Wedding Woes and "Din Dingers"

I’ve written earlier about feedback, the high pitched noise or low pitched hum that occasionally arises from a hyper-sensitive sound system.  It inevitably and inconveniently arises its ugly head against us in music ministry who have a sound system, but no one overseeing it.  I’ve mentioned some ways to address possible feedback root causes and quick fixes, and here are a couple more, including a wedding story!



Microphone type.  I mentioned in an earlier post that one easy way of avoiding feedback lies in the angle of the microphone.  Ensure that it is not pointed toward a speaker or monitor.  However, in some churches this may not help much.  Some churches (unintentionally) are wonderful echo chambers, and some have speakers misplaced behind the choir or music group area.  For these cases, a different type of microphone might help.  It might be worth investigating one type that is much less sensitive to surrounding noise, a noise-canceling microphone (I call it a din dinger).  These are commonly used on loud concert stages for vocalists.

Speaker placement.  I mentioned earlier about speaker placement.  I recently sang and played at my sister’s wedding in a church with a new sound system.  The music director at this church (after orienting me) told me that he often gets feedback from the sound system and doesn’t know why.  (Incidentally, these are not the most comforting of words for a musician to hear a mere hour before one’s sister’s wedding!)  Pointing over my shoulder at the grand wall-mounted speaker set behind us, I said that I probably could guess why.  It was almost unavoidable!  Every microphone in the music area would pick up sound from that speaker. 

In this case a noise-canceling microphone would have been nice, but wasn’t available.  It also would have been nice to have maintenance remove it, but the bride would likely object to the unsightly wall-hole and wires in the family photo backdrops!  In this case, I gingerly angled the microphones as far away from the speaker as possible and… success!  No feedback during the entire wedding.

I’m sure I’m not the only one in music ministry with a wedding feedback story.  Fortunately, mine had a happy ending.  Would anyone in the Sunday Musician community share their wedding woe story?

Related Posts
Unfolding "Test 123"
Cozy Up to the Mic
Good Microphone Technique: Angle

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