Live Sound Tips For Beginners

Live Sound Tips for Beginners
Last Updated: November 10, 2020
You sound great at practice, and you’ve finally landed a real gig. But, mixing live sound is very
different from mixing your recorded music.
You’re probably afraid of the dreaded feedback sound. Or worse, just not sounding as good as
you know you do. A good live sound mix can make or break the show, even if you sound
amazing.
With the right settings, sound gear placement, and a good ear, you can have a great live sound.
Below, you’ll find 8 essential live sound tips for beginners.
Table of Contents [hide]
 8 Essential Live Sound Tips for Beginners

 1. Position Your Monitors in the Right Place
 2. Prevent feedback
 3. Practice Your Microphone Technique and EQ
 4. Use Effects Tastefully
 5. Understand Your Mixer
 6. Don’t Skip Soundcheck
 7. Familiarize Yourself With the Venue
 8. Train Your Ears
 Want More Live Sound Tips?
8 Essential Live Sound Tips for Beginners

If you are a beginner running sound systems, you know how challenging it can be to deal with
several things simultaneously to deliver professional sound quality in a venue. Here are a few
live sound tips to help you speed up the learning process.
1. Position Your Monitors in the Right Place

2. Prevent feedback
3. Practice Your Microphone Technique and EQ
4. Use Effects Tastefully
5. Understand Your Mixer
6. Don’t Skip Sound Check
7. Familiarize Yourself With the Venue
8. Train Your Ears
1. Position Your Monitors in the Right Place
Not being able to hear yourself during a live show is one of the most stressful things to
experience. If you can’t hear yourself sing or play, you can’t make the needed tone or key
adjustments. This can create a slightly off sound, even if normally you’re perfectly on key.
You can prevent this from happening by placing the monitors in the right position. It may take a
few adjustments to get the monitor level and position just right.
The idea is to make sure each band member can hear themselves without the microphone picking
up sound from the monitor.
For example, in front of the microphone, facing the vocalist is the best position for a singer’s
monitor. That way, they can hear themselves clearly, but the microphone is less likely to pick up
the sound and create feedback.
2. Prevent feedback
Unintentional feedback is a live musician’s worst nightmare. It disrupts an otherwise good sound
and makes for an unprofessional appearance.
Feedback is the result of sound from the speakers going back through the microphone.
To prevent feedback from happening, make sure to position all mics as close to the sound source
and as far away from speakers as possible. Turn off any unused mics to avoid them picking up
sound and causing feedback.
In theory, it looks easy to avoid feedback, but in reality, it takes practice, and having a good
understanding of what causes microphone feedback and how to stop it before it happens it’s
crucial.
During Soundcheck, go through the loudest parts of your set to ensure feedback isn’t going to
happen.
Remember, practice makes perfect. Getting used to how the equipment reacts and knowing the
steps needed to avoid feedback is what separates excellent from mediocre sound.
3. Practice Your Microphone Technique and EQ
Every microphone is different, but usually, the singer should be about 1 to 2 inches away from
the mic.
Because you get so close to the microphone, singers should have their own microphones. That
way, they won’t be afraid to get up-close and personal with it. Avoid using house microphones.
Also, different microphones will produce slightly different sounds. So, one microphone might
sound great with one singer and not as good as another singer. It’s important to find the one that
suits the vocalist.
During Soundcheck, have the singer experiment with different distances from the microphone.
Then, by staying consistent with that distance, you avoid confusing fluctuations in audio levels.
It’s also essential to practice and be comfortable equalizing vocals and instruments for live
events. With enough practice and the right ear training, you’ll be able to quickly adapt to using
different types of microphones in different acoustic scenarios.
Check or guide on how to EQ live vocals for a more detailed explanation.

4. Use Effects Tastefully
Effects can make vocals stand out among all the other instruments, which is good, especially for
rock bands or any band with a larger, complicated sound. However, it’s essential not to go
overboard with it and maintain the integrity of the vocalist.
Depending on the genre and singer preferences, vocal effects can create depth and intrigue.
Reverb or chorus are popular vocal effects to use in live sound.
Some PA systems have built-in reverb and chorus effects, which is an easy way to incorporate
them. Guitarists use pedals for effects, and vocalists can also use pedals.
Pedals are good for vocalists who want to control their own effect levels because they can be
easily accessed on stage.
5. Understand Your Mixer
The mixer is the brain that controls the PA system. Without it, you’d have no control over what
comes out of the speakers. Mixers come in all sizes and can range from two to forty-eight or
more inputs.
Each input can be used for a different aspect of the live sound. This makes a mixer essential
to equalizing sound live.
With a mixer, you can manage the vocalist’s output or the guitarist’s or whatever instrument is
on stage. This helps to balance the sound that goes through the speakers. Otherwise, it would be
near impossible to balance the sound in a live show.
It’s also a good idea to label each input on the mixer with whatever instruments or mics that is
attached to. That way, if you do need to make mid-show adjustments, you won’t scramble to
figure out what knob does what.
If you are a beginner and want to know in more detail what each knob on the mixer does, check
our introductory guide to mixing consoles.
6. Don’t Skip Soundcheck
Getting to the venue ten minutes before the show isn’t going to cut it. Each location is different,
and you’ll have to adjust the sound according to its unique acoustics.
You want to avoid last-minute sound adjustments as much as possible. The more time you can
get for Soundcheck before the show, the better. Then, you’ll have more time during the show to
focus on actual performance or special effects.
During Soundcheck, you can familiarize yourself with the acoustics of the venue and device a
plan accordingly.
To avoid feedback, as mentioned earlier in the article, you should place the microphones,
monitors, and main speakers, and try different positions until you find the best one. And the only
way to figure that out is by doing a soundcheck.
7. Familiarize Yourself With the Venue
Along with Soundcheck, you have to familiarize yourself with how the venue acoustic affects the
live sound and consider the venue’s vibe.
If you’re playing a rowdy bar, by all means, be loud. However, if you’re playing somewhere
with a more chill vibe, such as a coffee shop, being too loud might hinder customers and prevent
you from landing that gig again.
Ultimately, you want to judge the crowd and the venue and adjust your levels accordingly.
8. Train Your Ears

It can take sound technicians months of training to train their ears for the small variances that can
affect live sound. One method for training your ear is to attend several live shows and listen for
things like muddy vocals or buzzy guitars.
When you know what to listen for, using your ears is much easier. Also, familiarize yourself
with the sound and setlist of the band playing.
Of course, if you’re mixing your music, you’re already familiar with how it’s supposed to
sound.
Want More Live Sound Tips?

Playing live is what many musicians live for. So, of course, you want it to be perfect. With these
tips, you should have the knowledge it takes to have a smooth live performance.
Visit our blog for more live sound tips and more!

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Live Sound Tips for Beginners

Last Updated: November 10, 2020

Table of Contents [hide]

 8 Essential Live Sound Tips for Beginners

8 Essential Live Sound Tips for Beginners

1. Position Your Monitors in the Right Place

Check or guide on how to EQ live vocals for a more detailed explanation.

8. Train Your Ears

Want More Live Sound Tips?

Visit our blog for more live sound tips and more!

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