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Author Topic: Mic Peaking  (Read 8517 times)

Bill Miller

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Mic Peaking
« on: May 14, 2011, 03:41:47 PM »

I'm lost on this. Hope someone can help.

The mic is turned off.

The receiver is on. It shows that the Mic is Muted.

On the soundboard the Mic is Muted.  The sound meter shows that it is peaked out to the max.

When the mute goes off on the receiver the sound meter is fine on the soundboard & the mic works.

The receiver keeps going to mute then it is unmuted.

I hope I explained this good enough for you to know what I'm talking about.

Thanks

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Jim Thorn

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2011, 01:33:21 AM »

Bill,

   This sounds like there is a source of outside interference in your area that is just strong enough to break through the receiver's squelch occasionally.  When your mic's transmitter is on, it is considerably stronger than the interfering signal, so the receiver locks onto your transmitter to the exclusion of the interfering signal, but when your mic's transmitter is off, the interfering signal has no competition.  If the system is tunable, try to find a frequency where this does not happen; if it is not tunable, but has an adjustable squelch control, try setting the squelch threshold higher.  That could reduce your usable range, because at greater distances, the signal from your mic's transmitter might drop below the squelch threshold, but those are the times when the interfering signal would have been the stronger of the two anyway.

   This wouldn't happen to be a Sennheiser Evolution series wireless system, would it?

Jim Thorn

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

I'm lost on this. Hope someone can help.

The mic is turned off.

The receiver is on. It shows that the Mic is Muted.

On the soundboard the Mic is Muted.  The sound meter shows that it is peaked out to the max.

When the mute goes off on the receiver the sound meter is fine on the soundboard & the mic works.

The receiver keeps going to mute then it is unmuted.

I hope I explained this good enough for you to know what I'm talking about.

Thanks
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Jim Le Gros

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2011, 07:14:10 AM »

So we are assuming this is a radio mic system  :)

Question: Do you have any other Radio mic systems also in use in the same area? - They may possibly be interfering one to the other.

If it's not a simple fix, try letting us know what model mic system it is, one last help is to use head-phones to monitor the appropriate sound-boards channel with a solo or PFL button, if it's a form of random interference you will her random mush (perhaps like modulated white noise) like a FM Radio tuned to no station, any other noise could help you determine where the sound is originating from.

Jim.
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I have been around in Electronics, Communications and Audio long enough to appreciate the tranquillity of my own home! :)
Or put it another way: I am old enough to identify Bakelite, an RS232 protocol or an EL84, but I am smart enough to teach you youngsters a thing or two about Windoze or Android! :)

Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2011, 10:29:04 AM »

Hmm. It almost sounds like when the transmitter is muted, it's not squelching so you are getting ambient radio noise (static) into the mixer's input.

If your receiver has a squelch control, do the following:
  • Turn off or mute the tranmitter
  • Solo/PFL the channel into the headphones. You'll hear static (if you don't this may not be the problem)
  • Adjust the squelch control until the static goes away, then a little bit more.
  • Test your wireless mic for range and dropouts. If your range is not sufficient, you may need to reposition the receiver or antennas.
  • If you still get bursts of static when using the mic, turn up the squelch some more.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2011, 01:11:42 AM by Jonathan Johnson »
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Stop confusing the issue with facts and logic!

Bill Miller

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2011, 04:54:57 PM »

Thanks everyone for your help

I'm lost on this. Hope someone can help.

The mic is turned off.

The receiver is on. It shows that the Mic is Muted.

On the soundboard the Mic is Muted.  The sound meter shows that it is peaked out to the max.

When the mute goes off on the receiver the sound meter is fine on the soundboard & the mic works.

The receiver keeps going to mute then it is unmuted.

I hope I explained this good enough for you to know what I'm talking about.

Thanks
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Bill Miller

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2011, 07:33:02 AM »

Bill,

   This sounds like there is a source of outside interference in your area that is just strong enough to break through the receiver's squelch occasionally.  When your mic's transmitter is on, it is considerably stronger than the interfering signal, so the receiver locks onto your transmitter to the exclusion of the interfering signal, but when your mic's transmitter is off, the interfering signal has no competition.  If the system is tunable, try to find a frequency where this does not happen; if it is not tunable, but has an adjustable squelch control, try setting the squelch threshold higher.  That could reduce your usable range, because at greater distances, the signal from your mic's transmitter might drop below the squelch threshold, but those are the times when the interfering signal would have been the stronger of the two anyway.

   This wouldn't happen to be a Sennheiser Evolution series wireless system, would it?

Jim Thorn

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

 Yes it is a Sennheiser wireless
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Bill Miller

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2011, 07:36:02 AM »

Bill,

   This sounds like there is a source of outside interference in your area that is just strong enough to break through the receiver's squelch occasionally.  When your mic's transmitter is on, it is considerably stronger than the interfering signal, so the receiver locks onto your transmitter to the exclusion of the interfering signal, but when your mic's transmitter is off, the interfering signal has no competition.  If the system is tunable, try to find a frequency where this does not happen; if it is not tunable, but has an adjustable squelch control, try setting the squelch threshold higher.  That could reduce your usable range, because at greater distances, the signal from your mic's transmitter might drop below the squelch threshold, but those are the times when the interfering signal would have been the stronger of the two anyway.

   This wouldn't happen to be a Sennheiser Evolution series wireless system, would it?

Jim Thorn

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

 We do have a small AM Radio station about a mile or 2 away.
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Jim Thorn

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Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2011, 01:58:09 AM »

We do have a small AM Radio station about a mile or 2 away.
Bill,

   If you only have one wireless system, you may have an easy fix.  With the microphone's transmitter turned off, watch the RF meter on the receiver.  If you see any noticeable activity, try tuning the receiver to other channels until you find one with no RF activity showing on the meter.  Then tune the transmitter to match and give it a try.

   If you are not familiar with the tuning of the Sennheiser, it's probably easiest for you to go through the menus and start with Group 1, Channel 1, and try subsequent channels until you find an inactive one.  When you run out of channels in Group 1, go to Group 2 and go through those channels.  Eventually you should find a good one.

   If you have more than one wireless system, you will need to find an inactive channel for each system, but all in the same group.  This is important, because Sennheiser has calculated all the preset channels within a group to be free of interference with each other.  If you have one system tuned to a channel in Group 1 and another tuned to a channel in Group 2, there are no promises that they won't interfere with each other.

   Best of luck with your problem!

Jim Thorn
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Mic Peaking
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2011, 01:58:09 AM »


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