315. Devin Sheets On De-Feedback

In Episode 315, Sean and Andy get the lowdown on a relatively new live audio tool that took both NAMM and the online live audio community by storm over the last year as they talk with Devin Sheets, founder and owner of Alpha Labs, to learn all about De-Feedback. This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.A much-talked-about plugin in live audio of 2025, there are lots of myths and misunderstandings, rave reviews and reticence about this new tool for fighting feedback, handling overly reverberant rooms, and dealing with noise in live reinforcement and broadcast environments, so we get it all straight from Devin, including a live demo of exactly what De-Feedback is capable of.Devin Sheets, founder and owner of Alpha Labs, grew up in Salem, Oregon. His father Duane founded and owns Alpha Sound, a regional live audio production company, so Devin grew up in the busy environment of one of the largest PA rental and installation companies in the Pacific Northwest during the 1990s and 2000s.After graduating from Azusa Pacific University with a degree in music, he and Duane turned the focus of the family business toward high-end corporate and house of worship work. Devin had his industry standard bag of tricks for fighting feedback in these environments, but felt that “the answer” had not yet arrived. After years of unfruitful communication with many leading audio manufacturers about the issue, he decided to try his hand at a custom approach involving AI software. After paying large amounts of his personal money to various coders around the world in an attempt to make something work, the team finally struck gold in mid 2024 with a novel AI model of their own making, using training data largely produced by Devin himself, on a computer they built in-house. He used the beta version throughout the year for his own shows and events, and installed it in several churches in the area.By late 2024 there was pressure to begin selling the algorithm to the public, and so Alpha Labs was formed as a software partner company to Alpha Sound, a website launched, and sales of De-Feedback V1 began November 11 of that year. Within days, the plugin was being used on some of the biggest tours and events of the Christmas season. The software continues to be adopted by many of the world’s top engineers and venues, while Devin and his team concentrate most of their time and energy developing newer, better versions.We've also uploaded a clip of Devin's demo of De-Feedback without our usual dynamics chain, for folks who want to listen to it as raw as possible, which you can download here: https://bit.ly/s2n-de-feedback (as a bonus, that clip is g-rated in terms of language, as well)SPECIAL OFFER: As a limited time bonus for Signal to Noise listeners, Alpha Labs is offering 10% off purchases with coupon code “SIGNALTONOISE”, valid through Feb 10, 2026! Just enter the code at license checkout, and the discount will be applied to all products in your order!Episode Links:Alpha Labs De-FeedbackDe-Feedback Official User GroupThinking Out Loud w/Friends of SoundBroker, Devin SheetsAlpha SoundEpisode 315 TranscriptNOTE: Mike Green, the artist who performs “Break Free” that opens every episode, has some new music hitting the market starting today, available on all streaming platforms as well as DSPs that support spatial audio. And, Mikegreenm