How to maximize gain before feedback of a podium microphone using Smaart®

[@jpruhu7662]

I have spent all of my career using my ears: mostly due to lack of funds for accurate testing tools but a lot of it has been a commitment to developing my ear. It has always been my "dirty little secret" that my eq/graph curves on the channel and in the group (and sometimes even to the mains) looked carved and mangled! Yet it sounded good! Amazing how powerful intuition can be! You are doing a grand service to the industry! Keep up the great work!

[@kieranniemand2939]

I've done the same with some DPA lav's on a stage. Worked really well! It gave me a good understanding of what the mic is picking up on stage and why the ridiculous EQ curve sounds good. I also like to use it during a show some times.. have Smaart display my solo output (which is the mic input) and correlate what I am hearing/doing with what the mic is hearing.

[@nathanlively]

Nice! Would you be willing to share some of your measurements?

[@kieranniemand2939]

@@nathanlively oef.. unfortunately this was a while back, and I didn't save anything! :(

[@cdrchrrs]

I’m going to watch this video another time before sending any questions. Thanks for the information. I’m pretty new to this, and I definitely see a gap in my conceptual understanding of SMAART and other audio tools for preventing feedback in live sound.

[@nathanlively]

Try it out. Let me know what you come up with.

[@slowgold20]

Whoa, you've just sold me on putting together a measurement rig. Depending on upcoming work I'll see if I can try this for increasing gain before feedback on headworn lavs for musicals in a pretty difficult room. This could make my mix a lot simpler (and the run less stressful) when in actually comes to showtime!

[@nathanlively]

Let us know how it goes.

[@TheVickersDoorter]

The best, cheapest and easiest audio tool I've used (aside from my ears and 35 years live audio experience) to assist with lectern mic sound is a Behringer single-ended noise reduction unit I acquired in the late 1990's. It's not all about getting the max level with least ring, but having a dry clean sound coming out of FOH. Cutting out room noise appreciably improves speech intelligibility and you can actually run at a lower level, which in turn gives you that bit of headroom you need to cover a variety of people speaking from the same fixed position. I've often been surprised when watching keynote speeches on TV where you can hear the reverberation of the PA system picked up by the lectern mic(s). It's such a simple and effective fix.

[@nathanlively]

Nice! What is the model of the unit?

[@TheVickersDoorter]

@@nathanlively A very early Multiband Denoiser - identical to this one (scroll down the page a bit) - reverb.com/item/5862262-behringer-multiband-denoiser-vintage Granted, Behringer has made some rubbish kit over the last couple of decades, but this one is solid, does the job it was designed to do and is sitting in a rack still working and never needed fixing.

[@FOHBurton]

Hi Nathan great video...Keep up the good work, I just wanted to know where you got that curve from? Thanks

[@nathanlively]

Hey Burton, that looks like one my standard targets. www.sounddesignlive.com/target-traces/

[@MatthewMcclatchie123]

Hey man did you use x32 remote then use x32 interface to smart and use vocal mic to get your trace I just trying understand how you set up because I want to try this method ...

[@nathanlively]

Hi Alpha, I explain the routing in the video. I'm not sure what more I can say about it. An alternative routing would be to just unplug the podium mic from the console and plug it into your audio interface as the mic input, but I like routing it in software.

[@lootguitar]

Solid video! Cool method, and great timing as I was looking at a similar method, and had not thought to Solo mute the podium. As you mentioned, this is a similar way to tune wedges. I would tune the wedges then tune podium? Would you opt for to take a trace through the wedges as well? Just thinking. Thanks for the video!

[@nathanlively]

Thanks Christopher! Recently I tried the same method, but unmuted the podium mic and put it into the system. Results did not change. If I had stage monitors, I would work on those first, measuring the on-axis response with my measurement mic, then the off-axis response of the vocal mic, since I would expect a lot more bleed from the stage monitor into the vocal mic than the FOH system. But I would do both if I had time.

[@cscrignaro]

Didn't really follow this one. So you're taking a measurement of the mains from the podium position and using that to correct the monitor wedge?

[@winship7891]

Might not be a wedge.

[@nathanlively]

Hey Carlo, there's no wedge. I'm only suggesting that this would also work with a wedge. I'm just observing the bleed from the FOH system back into the podium mic.

[@morganbelle357]

This method is interesting, but doesn’t make real sense to me. Why would you correct your sound from the main PA so that is sounds nearly flat at the Podium position? It is only natural that this measurement has far more low end (PA becomes omnidirectional in low frequency’s, but also your microphone is far more directional in high frequency’s). I think it is better to listen to the sound first in the room and then to decide with your ears, which frequency’s are feeding back and whether your sound from the main pa can afford a cut in this band. But most importantly of course is to create a speaker/microphone placement that will most effectively reduce all feedback (highly directional mic, highly directional loudspeaker, greater distance between the two and so on...)

[@nathanlively]

Hey Morgan, there might be some confusion here. I'm not correcting the "sound from the main PA". I am correcting the podium microphone's response.

[@morganbelle357]

Hey Nathan, thanks for your reply. But where is the difference? If you change the response of the mic, you will of course change the sound of that microphone from the main pa.?

[@derekrushe]

@@morganbelle357 Because if you stand behind a pa it sounds more sub/low mid heavy, and that will bleed into the podium mic. He's just giving himself a basic 'flat' starting point before he even eq's the microphone.

[@Alexclarke123]

I’ve always added of cut to almost all monitors, perhaps with the exception of the drum monitor. I based this on the fact that when I started you would always get a lot of bass stage wash. Of course this was then, we now have cardioid subs and arrays, which have somewhat, if not totally changed the situation. My observations has always been that I came across two strategies in the past, those that hacked a monitor until they could almost point the mic directly at it, however, it may sound loud, but it never sounded good. I usually adopted a technique of neutralising the sound in the monitor and focus often if the sound was smooth and clean, not only did you get a fair amount of gain before feedback, you gained clarity making it far more pleasant to listen too, often precluding the need for as much volume. I’ve consistently found that the best sounding wedges, often were the easiest to work with in terms of feedback, things like D&B M2’s and M4’s, Martin L400’s, Meyer um100’s, L acoustic x15, etc. all great sounding and smooth.

[@aurora-a1901]

Hello, can you explain how to connect the channels of your mixing console and audio interface？Console Master out- Interface input1 、Console Monitor Out- Interface input？

[@oliviersadoulet337]

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