Today's Lesson

Let's talk about proper mic technique. This is another simple thing that really helps to cut down on feedback.

Make sure you grip the microphone on the handle, not up around the ball. Holding at the ball effectively turns your hand into a highly reflective surface surrounding the microphone capsule, which then creates an isolated feedback loop around the microphone itself. Doing this will also cancel the cardioid pick-up pattern on the mic and convert it to an omnidirectional pattern instead. So, if you cup the mic in front of your stage monitor you have an even bigger problem. 

Additionally, if you are speaking or singing in to the mic, make sure that the microphone is within a close proximity to your voice, but not too close. If you hold the mic too far away, it will throw off your signal-to-noise ratio, which means you’re going to have to the turn the gain up higher than normal to hear that vocalist and more noise is introduced into the system which will eventually cause feedback. 

For more lessons and videos, see our QSC YouTube page.