Feedback Ferret

[tcsta]

Has anybody here used the Peavey Feedback Ferret, or something similar? What was your experience? Did it work well, and do you have any tips for use?

 

[rroten]

We used to use a ferret on a troubled choir monitor at church. The monitor had about 8 vocal mics and was prone to feedback. We simply set the ferret to panic mode to save our high frequency drivers. Does it work? Yes, you can hear it clamp down on feedback before it really takes off. Would I recommend it? No, you can achieve a relatively feedback free setup by using a graphic eq and proper mic/speaker placement. On a side note, the ferret will think any sustained notes are feedback. For example, if you have one inserted into the main mix, it will detect feedback and set off filters from bass tones, sustained keyboard notes, etc. (this is only when in panic mode). Hope that helps.

Ryan

 

[museav]

I think the Feedback Ferret is one of the better automatic feedback solutions along with the Sabine products and these can be a great tool in certain applications, but it is just a tool and is often not the first one to try. Any automatic feedback solution works best when applied to a particular mic/speaker pairing, when you apply them to multiple mics or multiple speakers then they affect them all. For example, it is pretty common to have someone put one of these on the console's main output or a monitor send, but that means that any equalization or processing applied affects all the sources and not just the one or two causing the problem.

They can be a good solution for portable systems or situation where you don't always have the opportunity to really setup the system as much as desired. And they can work well as a "safety" with less experienced operators or people unfamiliar with the system. But I would typically not plan on them as a regular part of the processing and more as something that may be available if needed.