Sound Sanctuary

Essential Rules Church Volunteers Need to Know

If you go to church regularly, you probably know The Ten Commandments. Even if you don’t know them all in order, you know they exist. With that in mind, I would like to introduce some audio commandments for you. Actually, the word, “commandment,” is a little presumptuous on my part. So I will simply call them “suggestions” or “rules.” The fact of the matter is, there is no one single thing in audio production that is really difficult to learn. And if we break down all the tasks individually, the entire process becomes simple and fun. Okay, let’s get on with it.

If you are on the AV team or involved with audio in your church, you should certainly know the location of the main speakers in your sanctuary. Are they stacked on the side of the platform (stage), mounted on the wall or suspended from some point in the ceiling? If your speakers are stacked on or below the platform, you will only have to find a location that works sonically for your church space. You can move and direct the speakers until they have the best sound and coverage for your particular room.

When we think of the ancient city of Jericho, we think about the Israelites marching around the walls for seven days playing their trumpets, and then the walls came tumbling down. However, historically speaking, besides the trumpets, the Israelites played many percussion instruments (drums) for those seven days while they were marching around the walls of Jericho.

One day I would like to do a historical research piece on the first church and preacher to use a wireless microphone. We know it started a long time ago, but who was first, and what obstacles did they encounter? I think that it would be a very interesting subject. That said, I won’t dive into that research project this month, but I will be writing about wireless mics, lavs and headsets and my experience with them over the years. So, here we go.

Let me begin by saying that 99 percent of the churches that I have I worked in were built before I was born. So what does this little bit of information have to do with this month’s Sound Sanctuary? Well, the fact is that most houses of worship were originally built without much concern for the acoustic environment inside the finished building. And until recently, many of these facilities built in this country (and the world for that matter) were constructed with little or no consideration as to how the spoken word and music will sound during a typical service.

I have been involved with house of worship audio, sound systems and performing for almost two decades now. The reason I am starting this month’s Sound Sanctuary with this statement is because when I began installing church sound systems and singing in choirs, “in-ear monitors” (IEMs) were rarely used in live performance, and hardly the day-to-day item in many of today’s concert systems.

Before we get into this month’s topic, I should say that audio techs are a relatively new breed. Not long ago, your average church, synagogue or temple did not have a sound system. As a child I went to a Catholic church. The priest would enter the pulpit (a small tower on the left side of the church three or four feet above the platform/altar), climb half a dozen steps and deliver his sermon from this location.

Probably the most overlooked issue in house of worship audio is the placement of the all-important microphone. This issue is mostly confined to instrument microphones and choir mics. With regards to speaking and individual singing mic placement, the issue here is usually the end user. However, we will discuss this later. For now, let’s turn our attention to instrument miking techniques. There are a few different ways to mic almost every instrument. So I am going to tell you my tried and true methods, whether it be drums, guitars, bass, brass, etc.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. A short time after the beginning, God needed a whole bunch of preachers to get the word out. Well, most of the preachers asked for podiums. And we all know, if you have a podium, you will probably need a podium mic. So, before we knew it, podium microphones had arrived. This is essentially an abbreviated version of how these things came about, but I think it’s fairly accurate.