One of the most commonly asked questions and controversial topics in churches is "how loud is too loud" for music in church worship settings. It is often the responsibility of the music or worship leaders to manage a sound technology group that provides the tools and operation of the events in a church. But many of those leaders are professional sound engineers. So what are they to do?
My best advice- get advice from a pro! One of those guys who is a pro is Jeff Dykhouse. I first got to know about Jeff on the liner notes of dozens of worship CDs. As a music reviewer, I ended up seeing Jeff's name constantly inserted under the assignment of "engineer" or "mixed by" on many well known worship projects. When I had appeared on a Vineyard CD in the early 90's (ya, I've been around that long), once again, I was not surprised to find Jeff's name on that. Folks over the years have told me about Jeff's work on recording projects, and also his work in local churches- helping to consult to make their sound systems work great.
But recently another friend pointed out that Jeff also has posted some really good articles on the proverbial church worship question "how loud is too loud". Jeff answers this question in three excellent articles that are worth a serious look. If you are a church, you use a sound system and you have this question come up often, there is no better a place I can recommend than having you first read and take to heart Jeff's concise answers in his three-part post. You can find them all here:
How Loud is Too Loud (Articles 1-3): http://bit.ly/10kkO5K
by Jeff Dykhouse
I trust that will help many as we all look to make the sound an asset in our worship facilities instead of a liability!
Worshiping with you!
Kim Gentes