Why Movies Should Stop Using Microphone Feedback

You’ve seen the “mic feedback” trope hundreds of times.

Marty McFly taking the stage to play “Johnny B. Goode” in Back to the Future. Radar trying to operate a radio in M*A*S*H*. Maverick serenading Charlie with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” in Top Gun. Basically any time a character handles a mic in a major Hollywood movie or television show, there will be microphone feedback. Specifically, there will be a quick, high-pitched “chirp” that makes all the characters wince momentarily. It’s almost a requirement.

Frankly, we think it’s time to put this trope to bed. Enough, already. As audiences, we can handle a character speaking into a mic, or singing on stage, or making an announcement. We understand what we are looking at. We don’t need the situation emphasized with a terrible squeaking sound. Unless you are making a movie about a struggling audio engineer, we think malfunctioning equipment is probably not a necessary part of the story.

We admit our bias. We are an audio company that has put great effort into preventing mic feedback. Thump speakers have essentially eliminated it entirely with built-in Feedback Eliminator, yet we’re forced to watch it on screen, in new stories and old, comedies and dramas, television and film. We believe, strongly, that it’s time to move on.

Mic feedback has no place in movies and television going forward.

Image from Back to the Future (1985), directed by Robert Zemeckis. © Universal Pictures.
 

7 Reasons to Leave the “Mic Feedback” Trope Behind

Is mic feedback annoying? Yes. But it’s more than that: it’s actively making movies worse.

We need to free the act of filmmaking from the mindless tropes that make every movie feel the same. And this trope in particular is based on a shoddy understanding of audio physics and a tendency toward lazy storytelling. Microphone feedback happens when there's a feedback loop between a microphone and a speaker. It's a fault caused by an improperly set up PA system, where the mic is too close to the speaker — not a plot device. It needs to go, in real life and in movies.

Here are seven reasons why.
 

1. Mic Feedback Is Overused

Look, in real life, sometimes there’s microphone feedback. You do encounter it every now and then. But if you only experienced life through mainstream entertainment, you’d think that mic feedback happened basically every time a mic is turned on. It’s literally approaching 100% rate of mic feedback in movies. There’s nothing wrong with a trope every now and then, but this one has lost all meaning. By comparison, there’s a movie trope where beat-up old cars always backfire when they start. That trope is used specifically to show that the car is old and beat up. It has a purpose. Mic feedback, on the other hand, seems to show up in movies no matter the type of microphone or situation. It would be like if every car in every movie, Ferrari down to Toyota, backfired when it started. That would be ridiculous, right? Agreed.

2. Mic Feedback Is Lazy and Hack

Too often, movies use mic feedback as a crutch. Usually, the feedback is a shortcut to communicate something or advance the plot. If a performer is nervous, for instance, mic feedback will make them even more nervous. If students are being loud, mic feedback will make them stop talking and turn to the principal for an announcement. Sometimes, mic feedback is literally just a way to show the audience that the microphone is turned on. It’s quick. It’s convenient. It’s also lazy and hacky.

Filmmakers: challenge yourself to create the scene without the mic feedback. Let’s say a high school principal needs to make an announcement, but the students are being loud. The obvious answer might be for the principal’s microphone to have a short, well-placed fit of feedback, just long enough to make the students turn toward the principal. But no: what if we challenge ourselves to move beyond that first thought? What if the microphone works just fine? What does the principal say to get their attention? What does the principal do to silence the ruckus? What can these words and actions reveal about the principal as a character? See, now you’re telling a better story! Microphone feedback was getting in the way of your artistry, not helping it. Rid yourself of this nuisance and create something new.

3. Mic Feedback Doesn’t Happen Without Speakers

Okay, this is a pet peeve. Movies depict microphone feedback all wrong. Almost always, the feedback happens right when the character leans into the mic to speak (or sing). It’s a short, quick squeak that causes the character to pause for a moment before the squeak stops and they continue speaking. It’s almost depicted as if the mic were burning hot, and it scalded them when they got too close. It’s an interesting visual, but it’s not accurate. That’s not how mic feedback works at all.

Mic feedback has nothing to do with how close you get to the microphone. Feedback is about speakers. It happens when the mic is pointed toward a speaker (or cranked-up headphones) amplifying the mic. The mic picks up its own signal from the speaker, feeds that signal back into the speaker again, picks it up again, etc., creating a feedback loop. Often, when you watch a movie, you can see that the feedback is happening with no nearby speakers for the mic to pick up, meaning no source of feedback. You probably don’t care, but we do. We care about speakers. More than that, we care about the truth.

4. Mic Feedback Sounds Way Worse Than in the Movies

Another way that movies get feedback wrong is that feedback is way, way, way worse sounding than they depict. In almost all cases, movies are just using a canned “feedback” sound effect rather than real-life feedback. Movie feedback is a little irritating, but it’s very thin and high-pitched, almost reverb-y. It’s similar to the guitar amp feedback you hear in rock music, which is generally controlled and filtered in a way that makes it intense, but still aesthetically bearable. If you’ve dealt with real-life mic feedback, you know it’s not so cute. It's extremely loud, thick and contains much more bass than the movies would make you think. You hear and feel it, and it’s way beyond just irritating. When there’s a fit of mic feedback in a real music venue, people don’t respond with a slight wince like they do in movies. Once real-life feedback clears, you’re more likely to hear a lot of angry cursing. That’s why we go to such great lengths to avoid it.

5. Mic Feedback Doesn’t Just Go Away on Its Own

But probably the most unrealistic thing about “movie” microphone feedback is the way it disappears. Typically, in a movie, the ringing lasts just long enough for the main character to step away and collect themselves. Maybe they swallow hard or pull on their collar (since we’re doing tropes). The feedback fades away almost instantly after it starts. Then, the character continues, and the microphone works fine the rest of the scene. They don’t change the position of the mic. They don’t unplug or adjust the speaker. They don’t signal to a live sound professional off screen who makes a quick adjustment. Watching movies, you’d think microphone feedback was a problem that just goes away on its own, when you wait for a second. If that were true, audio professionals wouldn’t work so hard to get rid of it, and companies like Mackie wouldn’t put so much technology into preventing it.

6. Mic Feedback Is Disrespectful to AV Professionals

Speaking of professionals, we think there’s a deeper problem at play here. The overuse of mic feedback in movies shows a deep disrespect for audio professionals and what they do. Microphone feedback is a sign that a live sound system hasn’t been set up properly. It’s ultimately the sound engineer’s responsibility more than the performer’s. So, logically, that means all these Hollywood movies feature totally incompetent AV people, somewhere off camera, causing every microphone to start screeching whenever you turn it on. We think this trend is unfair to these people.

Mackie has been an industry leader in sound for decades. We know that live sound professionals are informed, meticulous and smart. They are the backbone of media, powering live tapings, arena concerts, bar shows and more, every single day. When a microphone turns on in a movie, and there’s no feedback whatsoever, it reinforces the competence of these everyday folks who work with sound. And we think that’s beautiful. It brings a tear to our eye. We’d like to see more of it.

7. Mic Feedback Is a Thing of the Past (with Feedback Eliminator)

The final reason to stop using mic feedback in movies? The march of time. The fact is, microphone feedback doesn’t really exist anymore. Mic feedback is a thing of the past. At least, that’s true if you use Mackie Thump speakers or ShowBox featuring Feedback Eliminator, which automatically stops mic feedback in its tracks, at the press of a button. It works like magic. We know you’re nostalgic for a simpler time when mics were always squeaking in movies. But nostalgia holds us back. Keep mic feedback in the past with the hair spray. It’s over.

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