« You are using Bonetti's defense aginst me, eh? | Main | First day of Preschool »
Worship dB?One interesting thing about my church is that even though we usually have a large band playing the music, the overall sound level isn't too high. I think I remember one of our sound guys saying that they run it around 85 dB. From a purely musical perspective, I wish it was a little louder--sometimes the upbeat songs seem to be lacking a bit of punch. However, I think there are merits to keeping the volume down.
When I'm in the congregation, I can actually hear myself and the people around me singing. This creates a great feeling that we are worshiping together and actually contributing to the sound, rather than being drowned out by what is coming from the platform. Also, CFC is striving to encourage true multi-generational worship, and I think the sound level is a good compromise for the entire spectrum of age groups.
I'd love to hear from others--how loud is the sound in your church? Any arguments for running worship at concert levels?
Billy Chia says:
- September 6, 2007 10:42 PM
Andrew V says:
i'm glad that the tech team does not blast us :-) that is the main reason i do not attend many concerts -- i have to wear earplugs so what is the point? ~~ but i never really thought about the actual dB level and how important it is to making the service enjoyable. from one geek to another -- thanks.
- September 9, 2007 12:54 AM
WorshipCity says:
Hmm that's interesting, usually I hear the opposite "I can actually hear myself and the people around me singing and that makes me uncomfortable."
I think we run around 95dBs and if I remember correctly, that's on a C weighting slow. I'm always wanting a bit more like averaging 97 but for us 95 is the compromise.
As far as an argument for running at 'concert levels' I don't know about that but what I do say to our techs and one of the reasons I do want it loud is because of the style of our worship music. We tend to do modern new worship styles and you want to hear those loud! Certain styles of music lend themselves to coffee houses and diners and sound great. Others don't. If I were to hear Foo Fighters at a Jason's Deli, I'd be sick to my stomach, they need to be cranked and have my ears bleeding by the time Pretender is finished. To me, the same thing holds true for the style we're trying to convey on Sunday morning sometimes as well. Sometimes they need to be louder to fully "get" all that the song was intended for.
- September 10, 2007 12:11 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
Yeah Sarah and I were talking about this at the show last night. Sarah mentioned how she couldn't hear anyone else sing but me (I sing loud) and how she likes the low db level at CFC. 85 sounds about right.