The Use of Sound Effects in a House of Worship

The use of sound effects in Houses of Worship can mean many things. First, we need to determine what is a sound effect?

Sound effects can be broken down into 2 basic categories, dynamic effects and special effects.

Dynamic effects make fine adjustments to the original signal. These would be very familiar to most people as equalization or EQ, compression, limiting, gating, and other permutations of those same effects. Special Effects would be those of reverb, delay, echo, etc. These Special Effects usually add something that was not there originally.

In either case, you should use them as sparingly as possible. With today's audio equipment, good sound starts at the beginning source, and should be gently nudged to accomodate the peculiarities of the room. Since every room is different, there are no hard and fast rules. Rather, listen and use your ears. Does the signal sound natural? Can you understand the speaker? These should be your guidelines. The larger the room, the less reverb I would put on the worship leader since most large rooms have a long decay time anyway.

Sound for churches and all Houses of Worship present unique challenges. Many times there is a tug of war between the musicians and the spoken word, as these wonderful spaces designed to inspire, but not always be friendly to audio.

If you are in Central Florida (comprising the area around route I4 from Tampa to Daytona, and the counties of Orange, Osceola, Polk, Lake, Seminole, Volusia, Brevard, and Flagler) and in need of help? Then please send us a note, we'd love to get in touch with you. Proaudionet Consulting can provide all services to fix your audio problems. We specialize in coming in 'after-the-fact' and revising existing systems. Additionally, we can train your staff in how to properly maintain your system.

We hope to hear from you, and have a wonderful day!