The Score Magazine January 2023 issue! January 2023 issue | Page 37

Another cause of the feedback is due to another phenomenon known as “ the acoustic modes of a room ”, which is nothing more than the specific points where the audio emitted by the geometry of the place is heard with greater or lesser volume and if the sound equipment is mounted in those places , coupling takes place . This can be solved by just moving the equipment .
Feedback often has to do with the pickup pattern of the microphones being used . An omnidirectional microphone not only captures the sound of the stage , but it also captures the sound that comes from the public or from the speakers facing the public , on the other hand , a directional or cardioid microphone may be less prone to feedback because it only captures sound from the direction it ’ s facing .
To avoid this annoying phenomenon , we must achieve a good configuration respecting the gain levels by placing the microphones as close as possible to their sources and reducing the gain , or we could ask the user to keep their voice levels high and speak louder in front of the microphone .
If your budget allows it , you can change the microphones for more directional microphones and if the problem is due to reverberation or acoustic modes of the room , acoustic conditioning could be done to change the acoustic characteristics of the room .
Another professional way to solve this problem is to analyze the frequency response with a spectrum analyzer and use a parametric equalizer to reduce the peaks by adding the appropriate filters . A method widely used by audio engineers is to use a graphic equalizer and raise the gains of the audio channels . As soon as the first feedback appears , this frequency must be lowered then the audio levels must be raised again to detect the subsequent feedback .
Usually , they are between four or five since during this test all the levels are raised and adjusted with the maximum volume levels , therefore these levels will not be reached in live sound and we will not have more annoying feedback .
Currently , there are feedback reducers that operate automatically by detecting the
frequency at which feedback occurs and creating a filter for it . The Shure microphone brand has intelligent mixing consoles incorporated with this technology or has the DFR11EQ available , which is a digital equalizer that offers automatic parallel protection of feedback , limiter , and delay among other efficient functions . Modern technological development has really helped sound engineers reduce microphone feedback by a huge margin .
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