Inaki2 said:
Free
feedback detector: your ears
I agree.
Feedback detectors aren't the best way to eliminate
feedback unless you have them built into a
Soundweb or some other audio networking device. You would have to put one on every
channel that has a mic. They can really make you lazy. The best way to eliminate
feedback is train your ears to recognize frequencies. (I recommend this little gem.
http://sft.sourceforge.net/) Once you know frequencies you can do several things.
When I put mics out (with the exception of wirelesses, but we'll get to that later) I "ring them out." Set your routing and apply
phantom power if nesscessary. Start with your EQ and
gain/
trim at zero and your
fader has high as it goes. Turn up the
gain until a frequency starts to resonate. Normally the first time around it will be around 150Hz. Pull some of that frequency out with your EQ on the
console. Then you can ring for a second time and a different frequency should resonate. It will most likely be somewhere in the mids. If you have a lot of mics and find yourself pulling out the same frequencies in a lot of channels, pull those frequencies back on your graphic EQ if you have one.
Occasionally in area micing you'll run into a slight ring at the end of some actors sentences. Sometimes you'll spend a lot of time trying to find the offending mic(s). The best way is to turn the volume on your
headphones or control monitors all the way up and
PFL all the area mics until you hear it. (Sometimes this won't work but most of the time it will.) Normally it's a fairly high frequency around 10-12kHz. Again, pull it back on the
console and if you have to do it to multiple mics, pull those frequencies on the graphics.
Wirelesses are fun. Normally you won't want to ring them out if it's a musical. In that case, use your standard
PFL level set by increasing the
gain/
trim until the
meter for the
channel reads zero at its peaks. Music increases your gain-before-feedback. Basically, that means it's harder for the speakers to bleed into the wireless. Be wary of monitors though and try to avoid using wedges. Normally for a man's wireless I will pull back the 400Hz range since that is mostly chest voice and replace it with some low end. Then I might at a little
bit of high end for clarity. I still haven't quite found the best
EQing for a woman's wireless. I normally pull back the 700Hz range, replace a little low low end, but not as much as I would for a man's, and add some high for clarity. That's pretty close, but you'll probably want to experiment some. You might need to change these frequencies if you run into problems, but it's somewhere to start.
Sorry for rambling/boring you/insulting your intelligence/being an Energizer bunny, but I'm bored.
any one have any objections to this.
