Feedback destroyers

[AbbaAgain]

Ok a bit of a rant and equipment advise. We are now well into our summer season In Majorca and have a rotation of the same 13 hotels and venues every 2 weeks. It comes in really handy being able to save the show set ups on the DL1608 and cuts sound checks times down by half. Most of the gigs we do we use our own equipment, but the others we have to send a stereo feed from our desk to the house PA ( this is because of very, very strict rules on volume). The house PAs have limiters attached to them  and in some cases set so low if a cockroach scuttles past and farts we can hear it above our mix. When using the house PAs I pass two XLRs to the house mixer(L&R).... This is where the main problem arises.
Most of the hotels realising that working a desk properly is a very important job , that can take years to master  intrust it, normally  with some 17 year old entertainer who has just come from school , tried and supporting a hang over from a nights partying ,who's main duties also include children's activities, face painting  and dressing as a clown for the coca loca disco  . They don't understand what the limiters are doing and are constantly playing with the volume while we perform .If a song starts quite they push the volume up and then leave it, the track gets loud the limiters kick in and compress, I adjust my desk then at the end of the song the track volume decreases and the mics become uncompressed and increase in volume .... Hay presto, feedback that alerts alien life to our presence on earth. I spend more time messing with the sound on stage then i do playing my guitar. I have told them to leave the desk alone after I set it for them...... But of course they know better!  . So I know it's far from ideal, and my sound will suffer a bit but I have just purchased and awaiting a feedback destroyer to be delivered ( beringer  FBQ2496) . Has anybody had any experience using this model  with the DL1608 ? I know it's a cheap model but I remove the feedback in the sound check with he graphic, the unit is just meant as a fail safe for when they mess with the volume and eq as the night goes on.

[sam.spoons]

Sadly I think you are on a hiding to nothing  Your only hope would be to persuade the 'sound tech' to plug you into their system controller bypassing their desk but if they have other acts on that's probably not going to happen. Otherwise just gaffa tape the channel faders on your inputs 

[CyberHippy]

Yeah, bummer about the cheap-labor sound guys, I've spent most of my professional career making sure I'm not "one of those crappy sound guys". Best advice I can give is to do your best to communicate with them, like "our performance is dynamic, so please don't ride the faders during the show or when we get to a loud part the limiters will kick in" or of course "please run the channel(s) flat with no compression or HiPass"… if they stare blankly at the terminology buy them a beer & hope they get pulled away from the board.

I haven't worked with that particular feedback destroyer but they mostly all work the same, just put them in between the aux send and the monitor (or monitor amp) and set it to "auto detect" so any mysterious feedback that appears during the show gets clobbered. The Q on the destroyer's EQ is usually so fine you never notice the difference in your mix. Only problem is they won't solve feedback that's coming through the mains, but that's a less common issue if the stage is laid out correctly.

[ijpengelly]

I had a couple of the Behringer feedback destroyers, the 1100 and the 1124 (IIRC) and I was impressed with both units when used in monitor feeds, basically they were almost fit and forget. Obviously there is a limit to how much they can do. I sort of regret getting rid to be honest.

[WK154]

Oh boy! Normally I would say, run it thru the learn mode lock the permanent culprits and leave the rest for the surprises on a round robin basis. Here I think you're reaching for the band-aid when you should be looking at the source of the problem. Based on your description you're faced with two un-coordinated FOH fiddlers but there is no explanation for their involvement in your performance. I would kick it up a notch and explain to the powers to be that your performance is being impacted by their involvement and are negatively affecting your reputation as a Band in public. If you really need this gig then of course you may be rolling the dice. I have a couple of these but use them on individual channels not output LR.

[Jerrylee]

Many years ago I played with a loud band and I was not aware how to ring out feedback. I did but a behringer shark and it worked great. It's one of the small little boxes. I don't think they call it a shark anymore and it was apparently replaced with a newer model that looks almost identical. I also used it at an event for a place that was having comedy night. I was just using a set of powered speaker with a wireless mic. The comedians didn't get the concept of not walking right in front of the speakers. I hadn't used the shark in many years. I brought it out, used it to get rid of feedback and bam, problem solved.

I sold it about 8 months ago. When I showed the guy how to use it I kind of regretted selling it. I had forgotten how well it worked.

[WK154]

Yup still called Sharks after the DSP that they used. The new one is just a repackage with a low power DSP. They also include a preamp and a large line wart. I also used them as a delay line. The old ones got hot, but they still sell them.

[robbocurry]

Ok a bit of a rant and equipment advise. We are now well into our summer season In Majorca and have a rotation of the same 13 hotels and venues every 2 weeks. It comes in really handy being able to save the show set ups on the DL1608 and cuts sound checks times down by half. Most of the gigs we do we use our own equipment, but the others we have to send a stereo feed from our desk to the house PA ( this is because of very, very strict rules on volume). The house PAs have limiters attached to them  and in some cases set so low if a cockroach scuttles past and farts we can hear it above our mix. When using the house PAs I pass two XLRs to the house mixer(L&R).... This is where the main problem arises.
Most of the hotels realising that working a desk properly is a very important job , that can take years to master  intrust it, normally  with some 17 year old entertainer who has just come from school , tried and supporting a hang over from a nights partying ,who's main duties also include children's activities, face painting  and dressing as a clown for the coca loca disco  . They don't understand what the limiters are doing and are constantly playing with the volume while we perform .If a song starts quite they push the volume up and then leave it, the track gets loud the limiters kick in and compress, I adjust my desk then at the end of the song the track volume decreases and the mics become uncompressed and increase in volume .... Hay presto, feedback that alerts alien life to our presence on earth. I spend more time messing with the sound on stage then i do playing my guitar. I have told them to leave the desk alone after I set it for them...... But of course they know better!  . So I know it's far from ideal, and my sound will suffer a bit but I have just purchased and awaiting a feedback destroyer to be delivered ( beringer  FBQ2496) . Has anybody had any experience using this model  with the DL1608 ? I know it's a cheap model but I remove the feedback in the sound check with he graphic, the unit is just meant as a fail safe for when they mess with the volume and eq as the night goes on.

Don't suppose you need any roadies, I need a break from this crappy weather