Live Sound

Naturally, everything has to be perfect when it comes to wedding parties. This includes the toast, the speeches given by best men and women, and of course the music — in other words, the sound system on location has to be up to snuff. Not sure what you need or where to start? No worries, wedding DJ Sebastian is here to give you some pointers and a couple of recommendations.

The Bax Music Helpdesk gets asked a lot of questions about everything and anything, and some them can be pretty nuts, but one of the most common questions is how to tune up a mixer, a set of speakers and an amplifier so they all work in harmony with each other and, above all, you give you stonking good sound. To help all you music-devotees get more out of your system, our canny experts explain everything in one neat blog.

The sound tech is arguably the most underappreciated person involved in a music production. For musicians, however, it’s incredibly important to keep these tireless hired-hands close, since they play a significant role when it comes to the room and stage sound. It’s not for nothing that sound techs are often referred to as the extra band member. Nowadays, there are plenty of courses you can enrol in and study to become a sound engineer, but what does it actually take to get good at the job? Time to ask a sound tech!

There are several questions about wireless microphone systems that we get all the time, and we don’t blame you — those different frequency bands can drive you crazy. Thankfully, Bax Music’s own microphone expert, Stefan, is here to lay out the simple facts of the matter.

In a professional setting, there’s no room for error, experimentation or, put simply, time to faff with your audio equipment. Whether someone comes up to you with a USB stick, a CD or their phone-in-hand to request a song or playlist, you always want to be able to say: no problem!

As soon as the weather allows it, a lot of birthday parties, weddings and other events are enjoyed outside. And that’s when the right speaker is suddenly a must, because that little Bluetooth speaker on the bookshelf in the living room probably won’t cut it. Thankfully, you’ve got a lot of options when you’re in the market for a speaker that supports a bash in the great wide open.

At some point, it’s going to happen to every band: great gig, shabby sound. While sometimes it’s the venue or local sound tech that’s to blame, the band also has a hand in how they sound. Every band’s stage sound partly determines their success, so whether you’re playing a small café or a big venue, you’ll want to make sure that you come prepared.

For singers, rehearsing with the band can be a real struggle when they can’t get their vocals to punch through the mix. Fortunately, there are a few things that you and the rest of the band can do to solve the issue.

Can you imagine? You’re about to perform on stage and suddenly your signal drops out because the cable broke. Fortunately, every gigging musician’s worst nightmare can be easily avoided. Here’s five tips for preventing cable breakage.

It’s something that every musician and technician has had to deal with at one point or another: stage monitors. When perfectly positioned and correctly set up, you’re looking at a smooth show and maybe a post-gig beer with the band and sound tech, but bad stage sound can lead to dirty looks, the exchange of dirty words and – ultimately – a bad show, simply because the band can’t hear themselves.

Every kind of performing artist, whether it’s a singer, DJ or band, has probably had to contend with bad live sound or technical issues on stage. Often, you’ll work with the live engineer to try and get things fixed. 9 times out of 10, the engineer will do everything in their power to solve the issue, but on some nights it can feel like you’re dealing with someone who really wants to win the title of ‘Worst Sound Engineer of all Time’. Since I’m pretty certain that no sound engineer actually wants the title, I’ve compiled some good advice for sound engineers on what not to do.

We totally understand. You’re a fitness instructor, not a sound engineer, but because you’re often teaching a large group of people, it’s worth knowing how to amplify both the music and your voice, otherwise you’ll find yourself yelling just so the people at the back of the room can hear you and your class is forced to grunt through their crunches and lunges in stony silence. Since you need to keep both hands free, a wireless microphone headset is the ideal solution, but which model is best? What kind of speaker or system should you back it up with? And where do you start if you want to branch out and make YouTube videos and livestreams? In this blog we cover everything to help you make the right, tailor-made choice.