Feedback eliminators - anyone use these?

steve149 said:

Just so everyone is on the same page, a feedback reducer, or at least the good ones, don't eliminate anything unless feedback occurs, so if you've wrung things out properly and set up speakers properly and use proper mic technique .. they won't ever kick in. They're a safety net .. there for the times when things don't go right and you're 100' away from the board. And feedback always happens just after you've told someone what not to do ..

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The idea is that you ring the system prior to the event so the feedback eliminator catches the problem frequencies in the room, thereby giving you more gain before feedback. It may catch any strays after that if you let it ring long enough, but the intent is to have the system set up so that you don't get to that point during the event. IMO if you only let a feedback eliminator catch feedback as it happens, that's WAY too much feedback during an event...it takes a couple seconds of good solid feedback for the eliminator to zap it.

Valerie Hicks said:

The idea is that you ring the system prior to the event so the feedback eliminator catches the problem frequencies in the room, thereby giving you more gain before feedback. It may catch any strays after that if you let it ring long enough, but the intent is to have the system set up so that you don't get to that point during the event. IMO if you only let a feedback eliminator catch feedback as it happens, that's WAY too much feedback during an event...it takes a couple seconds of good solid feedback for the eliminator to zap it.

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I agree, but you can also use a PEQ to wring out the room as well instead of a feedback reducer to get the same benefit. It's dificult to use a PEQ live for the oops incidents that are inevitable when non-pros take a mic. In general, I haven't had too many room related issues (except the occasional hard floor, glass wall tight space). The VAST majority of feedback issues I have had were people using a mic incorrectly .. walking in front of the mains, pointing it at the monitors, stuffing it into their pockets (that one more than once).

But I agree that testing the room first is a great advantage and I will normally let the unit (Driverack or dbx afs) do that to set the fixed filters.