Troubleshooting
Hopefully this section will help your stress go away! See if any solutions on this page might match your situation. Also, please add any case studies that you think might help other people.
The overall theme of this page is resolution. All content added by anyone should only be one of two categories:
1) proven methods on how to solve specific issues or...
2) anecdotes ("Case Studies") of specific issues that have already been solved, stating how you solved the problem.
This troubleshooting page is probably not a good place to ask questions regarding how to solve your problems. Please see the "Forums" section below to learn how you can ask questions to people who are ready to help you. (Woohoo!)
As always, you can first give any problem your best effort toward solution. Any problems that you are unsuccessful to figure out on your own are probably best served by Forums (links below) or by your local professional audio installation/maintenance company. If you go to a forum or to your local professional for help, then it does not mean that you are incompetent - it just means that you are using your resources! If you persevere, no matter the avenue, then your problem has the highest odds of solution.
Pro tips: We have a fairly extensive LSR Training & Tutorials page in this wiki. You may want to check it out because many (but not all) problems can be prevented or abated by knowledge. Also, sometimes you can figure out alternative methods of accomplishing your audio goals, even while you are unable to use the preferred components of your audio system.
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FORUMS
In a forum, you can discuss and explore solutions with other people. These are good places where you can ask questions to experienced audio engineers who care (not that the authors of this wiki don't care - we simply are not as available as the forum participants).
No matter your type of question, it is expected that you first give the situation your best effort before consulting a forum. People who answer your questions are volunteering their time to help you, so please respect their time. Forums are especially helpful if you don't know where or how to look for particular answers.
It is probably not a good idea to use this WELStech wiki as a forum to fix problems, due to the small amount of traffic here. The forums listed below will get your questions answered much more quickly than your fellow viewers of this WELStech wiki (possibly infinitely faster...). These websites also have some good blog-like or magazine-like articles.
http://soundforums.net (respectful & reliable)
http://forums.prosoundweb.com/ (respectful)
http://www.soundonsound.com/forum (website is mainly geared toward recording & musicians)
(This is the same Forums info as printed on the References & Tutorials page.)
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COMMON TROUBLES
General
No Signal or Intermittent Signal
Noise
- Feedback ..."acoustic feedback", not "opinions" ;-)
- Buzz, Hum, etc.
- Snap, Crackle, Pop (i.e. "Rice Crispies")
- Excessssive Hisssss...
- Local Radio Stations coming through the system: See the associated Case Study in the thread at the bottom of this page.
Electric Shocks from Equipment
Problematically Loud Musicians or Instruments