down to 92 dB. And the great thing was I had the decibel meter and nobody else was looking at it. In reality, I think the church elders got together and decided that the services were too loud and they just came up with 90 dB as an “acceptable” level for the band.
The truth is that it was substantially quieter than the previous week, and everybody in the congregation (there’s that word…) noticed it. The pastor received lots of praise from his followers for successfully controlling the sound without taking anything away from the sermon. He was looking good, which means I was looking good, and, of course, I will be working at that particular house of worship indefinitely.
Send Jamie a whisper or a roar at jrio@fohonline.com.
