Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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!

With 12 of 22 chapters directly addressing technical topics and a chapter entitled "System Design and Layout", it is diffcult to see how the author can claim that this book was not intended to address audio technicians or system designers. And I do not understand how the intended audience being less technically knowledgeable makes presenting technical inaccuracies and misconceptions acceptable. The issues surrounding the technical aspects presented in this book have been noted by others and techncial errors, inaccuracies and misconceptions are indeed prevalent throughout the book, so I will not dwell on those aspects any further.

Many of the discussions and techniques presented in the book represent the author's personal opinion and preferences, unfortunately these personal perspectives seem to be presented as generally accepted practices. Alternative approaches and perspectives are rarely presented or discussed. Numerous times the author acknowledges that many churches may not be able to implement the suggestions presented, but then fails to offer any alternatives or further discussion. It should also be noted that many of the views offered in this book differ from those expressed by numerous church sound operators and leaders, including those presented in several very popular church sound forums in which the author apparently does not participate. I found that this book generally exhibits a very exclusive perspective and believe that the value of what is presented would be greatly enhanced if there was more time spent on discussion of alternative perspectives and how the topics could be applied to different churches and applications.

The absence of alternative perspectives and the limited applications discussed combined with the information presented in the book are perhaps representative of a limited exposure to many of the subjects presented. The author's background seems to be primarily in studio production rather than live sound and this really does seem to affect what is presented, including the detail in which different subjects are covered and the accuracy of what is presented. There are also notable gaps in the content for a book intended to address the general subject of live sound for churches.

Personally, I found this book rather confusing and difficult to read. There is no obvious overall flow or organization to the presentation. Topics seem to jump around and discussions started in one chapter are randomly continued many pages later. The discussions and information presented often seem incomplete or unrelated to the headings under which they are presented. In some cases the information presented even directly contradicts itself. Too much of the technical information seems to be presented to try to impress rather than to directly support the operational topics discussed.

In summary, this book is an excellent compendium of the author's personal perspective based on their seemingly rather limited experience. It would benefit greatly by eliminating the questionable technical content that makes up over half the book and focusing more on a much more inclusive scope of applications and situations. Overall, it is far from being the authoritative and encompassing reference source that one would expect of an "Ultimate" guide to any subject.

In the authors words, "the purpose of this publication is to help you operate and understand the equipment used in a modern day church service". It is a 400+ page book filled with stylized graphics and sidebars to help illustrate the "points" It s too bad that the publication misses so many key points - starting with the fact that this mission statement is found on page 256 under the heading of "Basic Equipment Needs". This "Ultimate" book contains few, if any, references to audio requirements for traditional worship, and is instead myopically focused on the rock music portion of contemporary worship service, and accompanying "stage-tech".

It draws heavily on what appears to be the firsthand experience of the author; who has apparently worked both in churches that have a contemporary worship style, and in addition, has some experience in recording facilities. The real problem is that all of the pretty pictures are supported by information that is sometimes misleading at best, often times factually inaccurate, and is at its worst, life threatening.

If you are looking to get a better understanding of audio basics, this book may ultimately set you back, as many of the descriptions it provides about fundamental concepts are incorrect. The list of errors that I have compiled is approaching six pages. Chapters on Sound Theory and Acoustics, which are relevant to the operation of any electro-acoustic system, are separated and placed at opposite ends of the book. The chapter on Acoustic Considerations contains a considerable amount of text written about acoustic anomalies and geometry that apply primarily to small rooms like recording studios and home theatres. At the same time, this chapter is devoid of any references to important factors in almost any sanctuary - such as an explanation of the Mean Free Path, Cubic Volume, Reverberation Time, and Critical Distance - or how these factors combined with surface treatments influence sound system design and operation. It also lacks any useful information about the interaction of direct and reflected energy with differing room geometries, or expectations for acoustical conditions with varying styles of worship. Furthermore, there is no mention of the often conflicting requirements for speech clarity and musical envelopment.

While the author states that "the purpose of this book is not to teach you to be a master system designer", the book includes a chapter on System Design and Layout. This chapter contains misinformation about time alignment, critical distance, and provides directions for operating a rack mounted real time analyzer that instructs the user to generate pink noise at 100dB SPL - C weighted - without any consideration of the system under test, or placement of the test microphone. The book also contains a chapter on Basic Equipment Needs where the author makes equipment recommendations in a vacuum - without knowing anything about the acoustical environment these systems might be placed in.

Most troubling are the authors incorrect assumptions regarding professional help or advice. He suggests that the reader have "a "qualified electrician" rewire the power at your church"....such that "outlets should be connected "to the exact same perfect ground." First, there is no such thing as "the exact same perfect ground". A licensed electrician is qualified to run wire and make terminations to electrical wiring according to National Electrical Code. Very few electricians are qualified to engineer a power distribution system. Doing this incorrectly can have serious negative ramifications.

The author also indicates that the reader should seek the assistance of "pro audio dealers" when professional help is required, stating that "after all, service is what they are really selling.". Entities that sell audio equipment have an inherent bias toward the merchandise that they offer and profit directly from sales of this equipment Therefore, they are not acting as independent agents on behalf of the church. Professional audio dealers can be a good source for portable sound systems, and accessories. Any system involving permanent installation should involve an independent design firm and possibly a qualified professional acoustical consultant, along with a qualified systems installer. This will help to insure that the acoustics of the venue and the electro-acoustic system operate in unison, and that the design and integration of the both the sound system and acoustical conditions will meet the long term goals for the church. [...]

In conclusion, I urge anyone reading this review to look at both the other negative reviews that are listed, and in addition, to look at the replies to the positive reviews for this book. There is a website that has been created by the chair of the Audio Engineering Society Standards Subcommittee for Interconnection that lists several of the more egregious errors contained in chapter nine alone. [...]

While maybe not the "ultimate" in publications, there are others which are readily available that at the very least provide factual information based on good physics. For those interested in continuing to work with sound, they provide a substantially better foundation to build from.

I am neither a professional audio engineer nor an expert in sound design and acoustics. That said, I have been around sound systems and (in particular) church sound for about 30 years.

After reading this book from cover to cover, I found it did do an OK job explaining some terms and general concepts, but was lacking in practical info. I recently went looking for info about setting gain structure and found info that was confusing, incomplete and at times seemed to down right contradict. The info was also not localized in a central section but spread out over different sections. I would think gain structure would be a key fundamental, but this book lacked clear info.

Setting delay was also not clear in this book and again spread out over several different sections. I had to create my own "mini-index" and then cross reference back and forth before it made sense and did not appear to contradict.

I have tried to use it to train my sound and video staff and have found it only useful as a dictionary of terms and perhaps a good paper weight ... not much more. I have no "dog in this hunt" and not pushing other books and don't plan to write one. This is just one lay persons interpretation of the data. Your mileage may vary.

Is a review section really the best place for an author to defend his work? If the author was confident that his work would stand up to peer scrutiny, then there should be no need to comment on their own writings.

I beleive that the work should be able to stand up for itself and I appreciate the honest views of those who both find parts of the book useful and those who have helpfully pointed out the dangerous and life threatening flaws. (Re: lifting safety grounds to alleviate hum problems).

I was going to just let this book pass even with the AC ground bad advice but then I saw the authors response to it.

First, lifting the AC ground to get rid of hum can kill people. A pastor was killed when he used a ungrounded baptismal tank a couple of years ago.
Second, Electrical contractors are not trained in how to deal with audio hum. That is the job of audio consultants.
Third, Rewiring, or adding a isolated circuit is a last resort and very seldom needed.

I faced a tremendous amount of hum and hiss in our church audio system and was able to get rid of all of it by using free advice from people on a church sound web forum. Every AC device is grounded.

Not everyone who runs a CHURCH sound system is of the same spiritual persuasion. It would be a bit offensive to have to read the first three chapters of Christian Proselytizing if you are not Christian. This was to be a book about Sound Operations, not what your religious orientations are. Likewise, the arm-chair physchology could be limited to a sentence or two rather than lengthy paragraphs. These concepts are certainly a part of our lives in many situations, but please, this is to be about SOUND SYSTEMS!
I was about to return the book, but as I examined it a bit further I did find some useful information. Much of the information was surface and it would have been nice had Mr. Gibson used the space proselytizing and psychologizing to give a few more details and REAL TIME examples of the concepts he was addressing.
I am hoping to find a FEW more tid-bits of useful information in the book, but I am dissappointed that so many very critical aspects of sound management were treated in a superficial manner. It was certainly not worth the $40.00 paid for the book.

If you have done sound in any shape or form, you would agree that this is a wonderful resource,not just in a church setting but anywhere amplified sound is needed. I find the writer has a wonderful perspective on all areas that affect you as a sound engineer. I came across it at church, someone had it behind the sound board and picked it up and started looking through it. I felt that I needed this as a resouce. This is a must if you are having any problems technically or personally with people that you may have to deal with in this type of ministry, work, or fun. As you probably know this is most of the time a thankless position, only acknowledged when there is a problem. Takes a thick skin to stick with it. It is rewarding when you have a musician/artist come up and personally thank you for doing a good job!