I should verify this on the basis of a call I experienced yesterday from the leader of the local guitar group in which he confirmed what I told him 2 years ago about the new building.

interesting! so the argument over acoustics might mask a fundamental issue.

Christ is born!

I suspect when the liturgy finally becomes decent, some churches will be "left behind". So many congregations just want to be entertained, and will run out any musician, priest, bishop who says otherwise. And some buildings are just unusable for a Catholic Mass. It's sad, but a lot of chaff will have to burn if the state of the liturgy will improve.

"the singers using microphones don't need to sing well, anyway, because the microphone prevents them from projecting their voices normally. So everyone will sing badly, and none of it will sound good!"

That's what exactly our youth director does. Use very sophisticated sound system. The youth don't really have to "sing." Don't need any proper singing training either. The sound system does eveything for them. He also has nifty background music recorded to accompany their singing. Once in a while you just hear one voice screeching out if the microphone is not positioned well. Oh, well. (makes me wonder how they actually sound like without a microphone, if we don't have power or something. Reminds me of the midnight Mass when we had our power out. Exactly at 0 o'clock on 1/1/08. Our priest was finishing up the last prayer after the adoration. I had to look at the watch. the Mass might start a bit late. I was ready to turn on the organ. Dark! It was awesome. We put out all the candles we had in the church, but still pretty dark, and the whole congregation sang without canor, no microphone, no organ. We just sang hymns that we know by heart. It was lovely. The power came back right after the Mass. So people can leave the church safely. It was very strange. Is God telling us something? )
The youth director also recommends that I use 'cathedral sound' button for our chant schola. Sorry, but we don't go up on the stage. We sing from the back pews, and that will be the last thinkg I would do with my schola.

Christus est natus!

The church I went to for the past year had the choir squeezed in one one side of the altar, which is one reason I quit the choir there (as I woman, I don't want to be standing in the sanctuary... even though it's not like you can tell where the sanctuary ends and the nave begins anyway). As the choir got bigger and bigger, they began encroaching on the altar, and in a picture of the consecration of a new altar in our church, you can see a lone djembe player sitting basically behind the thing, right next to the high altar and tabernacle.

We had a choir loft, but they converted it to seating a long time ago. We already have four Masses on Sunday that fill up all the pews. (Which I guess is a good thing overall. More people at Mass. But if we could retain the proper solemnity and reverence of the Mass, people would condescend to stand out the door all the way into the street just to partake of the Divine Mysteries. Now they leave if they don't get a seat--so I'm not sure what to think, exactly...)

So here is my solution: cruciform buildings! Stick the choir in one side of the bar of the cross outta everyone's way, and outta the sanctuary! A newly built Catholic Church up here is actually cruciform and does just that, which is fabulous, even if the choir they put there does weird stuff sometimes. Some old nasty buildings, as long as they're square or rectangular you should be able to knock out two walls and extend 'em, right?

As far as carpet....Italian and Spanish marble, chosen on site for the church, has eliminated any talk of carpet.

What? And prevent industry insiders from making a profit on SacroKaraoke? Perish the thought!