Live Sound

Nobody’s perfect, and nowhere is that more evident than during a live performance. Whether it’s a low-key acoustic set or a full-on monster rock show, it’s a guarantee – something will go wrong. That may be half the fun of live music!

One of the keys to mastery on the stage is handling mishaps well, so we’ll go over a few tips for weathering mistakes and other stage guffaws.

Making a live act work with multiple players can be tricky, as is evidenced by every band documentary ever made. As a solo act, you only have to worry about getting yourself to the gig. If you happen to not show, you’ll never know the gig didn’t go well! But with four or five members, the chances of an uncomfortable situation quadruple, so it’s a good idea to have a plan in case somebody doesn’t show up.

Unless you’ve decided to try gigging with only a direct box and some pedals, you’re going to end up miking up a cabinet both on stage and in the studio. Of course, if you’re doing big gigs, the sound team will take care of it, and similarly in the studio, you may not have to think about it.

Since guitarists use amps, and so do many keyboard players, you might overlook the need for a direct box. But a direct box is a tool along the lines of cables, pics, sustain pedals, and tuners – an essential accessory. If you don’t have one in your toolkit, you should probably find one. If you don’t know what a direct box is, we’ll talk about that first.