The primary purpose of a church building is to provide a space where Truth can be heard and worship can be experienced. A crucial component in fulfilling that purpose is sound. The medium-sized church faces a tough problem when it comes to providing for sound. While a large church can afford to hire an acoustic consultant to work with the architect to produce a superb environment with a quality system, the very small church can rely on the unaided volume of the voice and instruments to get the job done. Somewhere in the middle is the medium church where a sound system is needed but the funds for professional consulting are difficult to produce.

The most challenging task (and the most important) is the selection and placement of speakers. This is where the professional is needed most because this task is the most time-consuming and requires the most expertise. Other aspects, such as choosing a mixing board and connecting effects to it, are easily handled with a little help from the dealer where the equipment is purchased. But few dealers have the expertise or are willing to invest the time to measure the site and properly design the speaker system.

Fortunately, the medium-sized church does have a powerful and valuable resource at its disposal--its members. With the right tools, a little guidance, and some time to contribute, a volunteer can close the gap between funds and quality. WinSound, together with this manual, is designed to provide the first two components in the equation. The basic idea is that every church has a volunteer with an interest in the subject and high-school math skills. WinSound is designed for such a person to use, and this manual is written to provide him (or her) with the guidance necessary to produce good results.

However, WinSound's benefits are not limited to churches. Anywhere sound needs to be delivered to a hundred people or more, WinSound can help. This includes school auditoriums, conference rooms, and concert events. Of special significance is the temporary event which changes with each application. In this case, WinSound can be a powerful tool in the hands of the sound vendor.

This manual is intended to be a vital component in the WinSound process. That is, WinSound is not written to be understood and used apart from a certain minimum amount of knowledge that cannot be conveyed on an as-you-go basis. Thus, it begins with a step-by-step tutorial on WinSound's use and features followed by a more thorough discussion of the underlying philosophy alluded to above. The last two chapters describe in detail the two major activities in the WinSound process--creating WinSound models and interpreting WinSound's results.