Feedback Destroyer

avkid

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I am currently looking for a feedback destroyer of some type that is fairly inexpensive, used(in good condition) or new. If you have any suggestions please relate them to me in a timely fashion.
 
My advice: don't get a box to do your thinking for you. Feedback Destroyers aren't a good substitute for a well set up EQ. You can train your ear in a matter of weeks to recognize the frequency of feedback and just notch it out manually.

Destroyers are notorious for "deleting" things like flutes, guitar feedback and even female vocals that they interpret to be feedback. And they often don't react quickly enough to correct for catastrophic feedback and even if they do they tend to destroy your frequency response as well as the feedback.

So I would seriously consider getting a good graphic EQ and using this free trainer to get your ears in shape. http://sft.sourceforge.net/
 
I agree 150% with Jon (bnbsound). A well structured EQ would be your best bet as well as training technicians. I would also suggest watching where your feedback is coming from - ie: singer standing 3 feet from one of the main speakers is going to cause problems even for a good tech. You have to figure out the dynamics of your space and give an approiate microphone as well. We've taken all of our feedback eleminators out of our racks and use them as paper weights now - they were (as was said above) eather too much or would react too slowly to do anything that our audio tech's couldn't do themselves if trained.

Good Luck!
 
I Agrre with the others.Training your ears is the great feedback destroyer. But if you realy want a machine to do the work for you i'd say Berhinger makes some cheap yet effective.
 
is there anything out there where i can select the frequency and thats what you hear? cuz this gives it to you and expects you to know it..but if there was a way to play everything 1st and listen then this would be more useful.
 
i just gave it a try and would definately agree. i wouldnt mind learning what they sound like but with out knowing then im just guess n check ing
 
Although I agree with the last few posts that a well set up system with a trained person at the EQ is best, I will argue that these destroyers do have a place. As a pro sound technician I often am forced to do a quick PA set up (1-2 hrs) in a location that I have never been in before and jack-a**es using the mic's that do not care enough to learn how to use them. (Corporate meetings are the worst). Although it is common sense, they do put the mic in front of the main stacks and countless other stupid things. You can try to teach them, but they don't listen.

I feel that the destroyer gives me a safety net. It allows me to cue the next CD or to put the bodypack bact together that someone dropped. If feedback occurs, the audience rarely ever notices that a part of the signal went out for a minute when the destroyer acts and I can fix the problem without the squeel. Feedback squeel is always seen as an error of the "sound guy" .

I don't use anything fancy, the Behringer unit is only a couple of hundred bucks and it has worked fine for me. It is easy to use and fairly versatile.
 
However, given a few weeks to set up for a show, an EQ is the only proper instrument to take care of feedback. In my eyes, a feedback destroyer is a tool to be used when there is insufficient time to properly notch out feedback frequencies - a last ditch resort, if you will.
 
stantonsound said:
As a pro sound technician I often am forced to do a quick PA set up (1-2 hrs) in a location that I have never been in before and jack-a**es using the mic's that do not care enough to learn how to use them.

That's all I do, and I've gone months at a time with no squeal at all. EQ's not easy to learn, but once you do you can just about smell a room and know where it's going to ring.

And to the guy playing with the feedback trainer, if you click above each notch you can sample the sounds.
 
Problem solved, came in last night and found a Sabine FBX automatic feedback controller: either The FBX1200 or FBX2400, with SMARTFilter™ Technology. (I have not had a chance to use it yet because I had to help replaced a dismissed lighting crew, in the last week of a 4 week show no less!)
 
stantonsound said:
As a pro sound technician I often am forced to do a quick PA set up (1-2 hrs)
Whats a slow PA setup?

What is the saying? “How long is a piece of string?”

I guess the answer would be relative to the size of the set up and how much equipment is “in house” and how much set up time is wasted by others.
 
I don't know but about the quickest ive done a setup for my church was maybe 1hr, tops. Slowest took about 2 or 3hrs
 
JasonH said:
stantonsound said:
As a pro sound technician I often am forced to do a quick PA set up (1-2 hrs)
Whats a slow PA setup?

What is the saying? “How long is a piece of string?”

I guess the answer would be relative to the size of the set up and how much equipment is “in house” and how much set up time is wasted by others.
 
I may be a little late on this, but, I hook a Behringer feedback destroyer (*dodges townsfolk with pitchforks*) into the inserts for the mics next to the monitors. It really helps ease the headaches when running the show and playing guitar at the same time.
 
A well EQ-ed system will almost never be in need of a Feedback Destroyer. I have one on my Behringer digital EQ and it never trips becuase I always take a minute or two to ring out the room.
 
On the driverack 260 the "advanced feedback suppression" is split into two parts, fixed and live. Am i correct in thinking that the live section is like the feedback destroyers mentioned earlier, and that the fixed section works like an eq by cutting at certain frequencies?
 
Not quite; feedback eliminators generally have two types of filters, fixed and dynamics. Both are very narrow notch filters, the difference being that fixed ones are set when you set up the unit in a new venue by bringing up the system until the first feedback frequency occurs, letting the unit find it, then turning up again, and repeating until all filters are set. These filters get locked to these frequencies, on the assumption that they are created by room characteristics, similar to when you EQ a room manually, but with narrow filters than you'd have on a 1/3 band graphic (you could get ones that narrow on a parametric).

Dynamic filters are ones that get set during a performance automatically to catch feedback in the split second before it becomes audible (in theory). They can change frequency. Once released when the feedback stops, they can reset to a new frequency. Thus they'll cover stuff caused by mics moving within the speakers' patterns, that may be constantly changing.

I hope this makes sense--if not, try reading the manual for Sabine's products, which explain it really well.

--A
 

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