The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has regulations for SPL exposure. You can find more information on the OSHA website:

So let’s talk about SPL in our worship environments. We typically shoot for a 93-94 dBA average over the 18 minutes of worship. With quick peaks and plosives not exceeding 99-100 dBA. This is perfectly within OSHA standards and does not pose a health risk to attenders. 

• It is important to be aware of different weighting curves used to measure SPL. We measure in dBA-slow, or “A-weighted, slow response”. The other most common weighting curve you will see is dBC, or “C-weighted”.  

  • dBC weighting measures loudness in the full spectrum, 20hz-20khz. 

  • dBA weighting excludes the low-end content. So a dBA measurement will read lower than a dBC measurement, but will be more accurate in the damaging high frequencies.

  • Example: A chorus of a loud uptempo song may read around 96-97 dBA, but that same chorus would measure more like 105-106 dBC. So it is very important to understand the differences in weighting curves and use the correct one. The numbers can be misleading if we are not intentional with our settings.

Remember, it is not uncommon for the loudest portion of a song to read around 96-98 dBA. But the number that really matters is the average of the ENTIRE 18-minute worship set. There are loud sections and there are soft sections that balance each other out to achieve the desired overall average of 93-94 dBA.

There are several applications available on mobile devices. These apps are typically not very accurate. If an attender is attempting to monitor SPL via their phone, it is not a valid measurement tool and would not hold up in a court of law. 

Over-emphasize dynamics

• As a sound engineer you can help the band achieve more dynamics by riding the faders.

  • Pull down the verses so they are quieter than choruses. Not only will this help your SPL average, it will give the music more impact and perceived presence on the bigger sections when you push the fader back up.

Master buss compression

• Use a small amount of compression on the master buss to tame the loudest peaks and transients. (We are already doing this at KLR)

  • Remember: no more than a 3:1 ratio; 2-3 dB of gain reduction on the LOUDEST sections. (should be little to no gain reduction on verses or softer sections)

Thoughtful arrangements and coaching musicians

• Cut out any unnecessary ProTools tracks. Tracks add up. If you have 2 guitar players on stage, don’t use the guitar tracks in ProTools. Same with BGVs. 

• Encourage drummers to take it easy on the cymbals. Cymbals are one of the biggest offenders of loud peaks and brightness!

• Encourage tasteful playing on softer sections, cut out any unnecessary parts.

Keep it warm!

• Eliminate harsh frequencies above 5kHz

  • DeEss vocals

  • Use LPF on guitars

  • Tame harsh synth frequencies by using the deEsser in band-pass mode. 

  • Don’t use overhead mics on drums in the house mix.