Reply To: Ringing Out The Room – Channel or Overall PEQ?

[DoctorG]

Andreas,

I’m sorry if I seemed to confuse the issue with my extended response. I started out saying that feedback is a complicated issue. It is perhaps impossible to solve a specific feedback problem without being in the room. I just tried to address most of the factors involved.

Unless one understands the issues, it is partly luck when one solves a feedback problem, depending upon the specific circumstances. Of course, every feedback problem is a mix of mic/gain/speaker adjustments, but unless you say how to handle each of these factors, you haven’t said anything helpful. If you’ll read my instructions and suggestions carefully, you’ll find that I did address the question asked, and I did state that the vocalist was the last contributing element to be considered.

Consider this: You can stop feedback by turning down the system gain. That says that the feedback at any frequency is dependent on the level of that frequency in the room. If the room tends to feedback at, say 10 kHz, a female vocalist is more likely to generate sound at that frequency than a baritone.

If you’ll review the other suggestions in this thread, you’ll see that they are all “guesses” because they are not able to know the exact situation of the person having the feedback problem. Until the operator is able to get a feel for all the factors involved and then determine how each applies to his situation, he will struggle with the problem. He may fix the problem for this one situation, but what happens in the next situation?

I’ve even heard listeners, even operators, say “I heard feedback,” when what they heard was reverb!

No, we have not purchased our A&H yet, but we’re getting close. I realize that I did not confine my remarks to the limitations of the A&H QU. There’s a saying that goes something like this: “If you give a person a piece of bread, you may have solved his immediate hunger. But if you teach him how to make his own bread, you will help him feed himself and others, and lessen the chance that he will be hungry again.” I was just trying to help the operator “feed himself.”

Again, I’m sorry if I only created confusion. However, the more one learns, the less confusion one will have. You’ll learn a lot more if you truly listen to what one has to say. Sometimes, what one says may seem to disagree with what you think you know, but listening will give you a broader perspective and sometimes correct erroneous or limited conceptions.