[Dixielandjazz] Sound in Churches

[Scott Anthony]

Grace Cathedral in San Francisco has wonderful sound for the first 5-10 
pews, then it absolutely sucks, at least for OKOM. Every note comes back 6 
or 8 times. It's awful.

Scott Anthony

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: <santh at pacbell.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 12:41 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Sound in Churches


> "Bill Allen" <ballen at deltapathology.com> wrote
>
>> People designing large public buildings - such as churches - actually 
>> design
>> them PURPOSEFULLY to be "dead". They figure on deadening the building so 
>> you
>> can't hear money dropping in the offering plate, babies crying, coughing,
>> and just put a mike in front of everything you're SUPPOSED to hear. I've 
>> had
>> architechts look at me in disbelief when i tell them that the area around
>> the choir should be LIVE - lined with hard reflective surfaces, hard 
>> floor
>> as opposed to carpet, no drapery, etc. They wonder why i just don't get 
>> more
>> microphones.
>
>>From our band experience (we do a lot of Church Gigs) that seems to be 
>>true
> in the newer churches. We sometimes have to mike the band in them.
>
> But the older churches? Wow, most have great acoustics. In fact some are 
> too
> live and the sound is similar to that of playing in a bathroom.
>
> Like 300 year old,  Old Pine Street Church in Philly, beautiful acoustics,
> no need to mike the band.
>
> And St. Peter's in Rome? Many who visit it test the acoustics by 
> whispering
> a few words in one corner that a friend will hear 300 feet away in another
> corner. Worked for me in 1962 when my wife clearly heard a whispered "I 
> Love
> You" at the other end of the Basilica.
>
> I guess times have changed. There is so much ambient noise around us these
> days that amplification becomes more necessary. Larry's points about 
> Lincoln
> at Gettysburg are well taken.
>
> Too much ambient noise, roads, planes, etc. to speak without mikes today,
> even to a crowd of 200 people. And without those "repeaters" in Lincoln's
> audience, even with low ambient noise levels, given his speaking voice, I
> doubt that more than a couple of hundred people heard his speech directly
> from his lips.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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