Guide to Sound Systems for Worship

by Jon F. Eiche

(Yamaha Products). The Yamaha Guide to Sound Systems for Worship is written to assist in the design, purchase and operation of a sound system. It provides the basic information on sound systems that is most needed by ministers, members of boards of trustees and worship and music committees, interested members of congregations, and even employees of musical instrument dealers that sell sound systems. To be of greatest value to all, it is written to be both nondenominational and "non-brand-name."

194 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1990

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

More schematic than spiritual. The problems solved in this book happen by tracing connections through a sound system. The many diagrams offer the technical rationales for sound systems. It's more about engineering than faith. If there's a passage about praying away feedback, I missed it.

"Never assume," Jon Eiche writes in the chapter on troubleshooting. If readers understand signal flow, they can be useful when, Lord forbid, "in the event of trouble during a service" (164).

Despite the no-nonsense approach to sound that even a heathen could appreciate, Eiche peppers his book with humor: "No choir member has ever complained of hearing too little organ" (152).

For the fourteen thurough chapters on topics like "Understanding the Physics of Sound" and the sequential run from microphone through mixers, processors, amplifiers to loudspeakers, Eiche hints at philosophical issues, such as a word to ministers not to "go around shooting [their] own wounded" (164). Eiche doesn't tell the parable; he just leads us through the technical details so that worship music and pastor's words might reach congregations. The testimony beneath the words and behind the music will have to wait for another book.