Consuming Worship
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Worship Leader Wednesday: Special Edition
16 Jan2008
Welcome to Worship Leader Wednesday. I'm still in recovery mode from the holidays, and I've got four or five great interviews coming up soon, and I'm working toward an upcoming Worship Leader Wednesday Roundtable. This week's edition of Worship Leader Wednesday asks YOU the question. Come on fellow worship leaders, give us your answer to the question below.
In light of a few posts I've seen recently in my feed reader about volume, how do you deal with volume issues in your church? How loud is loud enough? How loud is too loud?
I'll go first. Here at New Hope, I've trained my FOH techs to use a digital decibel meter. They will sometimes walk the room during rehearsal/sound check with the meter and check levels, realizing that sound absorption from the congregation will change the room dynamics, but at least we start with a base line level.
During the service time, our techs leave the decibel meter at the edge of the sound booth and keep an eye on it, striving to keep our overall, sustained volume levels in the 80-90 dB range. Peaks above these levels are acceptable, but not sustained volume.
Personally, I would like it louder, but I think the majority of our congregation would be extremely uncomfortable with that level of volume. We're an old country church in transition to a city church, so pushing the volume level is one of those major shifts we've undergone in the time I've been around.
Alright, who's next?
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5 Responses to Worship Leader Wednesday: Special Edition
Chris Vacher
January 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
We've started dB-ing (is that word?
) our services. I'm not sure if we're A-weighted or C-weighted but we're using the kind you're supposed to use for a band sound rather than a vocal sound, I know that much.
We're running about 94dB and peaking about 98dB. That seems to be the right levels for us – fills the room nicely with sound and also allows people to hear themselves singing.
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mandy
January 16th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
well…. i'm at a church that is split between college students and geriatrics, so volume is one HECK of a sound problem.
our sanctuary is an A/V nightmare, but perfect for the spoken word! our drummer is scared to play loud bc he's been chastised one-too-many-times. and our pianist plays a beautiful grand piano that drowns out every-other-instrument-up-front.
and, did i mention we don't have monitors? yeah.
i don't currently have a solution. i just wish i understood how hearing aids worked. apparently, my voice does not cooperate with hearing aids. also, if i try to "tone it down" a bit, one of our elders (with a hearing problem) can't hear me.
what to do?!
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Jeff M. Miller
January 16th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Mandy,
If you've got any kind of budget money available, you might try some in-ear monitors. We've got the HearBack system, which is no where near as versatile as Avioms, but it is quite economical in comparison. Just make sure you have a way of getting the correct output from your sound board before purchase, but that is rarely a problem. You should be able to install a HearBack system for about the same as getting a full stage set-up of monitor wedges (maybe even less).
Then, if you've got the money on hand, you could also pick up one of the Williams systems for the hearing impaired. It's a little wireless pack that allows the person to plug their own headphone into and turn it as loud or as soft as they want. We've got one transmitting our complete mix.
These are things you can often find on ebay for a reasonable price in a reasonable condition.
I completely understand about the piano situation. Do you close the lid? Does the piano have a mic on it?
As for the drums, I completely understand. That's why we compromised and got an electric set. As a drummer, I know how most drummers feel about electric sets. But, it was a compromise well worth the bother, as our FOH techs can mix the drums into the overall sound without any problems, while our drummer can hit it as hard as he wants.
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klampert
January 16th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
We DB at around 87-91…got a mix of ages as well
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inWorship
January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
We are running 90-92. We actually are getting ready to purchase a smaart system so that we can monitor overall levels. Also, churches are starting to get targeted by some people who threaten to sue due to hearing loss. They claim the sund levels are too high. We had 2 in the state of Oregon this year have this happen.
Just for reference. OSHA standards for sound level dba is 90 for 8 hours. That is pretty high compared to what churches actually run. Most people are really comfortable in the 85-90db range. But remember that music spikes and we are most often measuring the spikes. When a system that can monitor the overall level is in place it can show church members that you are safe and also confirm OSHA's standards and keep you safe from any legal issues. A normal church service that has consistent spikes of 95 will most likely measure out around 75-80 overall sound dba. Way under OSHA's standards.
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