Live Music

Sound systems come in all shapes and sizes, as do churches. There are general rules for configuring a sound system to include amplifying speakers, singers, instruments and other media, but some...

A guitar pickup is a device that converts the vibration of a guitar string into electrical signals. These signals are then either transmitted to an amplifier, which interprets these signals and...

Mixing live music can be a thankless task. If the band sounds bad, the sound man often gets the blame. If it sounds good, the band gets all the credit. Nevertheless, if you're behind the mixing...

In the early days of concert sound, the 1950s and '60s, there were few choices for professional sound-reinforcement speaker systems. JBL, Electro-Voice and Altec-Lansing were the first companies...

Choosing a violin that is the ‘perfect fit’ for you can be a challenging yet rewarding task. There are multiple factors that one should consider before making the purchase. Just like any large...

Getting the right sound out of your drum kit, either in the studio or on stage, will usually require some quality drum mics and Audix makes some of the best. Choosing the right mics for the right...

Let’s face it. Rock concerts are expensive. When you spend good money for tickets to a rock concert you want to have a great time and hear and see a great show. Of all the seats in the house,...

Designed for capacity, control, connectivity, performance and portability, Yamaha mixers are a good choice for home recording, clubs and large live show productions. Yamaha mixers come in small...

You don't even think about it. You walk into a room, flip the switch on the wall, keep right on walking and the light comes on. When you leave the room, you flip the same switch again and the...

So you’ve learned to play the guitar, and have perhaps gotten to be pretty good at it, but all of your performing to date has been done through your guitar amp. Now you have a chance to...

I wanted to write about how to shop for a clarinet. So many of you may have kids that are interested in learning to play musical instruments if it is still offered at your school. Here is a good...

Playing for years in the music business and have found that constantly purchasing new guitar and bass strings can be very expensive. But the sound of a new set of strings enhances your sound so...

Are you having trouble setting up or figuring out what exactly you need to setup up a rudimentary sound system for a concert? Here are some tips that will hopefully help.

The sound engineer is the architect of a great show. Sure, it's up to the bands to entertain people, but it's up to the sound engineer to make the band sound good and keep things running smoothly....

Running a mixing board has challenges related to the scope of the instruments and vocalists you are inputting. Whether you are running a mixing board for an orchestra or for a karaoke singer, the...

Using a drum machine can bring a consistency to live shows that can sometimes be better than a real drummer. Some styles of music are complemented by the various electronic sounds a drum machine...

While mixing audio in a studio is performed in a controlled environment in rooms designed specifically for critical listening, live mixing takes place in a less than ideal listening space with an...

Adjusting a graphic equalizer takes knowledge of frequency bands as it relates to music and sound. You must be aware of how each band affects the sound that is being produced and that both...

Anyone who has heard popular music in the past 20 years, whether recorded or live, has heard a drum trigger. Much like synthesizers use the keyboard format to produce different sounds, drum...

If you've played any number of local shows with your band you know that your live sound can vary greatly from your recorded or practice sound. This is due to a variety of reasons ranging from not...

When playing violin at a performance the sound and dynamics of the violin are very important. Learn more about sound when playing a violin performance with tips from a classically trained...

If you've ever been to a rock concert, a movie theater or simply listened to music on your way to work, you've used an amplifier. Amplifiers can come in many forms. Everything from the tiny...

Properly aligning DJ equipment to get the best sound out of the equipment you have and the room you're in is key to putting on a good show as DJ. Setting up your DJ equipment for the best sound is...

A sound mixer is a piece of equipment that allows multiple musical instruments to be blended together and output to a set of speakers. Sound mixers are generally used in live music venues and...

This article is directed to those that have piano. Pianos need to be taken care of at all time as mistreatment can damage or change its sound and since we pay enormous amount of money for its...

Almost every great musician has played live before an audience. Musicians that regularly play for 120,000-person stadiums would have a harder time being heard on stage versus ones who play for a...

A lot of people can make music, but the musicians who succeed are the ones who can make theirs sound professional. Having a polished, professional sound comes from a combination of many factors,...

If your drums have a flat lifeless tone or are plagued with dissonant ringing overtones, you may want to try the following tuning technique to fully develop all the power and projection that your...

Whether a four-piece rock band or a 100-piece orchestra takes the stage, capturing the nuances of their performance falls to more people than just the performers involved. Their unseen, often...

Bongo drums are often associated with ethnic music and fun, freewheeling times. But bongos entail an application of physics that is centuries-old, based on some of the oldest instruments known to...

A band may be on stage singing and playing at the top of their game, feeling totally in sync with each other and generally making some inspired music--but without a skilled live sound engineer, it...

Recording concerts allows you to take home the memories of a great night of music and share it with friends. Best of all, it doesn't have to be tricky. This tutorial will help you understand the...

In order to be a great drummer, you need to play with a great feel. The term, "feel" refers to the feelings and emotions behind the notes you are playing. The only way to play with a...

Learn why it's good to have your own sound man in this free video on live rap performance. With these tips, you'll improve your stage presence, your confidence, and the quality of your performance...

Learn some good tips for sound checks in this free video on live rap performance. With these tips, you'll improve your stage presence, your confidence, and the quality of your performance immediately!

Feedback is a never ending loop that keeps feeding into itself and exponentially increasing. The most familiar form of feedback is audio, but it can also be found in fields such as economics and...

As an interesting "hybrid" instrument, the melodica complements a lot of different genres of music with its woodwind sound. When using a melodica in a band, you should pay attention to how the...

This article will focus on some common approaches to muffling a snare drum. One of these ideas is bound to lead to the sound you want.

This article will walk you through the steps involved in muffling your bass drum. It will show you the available options and provide some advice for honing in on the sound you want.

With drum circles so in vogue these days, the kettle drum, or timpani, is making appearances in parks and music stores all over the world. This type of drum looks like a big kettle with a copper...

Informal music collaborations are the first step for many smaller local bands. A "jam session" lets musicians figure out how to work together in a relaxed environment. Locals get together, usually...

If you've long admired Peter Frampton's talking guitar sound, consider making your own talkbox system. It costs almost nothing to construct a device that will have you producing that distinctive...

When performing live as a singer, it's imperative to know where to position your microphone and yourself. You should also keep in mind how far you can move away and find out before the show begins...

One of the biggest issues I've seen (or rather heard) that many musicians, engineers and bands face is poor sound. Looking at how the mixing board is set up (specifically the gain structure) is...

Metallica, one of the most popular bands of all time, has combined thrash metal with hard rock to develop their own sound. This tutorial will get you on the right track to replicating that sound.

The superstar band that is U2 stands head and shoulders above their contemporaries: many imitate, but none compare. In the era of rock, U2 kept dominating the scene while re-inventing themselves...

Weezer is truly a one-of-a-kind group. As soon as they burst on the scene in the 1990s, they started inspiring a generation of rockers. Sometimes pegged as "college-rock" or "indie," Weezer...