Small Church Sound

I had a suggestion given to me to write about how loud is too loud for monitors. So here is the other side of the stage so to speak. In my opinion monitors are one of the hardest things to control. The sound engineer wants to keep them as low as possible so that the front of house mix is true for what the congregation is hearing and everyone on stage has another idea of how loud it should be. I know this probably never happens in your church, you know you have just turned on everything got all the levels set and the mix sounding good and then the guitar player wants to turn his amp up. Consequently, the next song and a half in practice results in the drummer playing louder, the bass player wanting himself turned up in the monitor, the keyboard player breaking one of the weighted keys because they have to play that hard to hear themself, and the singings asking for more vocal in their monitor. Of course, by the end of the song you’ve turned the mains all the way down because the monitors are so loud it’s killing the congregation. Ok, maybe it’s not quite that bad but you get the idea, and I’m sure it has happened to you in some form.

So how loud is too loud? Well, that it the million dollar question. From a purely technical standpoint I would fall back on what ear damage standards are for decibel levels. By the way OSHA has a great chart here that shows these levels. Basically though, if your stage volume or one particular monitor is over 92-95 db it’s probably causing some damage to the musicians. If this is happening I would suggest humbly talking to your worship pastor or pastor about having a meeting with the worship team about how to reduce stage volume for everyone’s benefit. Of course, everything in the first article is a valid reason for also reducing monitor volume. Among these one of the best reasons to lower stage volume is for clarity. Sometimes in small churches the musicians are too close to the monitor and the majority of the sound is hitting the musicians knees because of how close they are, so they want it turned up more so they can hear better. Unfortunately, everyone else on stage can hear that monitor better than the person using it. Additionally, pushing that much sound through a monitor can cause it to become muddy and distorted. At times it would be better to provide a basic clear mix and challenge the musician to focus on there sound in the midst of the context of the music.

At this point you are probably saying to yourself easier said than done. My response is – yep, but unless you can afford a nice drum cage, or a good set of electric drums, and in-ear monitors for everyone you are stuck with some stage volume. In-ear monitors do bring up one last partial solution to stage volume. Currently my church is using a combination of an Aviom Personal Monitor System and Shure Wireless Personal Monitor System . These are very good starter products, particularly the Shure system because you can buy just the pack and use it wired and later add the wireless transmitter. By incorporating in-ear monitors it is possible to lower stage volume. Adding in-ears can be done over time as well, so don’t think you have to go all or none with them. Every little bit counts.

Use the comments to tell me what you think, don’t forget to subscribe to comments to stay up-to-date with this article, and click on the RSS feed to have new articles from my website notify you…..thoughts?

Ha, you probably thought this was going to be some gear talk about a piece of gear with a weird set of ads in a magazine or something. Well, it’s not. Actually, I just wanted to write an explanation of the the ads on the left sidebar of the webpage here because I have had some questions about them.

The top left button is a link to musiciansfriend.com. It’s generally a good place to buy gear at the lowest price, particularly if you know what you want. I recommend it for churches who need to put their own system together in order to save on the cost of hiring someone to install it for them. I am an online affiliate so every time you click my link to their website and buy something I receive a small commission. If I have been helpful and you want to give back just buy yourself something by clicking through any of my links to their site.

The bottom right button is to an online store called partsexpress.com. This is a very consumer friendly electronics store that has parts for gear repair and speaker building if you are interested in do it yourself stuff. I am also an affiliate of partsexpress and clicking my links to them will also give me a small commission. More on them to come later.

The top right button is to dreamhost.com. This the company that I am hosting my website through. If you are interested in hosting a website for yourself by clicking on my button you can receive a discount of $87 off your first year. Yeah, I get a small commission there too. Just trying to be honest.

Finally, the bottom left button is a link to the current findingBethel CD. This is the band that I play bass for. If you want to have us to your church just go to findingBethel.com for booking information.

So, that’s the scoop, don’t forget to drop me an email at darin@smallchurchsound.com if you have a question.

Just thought I’d throw something out there today to keep the posts rolling. Last Friday I went with the findingBethel guys over to Quincy to see Remedy Drive in concert. By the way these guys put on a good show if you have the chance to see them do it, plus they are from Nebraska which is an added bonus (ok, maybe just for me). Anyway, as I was listening to the opening band a thought crossed my mind, how loud is too loud? Here’s where I’m coming from on this, the sound for the opening band was so loud and piercing that I started to get a headache. However, it did add to the rock concert effect and got everyone moving to the music. Still, after a few songs it was starting to not be fun. Amazingly, the sound really smoothed out for Remedy Drive which saved the evening.

Obviously, in a praise and worship setting at church we are not going for an all out rock concert, but there is some value to turning up the mix a little bit. As praise and worship becomes more intense in the expression of the congregation a little volume helps engage people even more in worship. But the question remains how loud is too loud? Well, I’ll give you a couple of ideas and easy reads to help you tell if you are too loud. The first easy read is people covering their ears. There used to be a guy in my church who would sit right in front of a speaker every Sunday, and he would come to me every Sunday and say the music was too loud. That is not what I am talking about, what I am saying is if there are several people throughout the congregation that are covering their ears it is probably too loud. The second read is the actual mix. If you have a good mix in practice and then turn it way up for the service and everything becomes muddy sounding, you’ve probably turned it up too loud. At high decibels it is hard for the human ear to make subtle distinctions in the different frequencies. Finally, if your head is hurting from the pressure or the lead vocal sounds like a drill, it’s probably too loud.

Here is a good rule of thumb to use. If you have a decibel meter it will help take more technical readings, but in general an orchestra plays at 80 decibels without audience participation. This is considered normal, comfortable music listening level. Since praise and worship has audience participation the level of music should rise so that people feel comfortable sing along. Our sound engineers generally try to bring the level up to between 87 and 92 decibels. It may not sound like much, but it is important to remember that an increase of 10 decibels is a perceived doubling of increased volume to the human ear. Our church does have a higher ceiling level and if your sanctuary is smaller and has a lower ceiling, you may need to turn it up a little more or down some depending on the number of people. At that point you can tweak it to your style of worship service.

So, how loud is too loud?

Sorry it took so long to get another post up. I have been very busy with some personal things like homework. Today I have a link up for my first gear review. The review is over a JBL Eon15 powered speaker. This speaker is great for travel, small portable systems, fellowship halls, or even for use as a floor wedge. Because it is powered there is no need for an amp. Take a look and enjoy!

Click the following links to see the JBL Eon15 Powered Cabinet and the matching JBL Eon518S 18″ Powered Subwoofer. Remember if you have any comments or questions, fill out the information and leave a comment I will approve it when I can. Happy mixing!

JBL EON15 G2 Powered Cabinet


JBL EON518S 500W 18″ Powered Subwoofer