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Review

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Doug Jones - Sound of WorshipBy dBThis book is great; I read it almost every night. It will be the goto book for every church design I do in the future. The most valuable info about what expectations need to be considered found nowhere else.Doug Jones is an expert in the field of Acoustics and is to be trusted for advice on this subject.Dan BellestriColumbia College Chicago; grad Audio Arts Acoustics11 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Primarily a book for acoustic consultants who want to review how to work with Christian churches in the United States.By mhnstrAs an acoustic engineer who researches and works in the areas of building and architectural acoustics; I was happy to receive a copy of Sounds of Worship by Douglas Jones through the Vine program to read what the author had to say about church acoustics. The rating that I gave to this book was due to my expectations for the book. The title of the book and the product description on advertise that this is a handbook for acoustics and sound system design for the church. The back cover of the book describes the book as "a must read for acoustical engineers; sound system designers and architects who wish to work with the church. It is also a valuable resource for church building committees considering new or expanded facilities." Therefore; I expected the book to offer technical advice for the acoustic design of worship spaces and the implementation of sound systems in worship spaces.While there is technical advice in the book; it is very basic and although a very good review for the acoustic consultant; it is not enough for someone to actually improve the acoustics of a worship space. The book is meant as guide to working with different congregations and the differences in worship practices and spaces that must be taken into account by an acoustic consultant. The heavy emphasis of the book is on the historical perspective of the church and this is limited exclusively to the Christian churches found in the United States. Note that the exclusive emphasis on Christian churches in the United States is made by the author.Although the author does not make this distinction; I found that Sound of Worship is divided into two parts. The two parts could actually be stand alone books. The first 18 chapters (198 pages) are dedicated to the history of the Christian church and explanations of the four worship styles (Celebratory; Evangelical; Experimental and Community) which the author says will characterize the majority of Christian churches in the United States. The last 4 chapters (75 pages or about only 25% of the book) are dedicated to the elements of sound systems; acoustic measurements; noise isolation and speech intelligibility.The premise behind the lengthy history of the Christian church is that if acoustic consultants understand the history of the worship style they are working with; they will be able to better understand what aspects of the worship service and the worship space are important to the congregation. Therefore; by being able to assign one of the four worship styles to a church; the consultant will then be able to target the acoustic needs of that particular church.Although I agree with the author about the need for a consultant to understand and to respect the sacredness of the service and the space (for example; the congregation should never be referred to as an audience and the service should never be referred to as a performance); I struggled with the need to dedicate so much of the book to the history; much of which is not relevant to the acoustic needs of a congregation. For example; the pacifist nature of the Community style is emphasized in chapter 16 which is certainly interesting; but not necessarily relevant to the acoustics. I also found the description of the history of the church to be lacking in many regards. The references for the history include websites such as Wikipedia and Geocities which are neither scholarly nor always reliable. Geocities (in English) has not existed since 2009. Books of the Bible are referenced but the inclusion of chapter and verse is not consistent. The author notes that the history of the Christian church is written from a Roman Catholic perspective and the history of church events such as the split between East and West and the Reformation are written from this perspective.The organization of the chapters explaining the history of the Christian church are interspersed with chapters explaining the worship of the different styles. However; I found the order of the chapters to be illogical. For example; chapter 8 describes the Evangelical style but the history of the Reformation is not presented until chapter 9. Chapter 12 then explains the acoustic considerations for the Evangelical style. To me; it would have made more sense to introduce the history; then the particulars about the worship style and the acoustic needs. The chapters about the acoustic needs include technical terms which are not explained until the later chapters of the book. The expectation that the reader knows what the technical terms mean is reasonable if the reader is an acoustic consultant; but it could be a problem for someone from the church building committee; for example.All of the chapters about the acoustics of the four styles include case studies. In theory this would be a great idea for showing how to address the needs of the different styles. Unfortunately; the case studies were not as informative as one would hope based on the authors experience in the field. The existing problem with the acoustics is stated and the solution is presented without much detail about why certain loudspeakers were chosen or why the loudspeakers were placed where they were.The author acknowledges in the introduction that not all churches will fall into one of the styles and some churches will fall into several of the styles. Since the four styles can not be applied to all churches fitting the acoustics of a church based only on the four styles may be problematic. Furthermore; even churches of the same denomination can differ in the format of the worship service. For example; even Roman Catholic churches with the same basic service may have different masses with one featuring very traditional services (maybe even in Latin) with organ music and other one feature more modern music and more emphasis on the community joining the singing. I have found that it is much better to ask your clients what is important to them rather than to assume you know the answer based on trying to fit the clients church into one of four categories.Although the first part of the book was for acoustic consultants; the second part about acoustics was at times too basic to be more than a review for an acoustic consultant and often more geared towards church building committees to explain the basics of the acoustic issues that they may be facing.The chapter about the elements of the sound system is where I think the background of the author shows through. The elements of the sound system are well described; but even here the discussion is limited. For example; the author writes that fundamental ideas such as why loudspeakers should be placed near the true source are outside the scope of the chapter.The chapter about the isolation of noise cites the use of specific; brand name products to improve the sound insulation of walls instead of explaining how improvements can be made with generic materials. The chapter does have some good examples to illustrate points and I wish that the author had not saved such good examples for the last chapter of the book.Oddly enough; the last chapter of the book suddenly ends with a list of standards. I found it disappointing that the author had not written a conclusion to tie the different themes of the book together.Overall; the book was an interesting read for the Christian history and the author has made a good effort to summarize a huge amount of information; but more authoritative and complete books on the subject are available. The book does offer some good tips for acoustic consultants who are interested in working on church acoustics; but the tips are buried in the chapters about the church history. The first 19 chapters of the book could have been edited down to a few chapters to share the experiences of the author with working with churches which would have been more helpful for the acoustic consultant.Due to the problems that I have mentioned in this review; I would only recommend this book to acoustic consultants or others who want a basic introduction about working with churches.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Seems to be intended for a sound consultant wanting to branch into church soundBy John H. HendersonFirst; I should introduce where Im coming from. I have a PhD in electrical engineering with a specialization in electromagnetics; a field whose principles are similar to sound propagation. I have been on the light and sound committees at several churches since I was in high school. I also had one graduate level class in Audio. My previous church had a horrendous sound system despite allegedly having hired top sound consultants over the years. My hope was that I could learn about sound propagation and sound system design so I could be a help; so I was interested when I was offered Sound of Worship by the Vine program.If youre in my situation; then this book is probably not for you. In fact; the author says; somewhat condescendingly; "It has been noted that churches often go through two sound systems before finding something that works. The first sound system may have been installed when the building was built by the lowest bidder; or for churches built before sound systems were available; the first system was installed before sound systems design was any sort of discipline....The next sound system many churches go through is one designed by well-meaning members of the congregation who may have some experience in sound or electronics; but often lack the training or knowledge to design a proper system. System 2 is often a slight improvement over system 1."So who is the intended audience of this book? Before addressing that; let be briefly outline the book.The first 198 pages; or 18 chapters; discuss styles of worship. The author divides styles of worship into four main categories: celebratory; evangelical; experiential and community. These chapters go into fairly good detail about the history of the church; and the history of churches that lead to these styles of worship. Each style contains case studies; or examples; of churches exhibiting each style of worship; and what their unique sound requirements are.Chapter 20 is a very cursory discussion of sound system components: microphones; speakers; consoles; amplifiers; etc. Did I mention that this discussion was very cursory?The last three chapters discuss some measurements of performance: reverberation; intelligibility; noise; etc.The last four chapter comprise 67 pages.So who is this book for? The first 18 chapters seem to be directed toward someone who is already an audio consultant; has no previous experience with performing sound consultation for churches; and wishes to expand his business into this field.The last four chapters seem directed toward someone in a church responsible for the acquisition of a sound system or sound consultation services; but has almost no knowledge of the field.With the disparity of pages between the first 18 chapters and the last four; I would say Sound of Worship is more valuable to the former.Overall; the book is fairly well-written. The chapters on church history go rather in-depth. There were a few minor issues with the "technical" chapters. At times; a performance parameter would be introduced; and it wasnt clearly stated whether a larger or smaller value was more desirable; or expressed the quality discussed. "Warmth;" I felt; was an example of this. Axes for plots were not always labelled; as in Figure 22.3; and there seemed to be at least one reference to the wrong figure (p. 259 makes a reference to Figure 22.4; when I believe it should be to 22.3.)As for other alternatives; Ive had Guide to Sound Systems for Worship on my Wish List for some time now. I have not yet read it; so really cant say much about; but someone considering Sound of Worship might want to give it a look.