How to minimise feedback on mics playing live?

[sirvoice]

Hey guys,

In my band we run everything thru Ableton Live. We send out a stereo mix and two separate lines, one with sax and one with vocal so the sound guy can boost/attenuate the channels.

We run an audio effects rack on both with delays, filters etc that are controlled with a midi controller.

Normally this works pretty well. but last night at a big dance club with a huge PA the feedback got pretty bad a couple times, and ended up recorded in our loops, which sucks . It got especially bad when we tried to use long, wet delays, which is one of our favouite things to do!

Now obviously this dance club isn't really set up for live bands and the volume was VERY loud but we want to be able to get a grip on it.

my question is, what is the best way to minimise feedback - i.e eq settings etc to use that minimise top and bottom end feedback while still keeping a great vocal/sax sound.

Is it better to have interface mic line volume low and boost it at the mixer/sound guys end or vice versa?

Or any quick assignments we could make to nip it in the bud when it happens.

Any tips as all would be very appreciated.

x

[alexdecker]

Keep the mics behind your speakers and away from monitors. Make good use of the Gate plugin. That should get you a long way…

- Alex

[LeifonMars]

1. Cut the lows from the signal that is send to your monitors, around 150 Hz. Search also for disturbing freqs and cut them.
2. Send the signal to your monitors as dry as possible (without delays, reverbs or so). If you need to send fx to your monitors as well, cut it with eq as stated above.
3. Try not to send stereo signal into a mono monitor return.

Remember: often the price of avoiding feedback comes with crappy monitoring sound.