According to Musicademy.com the reason why everyone loves singing in the bathroom is the “vibe” you get back from the room. . . "If the building has a natural reverb, the congregation get the “vibe” back from the venue and are encouraged to sing. Take that vibe away and people switch off. It’s not about how good the songs are, or how good [sic] the band are playing, or the quality of the sound mix; it’s the room that has the most profound psychological effect on congregational participation. . . . The real challenge is to find a balance in the venue: too much reverb and you will struggle for intelligibility in your spoken word and definition in contemporary music. Too little and the venue sounds flat and people will be discouraged from participating." [Musicademy.com/2014/05/church-sound-venue-reverb] I have two questions about this quotation: (1) Do you think it is accurate? (2) If it's accurate, how do we rate at SJMV, for sound quality?

  1. I think the acoustics of St. Johns are fine from the back of the congregation. The two side areas have acoustic issues, but really compared to Churches with no building, no PA or perhaps even instruments, I think we have a fantastic set-up. Not to say I'm against change to improve things, but hard to prioritise those needs above far more pressing ones in our world.