So, I have an audio-technica earset that gets more feedback than I would like.

the guy at the store (you all know who he is) told me that there is a gain control
inside the transmitter that I should check. I looked and it was set all the way to
HIGH.

I will tone it down and see if that does not help the feedback situation.

Seems that turning UP the PA and down the gain on the receiver also helped prevent feedback.


comments?

The gain on the mic transmitter is sort of a cheat. A way to sometimes over come a low end or not so hot PA. Kind of like "..if all else fails bump the gain..." Setting the gain high will get you feedback almost all the time, it makes your mic way too "hot".
It shouldn't have been set high in the first place on a mic from the factory.
Set your gain, at the transmitter, dead center. Most cases the receiver should be set at a mid point as well. Mess with volume at the PA first, then, if you still need too, at the reveiver. That's why the transmitter gain is hard to get at..you shouldn't need too.

Good Luck

A HA!!!!!!!!

Well I hope this works Ms. Morgan. I do keep the gain on the receiver set to medium low and the gain on the PA much higher.

Reducing the gain on the transmitter might do the trick. They told me it would probably be in the middle but it was not. It was set to "11"

The process of setting all of a system's level controls is what's often called "gain staging".
• transmitter gain/sensitivity
• receiver output level
• mixer channel's gain/input trim
• mixer channel's fader level
• mixer sub-group's fader level
• mixer master fader level
• amp level
While the process of gain staging can be somewhat technical, there are two concepts here that I feel compelled to address.

First, in any wireless transmitter of reasonable quality, changing the transmitter gain will have negligible affect on frequency response. The only way in which it can affect feedback is that, if you turn it up, the mic is louder, so you may need to turn down a level control later in the chain in order to compensate. Add “x” amount of level at one point in the chain, and then take away that same “x” amount of gain at another point in the chain, and the net result is that you’re back where you started.
Original loudness + “x” loudness - “x” loudness = original loudness.

To further clarify the first bit, each level control, all the way from transmitter gain/sensitivity to the amp controls is simply that --- a level control. They are not EQ controls. Turning up a given level control, and then equally turning down another nets no change in EQ or in feedback potential. Even in a cheap system whose frequency response might change with the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control, feedback response is FAR too unpredictable (relying upon the contributions of all the system’s components and the room itself) to have any predictable, factory-tuned effect on feedback.

Second, a very important part of the “gain staging” process is proper adjustment of transmitter gain. Wireless systems generate noise that’s heard as a “hiss”. The loudness of that noise does not change as you adjust the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control. However, adjusting the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control does change the voice level RELATIVE to the noise, so, if you set the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control too low, there’ll be excess noise/hiss. If you set the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control too high, there’ll be overload distortion. Every make, model or type of mic will require a different setting, and that setting can be determined by adjusting the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control to slightly below the point of voice distortion. In MOST cases, this means speaking your absolutely LOUDEST passages so that the transmitter’s overload light illuminates, and then backing off the transmitter’s gain/sensitivity control slightly. Again, this is to maximize the relative distance between your voice and the noise/hiss that is inherent in the transmitter, known as the “signal-to-noise ratio”.


This statement is 100% correct, Ms Morgan, but for a different reason. Once the tansmitter gain/sensitivity has been correctly set for a given voice-loudness/mic/transmitter combination, then you shouldn't need to adjust it again, unless one of those three contributing elements changes.

I hope this helps! please feel free to ask for any necessary clarification.
Dan.