Slightly OT: using mics live etc

I'm hoping one or two kind souls my be able to help me out here, or offer
suggestions.

Our band always has trouble getting the vocals, mainly our female lead
singists volume high enough in the mix without causing feedback problems.
For instance last week in rehearsal we were using a 350w per side PA, and
sill had trouble getting her heard above drums, my bass and 2 guitarists.
Obviously we can only play as quiet as the drums. Now Jenny has a cracking
sounding voice, it's just not a massively powerful one. She can sometimes
belt is out, just not often. (our drummer on the other hand has a naturally
loud voice and has to be turned right down).

We also have problems at gigs too. One of the guitarists dads in out
soundman and he always has trouble getting her heard, even with a 1.5kw PA
and shure wireless SM58 mic. He has a feedback destroyer, but it can only
do so much. We're also playing a gig soon in a pub with a very low ceiling
that we had so much grief with before. The mics (mainly hers) were turned up
so much the drums started feeding back through them.

The guy who runs the rehearsal rooms came in to help us out last week (who's
also a singer: stars in their eyes bowie-a-like) and proved that if you have
a strong enough signal going in the mic it's fine. He suggested using a
pre-amp on her mic before the desk. I have a little behringer mic100 tube
jobby which also has a built in limiter that we can use as compression to
raise the level.

My only concern is: Isn't using a preamp before the desk the same as
boosting the gain on the channel strip? Therefore inducing feedback as it's
making the mic more sensitive. So I'm not sure it's going to do anything we
can't do on the desk already.

I have thought about one of those behringer shark devices, they are a
preamp, compressor and feedback destroyer in one small bag sized unit. If
it will do the job I may persuade her to part with some money.

Cheers for any advice

greg

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Slightly OT: using mics live etc
    ... sill had trouble getting her heard above drums, ... The mics were turned up ... compressor and feedback destroyer in one small bag sized unit. ... We used to find this in the hall that Holly's old band used to practice ...
    (uk.music.guitar)
  • Re: Slightly OT: using mics live etc
    ... singists volume high enough in the mix without causing feedback problems. ... sill had trouble getting her heard above drums, ... The mics were turned ... Can foldback and main FOH levels can be adjusted independently? ...
    (uk.music.guitar)
  • Re: Slightly OT: using mics live etc
    ... singists volume high enough in the mix without causing feedback problems. ... sill had trouble getting her heard above drums, ... The mics were turned ... Can foldback and main FOH levels can be adjusted independently? ...
    (uk.music.guitar)