JS wrote:
What kind of hall is it and what sort of problems are you hearing?

It's a church hall from the late 1850's. The sound in the hall was
hardwired in the early 90's which is great but when you run the house
board you virtualy have no control over anything and I usually like
the Eons and the Alen mixer to do sound because I get less complaints.
They use the house system when they just want to do a simple pulpit
mic event.

What if you turn the PA system off altogether? If it's a church from
the 1850s, it was probably designed to make voices up front project
(if it was a Protestant church anyway). With no PA, how does it sound
up front? As you walk down the aisle, what happens to the intelligibility?
Is the ceiling vaulted? Are there spots here and there where you hear
some weird echoes?

If you have specular reflections, speaker placement can be critical, and
a matter of a foot or two can change the sound surprisingly. If you have
flutter echo problems it can be even worse.

2 - What is my best bet to control feedback when performers do not
speak directly into the mic and I want to boost levels.

Get the mikes out of the direct line of the speakers, and either use
a tighter mike so that the mike can be pulled far back, or use a mike
with a wider pattern so that you can hear the speaker to the side. The
RE-16 is a surprisingly good choice for people who can't stay on-mike.

This helps me thank you...

You might want to check the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook for a good
introduction to hall acoustics and to microphone operations.

In ALL cases, proper mike technique on the part of the performers will be
a phenomenal improvement. If the performer knows how to use a mike, and
if they can hear what is coming through the PA, you are working with them
instead of fighting them.

3 - Comp settings and EQ settings and speaker level to look for?

Without having any idea what the hall is like, how could anyone suggest
anything? Walk around the hall, listen to what it sounds like. Clap your
hands. You can usually predict where the big feedback modes are going to
be.

I know I know bad question!!! But I try to turn down my low end and
that helps a bit. The speakers have a volume knob that I crank. Low
talkers tend to get feedback on me and thought there was a magical eq
to work around these issues. So I guess I have been doing the right
thing.

Yes, there might be some EQ to work around these issues, but it depends
on where the feedback mode is. Find the frequency that is feeding back
and notch it out. It will be different depending on where the mike and
speakers are placed, and invariably there will be some places where it
is much better than others. You want to set up in those places. If the
signal can never get from the speakers to the mike, there will never be
feedback.

If taking the low end out helps a lot, what does it sound like without
any PA? Is the room very bass-heavy to begin with, or is pulling the
low end out just helping intelligibility without making things more
natural?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."