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This question has been asked many times I would assume, but being that I don't know how to go to direct subjects which have been discussed allready.

I would be thankful if someone would tell me the most common feedback causes, and how to eliminate them.
Also if you could tell me what is the average amount of singers per hour a kj should be moving along as the night progresses.

Most common cause of feedback is bad speaker placement, bad eq'ing and/or volume just plain too high & mics too close to the speakers. Where are your speakers placed in relative position to the singer currently?

As far as how many singers should be moving through, it depends on the type of show you run, how long songs are, how fast it takes people to get to the mic, how long the down time is in between singers.
Figure most songs are approx 4-4.5 minutes long, so in an hour time you should theorhetically be able to get 13-15 singers per hour - you'll obviously be able to get more if the songs are shorter & less if the songs are longer. If you are disc based with only one player, you will have less singers per hour simply due to the fact that you have to have down time in between while you unload, reload & cue up the next song. With a computer based show, the next song is already cued up & ready. This could also apply to a disc based show with two separate players being used - one is playing while the other is always cued up!

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In addition to Lonman's input, I would also suggest the relative position between the singer's mouth and the mic relative to the strength of the singer's voice. With a singer who maintains an inch to two inches gap there should be little problem. It's the singer who holds the mic away from him/herself who opens the door to feedback with respect to singer/vs. speaker position. Additionally with the large gap you find yourself increasing the mic in the mix because the singer may be weak or is just singing quite low (volume wise).

One other source of feedback I’ve encountered is singers who "Palm" the mic head; covering all but a small portion of the screen. This puts additional pressure (from the voice) on the voice coil and allows for little or no pressure relief through the rest of the screen. I don't know the physics of the phenomena; I just know I sometimes get feedback; and always a muddy sound.

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EveningStar Entertainment & Events
JR & Michele LaPorte
Peoria, AZ

The phenomenon known as feedback is exactly what the name implies. Feedback occurs when a signal is fed back to it's point of origin. There are many causes, the most common culprits are mic placement in relation to the speakers and room acoustics. The cure can be as simple as moving the mic in relation to the speaker if speaker placement is the culprit. If the problem is more related to the room acoustics then finding the offending frequency with a thirty-one band eq is a good option, this is known as ringing out the system. (You can Google the phrase and come up with several places that will explain this simple operation) As I don't know what type of Mics you use the cure could be as simple as switching to a better mic with a tighter polar pattern. Better quality mics will tell you what type of pattern the mic has in it's specifications. Here's a link that will explain it in more detail.
http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/studio/s ... uide.php#3

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

Thank you guys for your help!
So placement of speakers, and microphone is the most common culprits.
If you move the speakers further apart, or higher, or even face them to direct another way this would usually solve the problem if eq'ing don't work?

Nothing is a sure thing in the world or audio but yes, if you make a conscious effort to avoid having a open mic pointing directly at a speaker you should help alleviate your problem. You may need to use the EQ on your mic channel especially in the upper regions as it's usually the horn that causes most of the problems. Room acoustics may come into play if you have a lot of hard surfaces to contend with. In any case, it would be a place to start. Experiment with your setup.

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Quickness of mind will deceive the eye

Also being in line with the eq, are you getting high pitch squeals or low end rumble/hum type feedback.

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