mic-feedback help

SawaotheBuster

Hey, I've been looking around and I haven't been able to get a real stable answer to my question

Does the quality of the mic or the head of the PA count more for lower feedback?

and what is up with LO-z and HI-Z stuff?

thanks

Doog

Lo-Z is generally a microphone level low impedance signal, Hi-Z is for keyboards, guitars etc.

The quality of a PA can have an effect on feedback yeah, but also EQ and mic-speaker placement. What is the PA and what situation are you using it in?

SawaotheBuster

the wise doog comes to the rescue,

small super budget PA(like super cheap 80W) for practice only, for now one mic, in a garage or outside

I just got it so I still need to see which is good setup for the space we got.

But before I was using an old mixer and running a mic through that and it would give cycle feedback past a certain volume regardless of which way the speaker was facing....

Bob_the_godly_dude

Your PA got a graphic EQ? If it has you can ring it out, that's where you find out what frequencies are feeding back and drop them by about 3db to give you more headroom.

Find out the polar pattern of your mics (usually either cardoid or hypercardoid), that'll tell you where to place them relative to the speakers. If all else fails, hanging a curtain can stop too much reverb from bouncing the sound back into the mics and creating feedback.

Rick

SawaotheBuster said:
and what is up with LO-z and HI-Z stuff?

imo, you should get one of these. otherwise your mics will be very quiet and you'll need to buy an unnecessarily large amp to get them to any reasonable volume. it's always seemed very strange to me how people continue to do it this way

SawaotheBuster

it doesn't have an EQ, but I get what your sayin

So if I use that converter, it would change a XLR(circle with 3 prongs in it??) to a 1/4 to put it into a line input??

Doog

SawaotheBuster said:
and what is up with LO-z and HI-Z stuff?

Like I've said before, that's like saying you should buy active pickups instead of a bigger guitar amp. Input volume is different to output volume.

SawaotheBuster

well in this case it may be diff...

cause that is what high gain before feedback is right?

allows you to put on more volume before it feedbacks, thus optimizing the volume...

one more question though, what is the advantage of XLR and 1/4 in mic quality, is one superior or somethign?

Other that that I think I got a grip on whats going on, thanks

Rick

SawaotheBuster said: one more question though, what is the advantage of XLR and 1/4 in mic quality, is one superior or somethign?

as far as i can see, it's simply a different type of connection. i could be wrong though

Rick

Doog said: Like I've said before, that's like saying you should buy active pickups instead of a bigger guitar amp. Input volume is different to output volume.

if the mic actually distorted when put through one of those transformers i posted, then i would agree with you. but they don't. that transformer costs pennies, and makes small affordable pa systems really usable for mics. and the signal is still passive, not active.

i don't know the science of it, only the practical application. a mic signal should be enough to be amplified to the same volume as any other passive type of pickup by relatively small amps. that's just my opinion anyway