Seeking Low Cost Improvments to Chapel Acoustics

terrydonahue@usa.net · science forum beginner Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 1

(Just posted this to alt.audio.pro.live-sound, but thought some folks
here might be able to help...)

Our community has a small chapel (35' long by 20' wide, 12' ceiling)
with the following materials materials:

1) Floor: wood in the sanctuary (10' by 20' at one end) and carpet
(with padding) over concrete everywhere else

2) Walls: Plasterboard on 3 walls, with wood boards on the wall of the
sanctuary.

3) Ceiling: flat drop ceiling with 2' by 2' acoustic ceiling tiles (not
sure exactly what type) - like a standard office ceiling

4) Furniture: wooden pew-like chairs with cushions on the bottom
portion of the seats

The chapel is used by 6-15 people for Mass and communal prayer, a
combination of plainchant and contemporary praise songs, usually with
guitar accompaniment, all unamplified.

Problem:

The room is too "dead", giving little reverberation that makes chant
sound good, and encourages congregational singing. Most of the sound in
the chapel seems to be absorbed by the ceiling and carpet (it was even
worse before we installed the raised wood floor in the sanctuary and
replaced the thick carpet with the current thin one.

Possible Solutions:

I want to find a low-cost solution to improve the acoustics of the
chapel, and therefore have the following questions:

1) If I only have the funds to change the floor OR the ceiling, which
is more important to change first, and to what?

2) Since the simplest improvement I can think of is to just swap the
ceiling tiles, what low-cost ceiling tile is very sound reflective?

In browsing the web, I see Noise Reduction Coefficients (NRCs) listed
for acoustic ceiling tiles that absorb sound well, but haven't found
specific measurements for ones that reflect sound well. Any
links/stores would be appreciated.

Fr. Terry Donahue, CC

Noral Stewart · science forum addict Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 77

Replace most of the ceiling panels with half-inch gypsum panels. These are
basically wall board cut into 2 by 2 foot squares. You can buy these
already cut for ceilings from USG, National Gypsum, or Celotex Gyptone, or
you can buy larger sheets of wallboard and cut the panels yourself. I
suggest as a first try that leave a ring of one acoustical panel around the
perimeter of the room with all the panels in the center of the room gypsum.
If it is still too dead, replace the rest of the acoustical panels with
gypsum. Leave the carpet and pew cushions as these will keep the room from
getting too lively when it is sparsely occupied.

<terrydonahue@usa.net> wrote in message
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Angelo Campanella · science forum Guru Wannabe Joined: 08 May 2005 Posts: 226

terrydonahue@usa.net wrote:

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