The Ultimate Church Sound Operator's Handbook (Hal Leonard Music Pro Guides) (Paperback)

by Bill Gibson (Author)
Key Phrases: video example, choir mics, live sound operator, Audio Example, Miking the Group, The Front-of-House Mixer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Ultimate Church Sound Operator's Handbook is written to specifically address the concerns and needs of the sound person who serves ministries and churches. The modern church uses many of the same presentation tools that have become common in television, movies, and concerts, placing a unique set of technical expectations on its eager, willing, and primarily volunteer force. This comprehensive handbook blends the relational and technical aspects of church sound in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner. The Ultimate Church Sound Operator's Handbook will provide a leg-up to church sound operators who want to do a great job but need the perfect tool - created specifically for them - to gain the knowledge needed to excel and succeed.

Product Details

• Paperback: 440 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard - Music Pro Guides; Pap/DVD edition (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423419707
• ISBN-13: 978-1423419709
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,081 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars full of misconceptions and filler material, July 28, 2007

By	Chip Sams (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

I am an acoustical and systems design consultant who specializes in the design and functional rehabilitation of worship facilities. I recently purchased this book as part of a survey of available literature for possible use when training the operators of the sound systems I design. I had high hopes for this book, since it is colorfully illustrated and comes with a DVD that could be used to more clearly illustrate the fundamentals of live audio, which the book purports to teach.

In order to teach the fundamentals of sound reinforcement, one must have a very high level of mastery of technical concepts in a variety of disciplines, including acoustics, electronics, and psychoacoustics. In addition, one must have the ability to communicate this type of information clearly and succinctly to a non-technical audience. Unfortunately, nearly all of the chapters of this book contain at least some significant misconceptions about audio, ranging from the common to the truly bizarre. The fact that almost none of the information in the book is referenced, or otherwise attributed to the sources from which it came, even though the same topics are covered in many books of varying degrees of authority, should tip off the savvy reader that further scrutiny is warranted. The lack of a reference or resource list also denies the reader any help in locating the numerous excellent learning resources that have been developed for church and secular sound operators in recent years. The fact that book freely intermixes misinformation with reasonably accurate information will make it almost impossible for any person new to audio to discern which is which.

In addition to the many inaccuracies, many basic concepts of audio are explained in ways that are confusing even to bona fide experts in the field. Gibson frequently applies analogies that do not apply to the concepts at hand, such as the attempt to liken the incompatibility of differently-sized water pipes to the concept of electrical impedance. At other times, Gibson will make a reasonably clear but inaccurate statement, and then contradict it a few paragraphs or chapters later. This also happens in his attempt to discuss the concept of impedance, as well as his attempt to explain how to set the input gain of a mixer's channel strip. The reader unfamiliar with audio may not even catch the contradiction, and will only be aware of her or his own confusion. Finally, many crucial concepts that sound reinforcement operators need to be exposed to are omitted, while many pages are wasted on information that is unrelated to sound reinforcement or to church technical operations.

For example, one of the worst chapters is chapter 9, which exhibits a profound misunderstanding of the concept of impedance and of basic signal interfacing principles, parrots widely discredited sales claims about expensive "high futility" audio cables, leads readers to choose the wrong type and gauge of speaker wire, mixes up the characteristic of common types of speaker connectors, and encourages the widely discredited and potentially life-threatening practice of disconnecting legally mandated safety grounds as a means of hum reduction.

Examples of filler material include chapter 14 (Loudspeakers), which repeats a lot of information from unattributed sources about design aspects of loudspeakers with which the user never interacts, and many of which are only found in home stereo speakers or studio monitors, rather than sound reinforcement speakers. Most of the significant parameters for the selection of sound reinforcement speakers, as well as any help in understanding the process or qualifications necessary to design a sound reinforcement system, are omitted. Similarly, chapter 19 (Acoustic Considerations) deals almost exclusively with small-room acoustical concepts, as would be relevant to a recording studio or home theatre, rather than the large-room concepts, as are relevant to a church auditorium or other public assembly facility.

In short, there are much better books available on both the technical aspects (Eiche's Guide to Sound Systems for Worship) and spiritual/organizational aspects (Curt Taipale's The Heart of Technical Excellence) of church audio. In general, the less familiar a reader is with a technical subject like audio, where misconceptions and false "experts" abound, the more they must take care to seek out only reliable sources in their effort to learn the basics. The awkward situation that this book's author and publisher created for themselves could have been avoided by a number of methods, such as by having a qualified audio professional fact-check the manuscript, or by involving multiple authors who were recognized experts in their respective specialties. While Gibson does provide some useful insights on non-technical subjects such as rehearsing and mixing contemporary music, the damage done by this book far outweighs the good. Members of my profession already spend too much of our time cleaning up costly messes caused by the very types of misconceptions promulgated by this book.

34 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dangerous and Misleading, September 8, 2007

By	Kirk Longhofer - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book just may kill someone. A book on audio system operations with a recommendation of removing grounds as a means to reduce hum shows a tremendous lack of knowlege on the part of the author.

Beyone that, I found much of the material confusing, with poor explainations of technical concepts. As a church technical director, I would not want ANY of my volunteers to have access to this book.

Thank goodness I didn't pay for the book!

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not recommended, July 10, 2007

By	STS "Tom" (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Chapter 9 describes using an AC ground lift adapter - a most dangerous, potentially fatal and incorrect way to deal a hum and buzz issue (besides being in violation of the NEC). This is just the beginning of some of the serious flaws with this book. "Ultimately" I think this book does a serious disservice to church sound system operators. I have been involved in professional church audio since 1986 and I would not recommend this book. The other book written by Mr. Gibson, "The Ultimate Live Sound Operator's Handbook" unfortunately has the same issues. Great looking book, though. I am returning it to Amazon.