Re: carpet the chancel and bedroom!

[soundboarddude]

At St. Matthias' everything is tile downstairs and everything upstairs in the choir loft is like an expensive version of those plastic-y tiles.

Wonderful acoustics.

[LifeWithLoopy]

We have a hardwood chancel, and everything else in the church is covered in thick red carpeting.

[Bombarde32]

Over the years I've watched our church install extra padding in the pews and additional carpeting. It has continually degraged the sound.

Our organ sits in an octagonal tower with the choir/pulpit/stage area in front of it. Then the congregational seating and 2 balconies. (If you want, I can send you a picture). We are putting in a new Phoenix and the whole stage area is going to be done up in hardwood. We are also getting rid of the accoustic tile (yes, sound absorbing tile) that sits DIRECTLY ABOVE the organ.

My long term goal is to get rid of that tile over the entire sanctuary. I don't know if I'll win that fight though because folks are worried that too much reverberation will muddy up the sound for the praise team.

If you fix up your chancel you will be in much better shape. If the rest has good acoustics then the new flooring will help project that sound out into the rest of the room. That's the same thing we are pursuing. Liven up the stage area/tower to help push the sound into the room. Of course, it'll die shortly after it gets there ... but it's a start.