Wow what a blessing - a priest who sings enthusiastically.
'Father, it is so great to have you sing you parts of the Mass... could you come to practice sometimes, it would really help and encourage the children....Now everybody, since Fatheris here to practice with us today, lets go through the parts where he sings and we respond, that's it, first he sings and we listen, then we sing and he listens.... okay now the parts where we sing together, remember we will be at opposite ends of the church so it is really important to listen to each other (or the organ), and lets practice our diction whle we are at it...( I feel like I am channeling joyce Grenfell)
nursery school with joyce grenfell

This is a delicate matter, but summon all your delicacy and explain the problem to him. He may be unaware of it. He may think that he doesn't need to follow the choir. He may be pleasantly glad to oblige. Perhaps a private session or two with him getting him to sing in time with you would illustrate the problem and be helpful in solving it. You are blessed that he does love to sing, so there must be a diplomatic way to get him out of his (Probably unconscious) divo role.

(And, it is astonishing that your choir sing through microphones. Get rid of them. And while you're at it, get rid of his.)

My sympathy re the building, we sang our family Mass in such a church at Christmas. Our usual church has a lovely acoustic, even the children can make it ring like a bell. At Christmas I was on the altar leading carols, and watching the choir sing. It was like a silent movie. I could see lips moving but no sound coming across.
I am sure you will find the diplomatic solution.

just tell him to turn his mike off during the singing.

Musiclover88, you're right! Helmholtz, a noted acoustician from the past, said each person is equivalent to an open window when it comes to absorption of sound. And each puts out about 150 watts of heat.

Since both the choir and priest are being amplified the priest should be hearing them as they sing without delay - with no delay unless the choir has its own speakers or e cannot hear the front speakers. Since he did not hear that the people and the choir were falling behind, it sounds like he is in a position - probably surrounded with carpet and absorptive stuff so that he cannot hear.

Bonnie's got the right idea, especially about being sensitive to his situation.

If he sings it a lot faster than you like, this may be part of it too. He may have jumped in to take control.

There's nothing that having supper one night each week with the pastor would not solve. If he's got the time.

Where are the volume controls? :)

Often the speakers are directed away from the altar so that the microphones can be set to a high level, which otherwise would pick up the signal and starting to feed back. After all there is nothing coming from the church for the priest to hear, so it does not matter.

The solution - adding monitor speakers carrying only the sound of the choir microphones to the altar so he can hear - might be suggested, but is useless. It further complicates everything.

There are few churches that could not be improved by a visit from:

http://www.riedelassociates.com

Where are the volume controls? :)

Half a city block away from the loft in the altar servers sacristy. We have no control over them at all.

So I'm wondering if just moving everyone closer to the ledge (that sounds kind of scary, haha) might help, too.

Yes. If everyone in the choir can see the people in the church all will be able to hear direct sound - if the choir stands back they only hear reflected sound - a mix of the two is very important - direct carries consonants, reflected carries vowels.

A dear friend of mine who is an acoustician said," The best part of the sound system is the OFF button."

a mix of the two is very important - direct carries consonants, reflected carries vowels.

That's really interesting--I didn't realize that. It makes a lot of sense, though. Right now, our choir loft is arranged so there are two rows of chairs, and even when you're sitting in the front row you can barely see the people in the congregation. If you're in the back row, I don't think anyone would be able to hear you at all. Yesterday I had everyone move up to the front row and I moved several chairs so they were against the wall so we kind of formed more of a semicircle than a row while singing. I think that helped, too.

I've been brainstorming on how to rearrange our choir loft but it's kind of stumping me. It's weird because it seems like there should be plenty of room up there, but it's always crowded and everyone is tripping all over each other. Of course, if it was all up to me, we'd throw away the electric piano, all of the Gather hymnals, and the collection of David Haas CDs and then we'd have a lot more room...but unfortunately my choir isn't the only group that uses the space.

Ha! I had a choir member who was a real thorn in my side: nasty, snide remarks aimed at me, and always interrupting. So, the pastor was doing something that really irked me and the choir. I said, "Patrick, I'm appointing you to talk to the pastor about this, and don't be kind, not that you would be." It worked doubly: the pastor got the message and Patrick was not nearly so obnoxious. Not a very good suggestion really, but this did make me think of it. Mea culpa.

This has got to be one of the funniest church musician problems (from my perspective) I have seen, though I am sure it is one of the most frustrating church musician problems from your perspective.

While it doesn't help you're in a choir loft where you can't really hear him until it's too late, is there any way you and the schola can "give up" and follow your pastor's lead?

I mean, that's why God made monitor speakers. Well, I guess He did so through other's hands but still...

When I played in a bar band, with the bass in my left ear and the lead guitar in my right (I couldn't even hear the singer) I felt like I was pressing buttons on my Hammond- am I dating myself? I couldn't hear anything I was playing until I had a monitor speaker.

OT - If anyone wants a bunch of 12AX7 tubes and others for a Hammond, PM me. My wife wants me to "get rid of that junk." Not selling, I'll give them away -just send a shipping label or drop by the house if you're near Pittsburgh.

Seconding the Happy Birthday (and whatever other festive greetings anyone may be due), this issue came up in a parish I know of, and the eventual best solution anyone could come up with was installing a mixing board next to the organ so the music director can change the levels on the various mics on the fly as needed. It has also helped with lectors who are too soft or too strong, etc. I don't know how this is wired up, because the amplifiers and wireless receivers are in the sacristy and that is where all the sound system and mic jacks had the wires run to/from, so perhaps the sound board in the loft is essentially some sort of remote control, either that or an awful lot of sound wiring was run all the way to the loft and then back again to make this set-up work (and all this in an old church originally built without even electric lights, so who knows where and how the cables are run).

Generally in any even semi-professional settings it seems the mics are rarely turned off at the transmitter, rather this is done at the sound board, either by dropping the levels or with a mute. Likewise it is usually preferable to leave the master level (volume) alone (once it is set properly in the first place) and adjust the individual source levels.

Another parish nearby, this one new built, actually has a sound and lighting control booth and has someone trained on the equipment for each mass (mostly keeping sound levels adjusted as needed).

While I would generally prefer not to use microphones and amplified sound, when it is necessary we should do it competently, even with a bit of professionalism. The notion of having a sound system that merely needs to be turned on and off is OK for amplifying a speaking voice from a mic at a fixed location, but really once you start amplifying music or using a multitude of mics you need a bit finer level of control readily available (though certain functions must be kept out of the hands of all but the true professionals).

Believe me when I say he was singing at breakneck speed

You aught to hear my priest do a rosary! Right about bead 7 all of a sudden it's a "Glory Be."

And I am certain he went through all ten. ;-)

Hailmaryfulofgracethelordiswitheeblessedarthoamongswoemenandblessedisthefruitofthywomb...JEEESUUUSSS...Holymarymotherofgodprayforusinnerznowandatheourvourdeath. Amen.

you can recite on the inhale and the exhale

Catholic Yoga

Not really such a bad idea.

Or the priest may be saying the rosary the same way many of the older women used to by just saying the first words of each prayer - "I believe" "Our Father" "Hail Mary" "Hail Mary" "Hail Mary" "Glory be" "Our Father" ...... If you don't worry about the mysteries, you can say a whole novena by the end of the entrance song!

Or the priest may be saying the rosary the same way many of the older women used to by just saying the first words of each prayer - "I believe" "Our Father" "Hail Mary" "Hail Mary" "Hail Mary" "Glory be" "Our Father" ...... If you don't worry about the mysteries, you can say a whole novena by the end of the entrance song!

Didn't the kids in Fatima get in trouble for doing that? Or was that just in the CCC movie "The Day the Sun Danced" and it didn't really happen?

Coincidentally, I just sang for a funeral yesterday (NO) and encountered the lag problem. The guest priest was very loud and quite far behind me on the ICEL chanted ordinaries even with the antiphonal speaker turned on next to the altar which should help. He just put a firmata on the end of every phrase. It was a death spiral of slowing down. I got stuck in a power struggle between the organist and the celebrant. SO, I just backed way off.

It’s firmer.

Each spring, there is one Sunday when a motorcycle road rally is held in our area and the hundred or so motorcycles all ride by the church during Mass. It is deafening and seems to always occur during the homily. Our pastor has no poker face and though he tries to ignore the sound, he is clearly irked NO end. It is, for me, sinfully funny.

'practicing keeping it together in the face of chaos is probably a good exercise.'
The latest chaos here is the fire alarm going off, triggered by excessive incense. It's happened several weeks in a row. The alarm is in Eflat so perhaps the solution is to sing everything in Eflat......