The feedback assistant is very handy but activating it is tricky, so I’d prefer if it wasn’t automatically deactivated every time the console is power-cycled.
I installed our Qu5 in a church, our sound techs are all volunteers, mostly without broad experience, and the feedback assistant helps them do their work better.
But the default state is that it is inactive whenever the console boots up. And so I have to give everybody access to layers C and D in order for them to follow a slightly complex set of instructions just to switch it on every Sunday morning and every Sunday evening. Sometimes they forget to go through the process, and I get reports that there’s been feedback in various services.
I’d like to be able to save the FBA in a scene in an active state, and know that it’s going to do its job when somebody runs the desk from that scene.
Yes, I agree it would be helpful if it was scene savable in the detection on state.
I don’t go to FBA via layer C or D, so I’m guessing you have your surface setup different than I did mine.
My path to get there fast:
From the base screen as in get to the grey Home screen found by tapping the Processing button a few times to clear any selections. Now I go into LR (FOH) Mix via having both its Mix and select buttons active, that is Blue then Green buttons, now I tap the FBA/GEQ tab and tap the pink Detection On button and make sure it’s “In”.
On my Church FOH mix, I’m using FBA in a live filter mode, so we look for pink Detection On, Green Live Filters, and Green In buttons from left to right. We’re good then.
I’ll be honest, you don’t want to run the Feedback assistant in active mode at all times. It is really designed to be turned on for a brief period of time while some walks the stage speaking into the mic to “capture” any potential feedback frequencies, and then turned off.
If you keep the feedback system set to “active” all the time, it will inevitably start cutting frequencies that are loud, but not undesired or causing feedback. This will cause your vocal channel to sound worse and worse as time goes on and become softer and softer as more frequencies are cut.
Now there is a setting for how quickly frequencies are “restored” after being automatically cut by the system, but you will still get more consistent results if you simply “ring out” the mic using the feedback detection system and then turn off the active seeking portion of the detection system once the channel has been “rung out.”
Hi Sic0048. Actually I would do it your way if we didn’t have folks who insist on walking around with headset mics, even right under our infill speakers. So whatever position I ring it out at, and the frequencies selected based on that position, simply won’t apply when we need it because other distances will be involved.
Instead, I’ve set the attack and release speeds to where it helps reduce vocal feedback without audibly impacting, say, long guitar notes. I’m happy with the speed settings I’ve found, just not happy that I have to get my volunteers to turn FBA on manually every single time.
Not trying to hijack the thread, I myself have to rely on it as a crutch with an untreated Sanctuary. I’ve kept my audio as natural as possible by using Live Filters, fastest response, fast recovery, then under the adjust tab, I minimized cut range to about 6 dB max.
Once I get acoustic panels, I’ll ring it out the old way.
Have you taken the time to have your pastor walk around the stage wearing the headset mic and speaking using their “preaching” voice so that the fixed filters can be set on the feedback detection system? Obviously if there is one general area where most of the feedback occurs, this should be a point of emphasis. However the pastor should still walk around everywhere he typically will “wander” during a sermon.
Those fixed filters will be working even if the “detection” algorithm is turned off.