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[Marina Tree]

First post  

I've been reading threads for some time now, and decided to post a beginner-type of question regarding our church's audio setup. Please, excuse my lousy english.

Our church was built in 1948 and acoustics wasn't on architects mind at the time - resulting in reverberation times of about 1-1.5 seconds It's approx. 400 seats. Currently, the band is situated directly in front of the right main speaker (that's right, there's nothing wrong with your sight), with 5-6 cardioids pointed away and singers facing the speakers. It seems that, theoretically, our PAG would be in close proximity to zero. However, we seemed to manage to do a mediocre performance up till now. I've been warming up as a church's (one and only) audio-tech-wannabe for a while, and I think it's time for some changes to take place.

Currently, we have two separate sound systems in our church- the first is for youth band - Behringer DDX3216, a 200W amp, and two Bell speakers rated accordingly - located on a stand about 2m (6 feet?) high. The other one is a custom-made Straesser (www.straesser.de) system for lecterns with a set of 8 column-style speaker pairs located on a "south side" of pillars and two amps/mixers - the 2037 and 2039 models. The latter is an ancient one, but quite effective, and I'm satisfied with it in general. Our first system is more of a problem, though.

Our feedback threshold is (as expected) extremely low. Also, levels needed for near feedback performing are sometimes considered too loud by some of our older members - when they're situated in the first couple of rows. And the question pops out...

Our intelligibility is very poor, high and mid's are being absorbed by folk's cloth, reverberation is killing us, we can't really turn the volume up - feedback & complaints, and the sound isn't loud enough at the "lower part" of our "auditorium" - church hall, the coverage is poor because of the pillars, etc. What would you do if you were in my place, and you knew you had a restricted budget (zero tolerance . Would you add some more speakers to the youth band system? What would you think of routing high and mid content of our band's performance to one of the Straesser system's inputs, with Bell speakers serving as low part or overall content deliverer? Or do you have in mind something else? Please, advise... Thanks.

[Guest]

Excellant first post. Why do folks aplolgize for 'poor english' and then go on to prove how bad OURS is! Your English is fine.

First more questions. How high are you ceilings? Are they flat, or peaked? Can you make another drawing that shows the elevations of the room?

[Handy Brent]

I only read the first sentance.  Actually, your room WAS made with the proper acoustics for voice back in the day, as that was all they needed to amplify acoustically.  If your room has an RTC of 1.5, then you have a great room IMO.  I suspect that it is likely more, but I am here and you are there....

There are several options for your rectangular room.  You should consult an acoustician in your area really, but if you have a really live room, and are worried about the appearance of a sound system, EAW and others make some pretty cool tools that allow you mount speakers on columns or on the side walls, and electronically stear the coverage.  Having speakers on the far left and right is no option.

[Marina Tree]

Thank you for your replies!

Mike, the ceilings are about 5 meters high on the left and right sides of the church, and in the middle (between the pillars/posts) it rises vertically to approx. 7-8 meters. They're flat (well, technically, there are a few ornaments that make them less flat, I guess ) If you need more, I could post a few photos.

Brent, you're right, church was indeed designed to acoustically enhance gregorian choral type of performance, which includes the Mass - well, that was before the second Vatican Council. To tell you the truth, I didn't measure RTC, but guessed it - perhaps it could be even longer. Let's say it's difficult to understand someone speaking at normal levels from a distance of, say, 10m.

I understand that a trained professional is the way to go - in the end we'll probably get a consultant. However, by that time, I'll have a MS in EE and probably will work for one of the consultant companies in our area (there ain't that many). Currently our funds are limited, because of investments in church's electrical wiring, pluming and heating - the first one since 1948, I guess. So I was wondering if routing of one of the DDX3216 aux outputs to the lectern system would make any difference, or perhaps adding, let's say another two speakers and mounting them on the wall somewhere... or move the band somewhere?

I'd like to show some of the ideas to our parish priest, and if there are none - I'd like to tell him that there are none remedies at the moment and that it's going to have to wait until sufficient funds are found.

Thanks again, guys, you're being very helpful.
I appreciate it.

[Guest]

I would start by moving things to make the best use of what you've got before plugging into the lectern system. I realize that you will likely need different loudspeakers,  but the band and FOH speakers need better placement.

Andf actually, plugging into the lectern system isn't really an option to me. Getting the right speakers in the right place is.

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