Thanks. I’m using it right. As I mentioned above, the problem I experienced was 100% confirmed by A&H to be a bug and they are working on a fix for it that at some point will be included in a firmware update.
And if you leave HOLD enabled, there is no point in switching it to Live mode. HOLD means it will not detect any feedback. Whether you leave it in Fixed or Live mode, if you have HOLD enabled, it will no longer detect feedback.
And “generally” doesn’t apply to many of the venues my bands play. Feedback can happen in monitors and/or mains. In one band it’s not a problem because we don’t play that loud and it’s not hard to get the vocals out front in the mix. In my other band, not so much. Everyone plays very loud, the singer has a very soft voice, and feedback in the mains is inevitable in many venues. Small room, low ceilings, reflective walls (glass, concrete, etc) and there is no room (trust me, don’t try to tell me I’m doing it wrong or there’s always room) to place the mains far enough out front (or to place the mics somewhere else) to prevent feedback. The 12-band parametric EQ, which is how the FBA works, is much more effective than a 16-band GEQ which is the alternative. The cuts the FBA makes are more precise and narrow than a 16-band GEQ can make.
Please don’t tell me I’m doing it wrong. I’m not. The FBA is a valuable tool and I would like to use it for its intended purpose. It’s very frustrating to be told that I don’t need it or that I’m doing it wrong. It’s a feature that is part of the mixer and I want to use it, simple as that. I would like it to work as designed and hope that A&H can fix the bug, as they told me they would.
Just to update - I heard back from A&H and apparently fixing this is going to be more complicated than they initially thought. No estimated timeline. I’m very disappointed because I bought the CQ18 thinking I would have a FBA similar to the dBx AFS2 I had been using with my previous setup. Unfortunately as it turns out, what I traded the AFS2 for is basically a 12-band PEQ. Still better than a GEQ but not quite the functionality of a true FBA.
As @Guitarman says, this has been logged as a bug and will be fixed.
For clarity, the issue presents in the following situation
Fixed filters have been applied
The FBA is switched to live mode
All 16 filters have been used
Feedback is detected at the same or very very close to the same frequency as one of the existing fixed filters
At which point the FBA, which will always try to remove detected feedback, can replace the fixed filter at that frequency with a live filter.
This part of the algorithm aims to make best use of the available filters and can apply a slightly wider single filter to cover two adjacent feedback frequencies, but the bug is that it should not remove a fixed filter when set to apply live filters.
@Keith Just checking back to see if there has been any progress on this.
Also wondering about a related feature request that has been mentioned a few times which is the ability to manually adjust the frequency on the FBA fixed filters. We can modify the depth and Q but not the frequency. Being able to adjust the frequency would be very convenient.