"Ringing out" your PA

[Big_Daddy]

I recently found the best little tool for getting our PA system set up and "rung out" quickly. It's an iPhone/iPad app called Pocket RTA ..

http://www.4pockets.com/iphone/iphone_pocketRTA.php

Once I get the PA set up, mikes and monitors placed, I set our mains EQ flat, turn on Pocket RTA and start crankng up the volume until it starts to feed back. The software immediately shows me what frequency is feeding back and I adjust it on the EQ. I just keep repeating the process until I am well above the necessary volume we need in the room. I then bump back the volume slightly to the desired room level and feedback is a non-issue. I can then do the same for the monitor system. Then it's just a matter of adjusting the channel strip vocal parametrics to taste. I can EQ a room now in less than 15 minutes. Love this little tool. :aok:aok

[Stone]

Your FOH should not have to be "rung out". Are you having feedback from FOH ? Notching frequencies for an issue that isn't a problem may not (will not) provide best results. Especially once you factor in abnormality's in the room.

You should take some readings with a good RTA system and then yours and compare notes. Personally I like the phonic paa3. However its only a reference tool. Dont forget to trust your ears. Good luck.

[Big_Daddy]

Your FOH should not have to be "rung out". Are you having feedback from FOH ? Notching frequencies for an issue that isn't a problem may not (will not) provide best results. Especially once you factor in abnormality's in the room.

You should take some readings with a good RTA system and then yours and compare notes. Personally I like the phonic paa3. However its only a reference tool. Dont forget to trust your ears. Good luck.

OK, you obviously know more about this than me. I've just been using this in our rehearsal rooms to deal with feedback issues, as we have both mains and monitors set up. It has been very useful in helping me quickly find where the offending frequencies are and, in that way, I guess it is helping me tune my ears as well. Thanks for your input.

[sixstringslut]

Sounds fun to play with, however, what kind of mic you are using and mic placement is critical as well.
Gigwise, ringing PA is almost waste of time. You have to do it when noone is in the room. Then when people start coming in it changes everything.
Do it a few times to learn your rig, then you can usualy look at a room and adjust for lower ceilings, mirrors/carpet on walls, wood/carpet floors etc...
In the end hopefully everything is close to flat, where you started.

[Big_Daddy]

Sounds fun to play with, however, what kind of mic you are using and mic placement is critical as well.
Gigwise, ringing PA is almost waste of time. You have to do it when noone is in the room. Then when people start coming in it changes everything.
Do it a few times to learn your rig, then you can usualy look at a room and adjust for lower ceilings, mirrors/carpet on walls, wood/carpet floors etc...
In the end hopefully everything is close to flat, where you started.

All good advice. I hope more people will chime in. I haven't seen a thread about this on TGP. Thanks!

[Stone]

As for rehearsing we just use floor monitors. The mains never point at you in a show so why point them at ya when ya practice. It keeps a level of consistency between stage and rehearsal. IMO anyways. We ring out our monitors with ppl in the venue. One guy on stage and the Tech can rough in a system fairly fast. With that said the lower you keep you stage volume the higher your GBF (gain before feedback) will be. We very rarely have a problem that cant be fixed with monitor position or minimal eq adjustment. We dont flatten our the eq every time either.

[jmoose]

Yeah I've never seen or heard of anyone "ring" the mains... monitors, yes... each time and every time. The "trick" is to not hack up the whole EQ and use as few bands as possible... otherwise the monitors (and mains) will lose all their punch and tone. Run as flat as possible but hack away only the bad stuff.

[walterw]

all good advice, but the FFT app on my iphone works wonders for me, too.

you should have enough rig and have it placed correctly so that you can blast the mains well too loud without chasing a bunch of feedback, but if there is a "hot" zone or two, the app makes finding it much faster. (more than one or two feedback zones and something's wrong, up to and including not bringing enough rig for the gig and trying to push it too hard.)

same is true to a lesser extent for ringing out monitors; knocking down more than two or three feedback frequencies means you have a problem, either in mic placement, overall EQ, or inadequate monitors & amps.

(i'm talking about my bar/club world; the big boys use way more sophisticated stuff like SMAART, which measures a whole lot more variables than any rta, and usually have good enough stuff that feedback from pushing it too hard is not an issue.)

[Big_Daddy]

Thanks for the comments guys. :aok