Why you struggle with sound.

The reason you can’t get the sound you want is simple. You never bought it!

“Whata’yah mean! We’ve spent thousands on a sound system!” Nope. You own sound equipment, but not the sound you wanted.

Have you ever tried to bake a cake, make a pie, or some other great tasting dish your mom made? She told you exactly how much of this and that and what to do. Why didn’t yours turn out like hers?

Have you ever admired a great work of art like a painting? Do you think you could duplicate the image by buying the best paints, brushes, and canvas?

Do you wished you could play a piano but don’t know how? Do you think buying an $85,000 grand piano make you sound great by next Saturday?

Ever watched a craftsman or artist at work? Looks easy doesn’t it - until you try it.

Getting great sound is art and mastery- it has nothing to do with the equipment. Of course, good equipment is important, but the design is the key - not the name brand or price. It’s not what’s installed, it’s how it’s installed. The best equipment in the world installed incorrectly is worthless. Cheap stuff installed the right way can sound great.

“Well our contractor used a computer generated design”. Big whoop.

Been down to the tire store lately or had your car tuned up? I have yet to make one trip to the tire store and roll out with balanced tires the “computer” said was dead perfect. Neither can the “computer” figure out why your engine runs rough but the guy in the old building down the street listens to it for 2 minutes and knows exactly what to do. Amazing.

A computer will never take the place of the master craftsman. Too many businesses have attempted to replace the art and mastery of the craftsman with a computer program. The idea is to replace the expensive craftsman with a minimum wage worker behind a computer. This idea may be fine to catch the “simple” problems, but anything that is outside of the “normal” requires a human with years of experience.

In live sound, there is no “normal”. EVERY installation is different. The acoustics of your building and your style of ministry is completely different from every other church on the planet. There never will be a “cookie cutter” sound system design that can be ordered as a package or designed by a computer - including line arrays or the latest digital fad. Yes, a computer can save time with a basic design, but it’s the sound we want.

Getting “that sound” requires art, the ability to hear critically, and knowing what equipment to choose to match your acoustics to get that sound. A computer program attempts to mimic the sound created by a seasoned professional so the sound can be reproduced by people that don’t have the natural talent to do it in the first place. Think about it. How will a “system designer” that’s using this program know when the sound is right if he couldn’t hear it in the first place? “Our test equipment says it’s tuned” Yeah, right.

I use those tools too, but not as the centerpiece for my work. I know how to get the sound you want without computer programs just as a musician can tune a guitar without a digital tuner. The digital tuner may speed up the process but does not take the place of the natural talent of the guitarist to hear perfect pitch.

Most folks see sound equipment installed in a building but don’t understand that the equipment was chosen for a reason. They think the good sound they are hearing is the sole result of a brand or quality level of equipment. Not true. The good sound is a result of how that equipment couples sound to the acoustics in that space. Someone either on purpose or by sheer luck picked the right equipment that fits that acoustic space best. It’s the acoustics of the room that determines the equipment chosen - not a budget or name brand. People hear a great sounding system, itemize the equipment they saw there, and assume all they need to do is order the same thing and install it in their building. Dead wrong.

By the way good acoustics does not mean sound bouncing all over the place. No, it does not “carry the sound”. That is terrible acoustics. Musicians and organists love reverberation. It hides bad notes and smooths the sound. However, reverberation destroys speech clarity. There is a happy medium but sound engineers want rid of too much reverb.

Sometimes fixing the acoustic problems can be more expensive than the sound system. If you are building a new space seriously consider getting some help designing the space for good acoustics. It will be money well spent. Most architects I’ve worked with don’t have a clue about such things. A great looking space is not necessarily a great sounding space and the good looks can be ruined by having to solve acoustic problems later on.

Here is what you need in a speech reinforcement and music reproduction system:

1) Highest acoustic gain possible to give you enough headroom without running into feedback. This is crucial in order to have “hot” choir, pulpit, children choirs, and drama microphones. It’s not necessarily “better microphones” but a better speaker system design to match your acoustics. I’ll dispel a myth right here that hot mics have absolutely nothing to do with the mixer and how much “power” you have.

2) High articulation of the English language since most of what you do is speech related, not playing a sound track at 115 db. The English language is rich in consonant sounds and all of our engineering tools are based around this fact and how our ears work. The words “bean” and “being” can sound exactly alike with a poor sound system and terrible acoustics.

I see it all the time. A contractor or owner will play a sound track at full tilt to demonstrate “how good it sounds”. Is that how you run your service? No. Stick a lapel mic on a 4 year old. Let me see how loud you can turn it up before feedback and let me walk around the building and see if I can understand every word she says. Let the choir sing over your orchestra and let me see if I can understand every single word from where I’m sitting in the back pew. This is the REAL test. You aren’t interested in a big home stereo. What you want is crystal clear sound at every seat. You’re trying to communicate a message, not impress the neighbors.

3) Even coverage - this is related to number 2. Not only does the sound have to be articulate, but it has to be articulate at every seat. Of course, you could ask at the door “how’s your hearing” as your congregation arrives. If some say they have hearing problems, you can then point them to the seats where “the sound is best”. That’s silly of course. You want your guests to hear crystal clear sound where ever they decide to sit. That would be like buying a window air conditioner to cool your entire sanctuary - there’s only a few good “cool” seats in the hot summer. But people buy “sound systems” everyday that only covers a handful of seats with clear sound - it was the “best price” or a “name brand” the salesman said was best. Oh, you can hear it all right, but can you UNDERSTAND what was said? Hearing a sound and articulate sound are completely two different things. Or, does the sound blow you out of the front seats but sounds like you in a bath tub at the back seats? Even coverage - gotta have it.

4) Dynamic range - if you have a contemporary music ministry, you need enough dynamic range to reproduce drums, bass, and keyboards. The system can’t break up when you have 8 praise and worship singers backed with a 100 member choir as the Hammond B3 is groaning out that great crunchy sound. The system is designed for articulation first and then beefed up for concert level dynamics.

What you are looking for is a person that knows how to design a system to get great sound. How do we go about finding this mysterious critter?

From my real world experience they are few and far between. There are gobs of people installing sound equipment, but that’s not what you want. You want the sound. Forget all the salesman’s hype about price, brand, we do this or that . . . . noise, noise, noise. You want to talk to the person that’s actually going to pick the equipment that’s going into your system. That person must see and hear your space (if it’s existing of course), and find out how you do things to get a real sense of what you need. Sending out sales people on a fact finding mission in the hopes of selling something isn’t the same thing. If you hear the “we design by computer” words and we don’t need to send our “engineer” out, call someone else. These folks are “box hangers”. Install some equipment and run to the next one. Talking to sales people is fine but at some point the engineer needs to show up and evaluate the project for himself.

How do you know the “engineer” is the right one. Here’s a great way to find out.

Have the designer mix sound for you during a real service or choir practice! If that person cannot get the system to sound any better or get a good blend with what you have, he does not have the art of hearing and is designing systems strictly from formulas and theory. That won’t cut it. Sound is art with a technical component.

That doesn’t mean he can take your existing system and tune it to sound great. After all the reason he’s there is because you have some sort of sound problem. But you should be able to tell it got a little better. He should also be able to give you a crash course on articulation and demonstrate what it sounds like.

What is articulation? What is good sound?

There’s only one way to define it. You need to hear it. Once you hear what you’re looking for in a sound system, you will instantly be transformed to a smarter buyer and won’t be sucked into brands, price, and technical talk. You will have a real way to judge whether you bought the good sound or not and can nail the contractor to the wall because you will know what you are talking about.

How to take the fear out of buying a sound system

First, understand what you are really buying. You are not buying a list of sound equipment. You are not even buying “the best service” whatever that means. You are buying a type of sound.

Do you really care how the contractor plans to do it? No. Do you care about the name brand? No. Do you care about the price? It depends. Doesn’t it make sense to spend what it takes to get guaranteed results instead of getting “a bargain” that keeps you in pain every service? What good is it to have the best message, the best solo, the best choir to have it all ruined with poor sound?

What you want is crystal clear even sound without feedback problems. You want to hear every word of the choir, not just a mass roar. You want to hear the words of your kids and drama. You want dynamic and well balanced music. You want great recordings. That type of sound comes from a deliberate sound system design that fits the acoustics of your auditorium, not from a random list of equipment.

So how can a person that doesn’t know much about how to get that type of sound, look at a proposal and determine if it will give us the sound we want? You can’t. It’s impossible. It takes an ear for music , an engineering background founded in acoustics, a thorough knowledge of the audio industry, and years of experience. You don’t have that much time to figure it out. But, there is a short cut.

The key is understanding what you are looking for. In about a 60 minute seminar, you can hear an example of clear sound. You will learn what creates clear sound and how to spot it in a proposal. You will learn what causes feedback and that buying “better microphones” won’t solve the problem. You will find out that loud does not mean clear. Huge speakers and massive power has nothing to do with clear sound. You will learn a sound system can’t be bought with the “good, better, or best” mind set. There is only the minimum correct design that will fit your acoustics and application.

Near the end of the seminar, you will use your new knowledge to evaluate your existing system! The reasons for the problems you’ve been having, will become blatantly obvious. All you need to learn is what to listen for.

This short seminar will instantly transform how you think about a sound system and how to buy one. What you will learn in this seminar will save you thousands of dollars in the long run and years of frustration. Bring as many as you want, even other churches that might be interested. Bring your sound techs, music and choir directors. Ask questions. Get the answers you need.

Call 910-488-8844 (24 hrs) or email:seminar and include a short note about who to call. If you are planning a system purchase or upgrade in the future, this will be the best one hour investment you can make. There is no charge or obligation. Call or email today.

NOTE: This offer intended for a 100 mile radius of Fayetteville, NC

Ellis Guy
Cathedral Sound

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