Mr.T Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 During our last few gigs, there has been a booming/feedback sound coming through the bands PA every now and again. It seems to be when our singer isn't standing between his mic. and my bass gear. I can't seem to get him to physically 'shield' his mic. and stop waving it around.... so I am wondering if he has set-up his amp differently, and what I can do about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
High score Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 (edited) [quote name='Mr.T' post='515048' date='Jun 16 2009, 10:05 AM']During our last few gigs, there has been a booming/feedback sound coming through the bands PA every now and again. It seems to be when our singer isn't standing between his mic. and my bass gear. I can't seem to get him to physically 'shield' his mic. and stop waving it around.... so I am wondering if he has set-up his amp differently, and what I can do about this.[/quote] Your songster will probably be using a basic cardioid mic which, due to it's pick up pattern, will be obviously sensitive to anything that feeds directly into or to the side of it. In addition, smaller venues will reflect sound so if the feedback is low level then it is likely your rig. You have asked the songster to help and he has ignored it and I suppose smacking him is out of the question so I suggest you: - position your rig so that you are off centre to him with the bass speaker slightly turned away from him - may only partially help because of the omni directional effect of bass. Try cutting the low level on your amp EQ a little - If you are going through the desk as well, make sure all mics are behind the pa and any monitors are in front of the singer (cardioid type mics). You might also want to cut the lowel level on the desk EQ a little - buy a basic rack 'gate' for the desk that will effectively close off the singers mic when he is not directly singing into it and effectively block your low level input. Cost around £45 upwards. The last one is probably your most realistic approach because songsters tend to be wired differently to the rest of the world and after all you should not be adapting your setup cos he is a Songster !! Edited June 16, 2009 by High score Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOD2 Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 +1 to what High score said above. The only things I would add (and only AFTER all of the above have been tried) is to check the EQ settings on the singers mic channel. If there's a "rumble filter" switch on the channel (cuts out frequencies below 70Hz usually) then switch this on. You could also try cutting the low EQ on the mic channel a bit - not much, sometimes a little is all that's need to keep things in check. But the main thing is to try and limit or control what is going into the mic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 What's the mic? A super or hyper-cardioid would probably help a bit... Does the desk have hi-pass filters (if so, use them) Does the PA have subs? If so, can you feed them from an aux channel and only feed that with signals that need subs (ie NOT vocals)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.T Posted June 16, 2009 Author Share Posted June 16, 2009 Thanks for all the replies! I have been gigging for 25 years and never had this problem before. We only use PA (which doesn't have subs) for vocals, and I am sure it is only the main singers' mic. (SM58?) that is causing the problem. We never go through a house PA... the gigs are all fairly small here in Cornwall. First off, I'll check his PA settings at our next gig. For some strange reason, he has taken to standing in front of me and my rig recently.... so maybe a smack might be in order? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamapirate Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 I had a similar problem (ok, almost completely different) when I was doing a new years' eve gig. We kept getting horrible feedback through what appeared to be our guitarist's channel (typical, eh?) and the monitors. However, I hadn't realised that by sitting on top of my amp, I had turned the bass on my EQ to full, and it was booming through his mic, and then through all the foldback then back into the mic. Dunno if you wanna check your EQ on your bass amp... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinman Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 The advice given above is all sound ('scuse pun). Cutting the low end on the vocal mics is very worthwhile - it cleans up the sound a fair bit. Not only does it help the vocal intelligibility, it saves you a bit of power too. Cut as much as you can without impairing the sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_the_bass Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 We have a similar problem with the singer's mic picking up the kick drum and we're using Shure Beta 58As (hyper cardiode I believe). Doesn't happen very often, but seems to be when the singer is stood right in front of the drums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.T Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 Just got back from a multi-band gig. We used one of the earlier bands PA and I asked our singer (who was using his own mic.) to avoid standing in front of me. No feedback or booming.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Too much gain on the mic channel ? Get the singer to sing closer to the mic and use less gain..... ?? ATB Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.T Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 [quote name='Marcus' post='519774' date='Jun 21 2009, 09:20 AM']Too much gain on the mic channel ? Get the singer to sing closer to the mic and use less gain..... ?? ATB Mark[/quote] Yes, that seems to be the problem. On a bigger stage it isn't an issue. Unfortunately, although the rest of us are all old hands at gigging, our singer is relatively inexperienced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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