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"Ringing Out" a Sound System

What is "Ringing Out" a sound system? And how do you do it?


"Ringing Out" a sound system is a process of using a graphic equalizer to increase the amount of gain you can get out of a sound system before feedback occurs. Follow these steps to ring out a sound system:

1. Set the EQ sliders to a flat position. Slowly increase the system gain until it begins to feed back slightly at one frequency.

2. Find the slider on the EQ closest to the frequency that is feeding back. Slowly reduce the slider level just far enough to stop the feedback. It may take some practice to get good at quickly identifying feedback frequencies, so be patient.

3. Increase the overall level of the system further, until you get slight feedback again (it may be at more than one frequency).

4. Reduce the slider levels of the appropriate frequencies until the feedback stops.

5. Repeat steps (3) and (4) until feedback occurs simultaneously on as many frequencies as is reasonably possible.

6. Bring the overall system level down by about 3 dB, to allow some headroom.

Some adjustment of the EQ settings may be necessary at this point, since an EQ setting for maximum gain is not necessarily the most pleasing to the ear. You may have to make a decision as to which is more important.

Ringing out a sound system will typically yield an additional 3-9 dB of level increase.

You may also want to see our section on eliminating feedback.

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