We’ve all experienced the annoying, ear-piercing screech of microphone feedback. While the poor mic-wielder on stage is most often blamed, it’s actually a common problem, inherent to most sound systems.

Feedback is known as audio oscillation. It simply is the sound coming out of the speakers, going back into the microphones and reamplified in rapid oscillating cycles, creating a high pitched scream or whine. The systems’ objective is to produce high quality amplification of sound before feedback occurs, which in some circumstances, limited by acoustics, can be a real challenge.

There is no complete cure, but there are things you can do to reduce and minimize the affects of feedback. Here’s 10 quick tips to help you in troubleshooting:

1. Adjust the volume.

2. Turn down gain on eqalizer (EQ) or tone controls.

3. Decrease monitor system volume or EQ gain.

4. Sound path of speakers should be moved further away from microphones.

5. To reduce gain on susceptible feedback freqencies, use a wide band graphic equalizer and/or parametric equalizer.

6. Make sure you have high quality, low impedance mirophones and equipment.

7. Choose tighter patterned, cardioid microphones, when available.

8. Decrease gain on the reverb controls.

9. Improve the acoustics in the room to absorb more reflected sounds.

10. To identify feedback prone frequencies and to help you tune your equalizer or suggest some alterations to your acoustics, have an audio engineer perform an acoustic analysis between your audio system and auditorium.

While these solutions won’t always eliminate feedback altogether, they can really prove helpful as a proactive measure to produce the clearest, most pleasant sound in your venue.