Understanding the art of live mixing is instrumental to a wide variety of musicians, whether you're a performing artist or an aspiring front-of-house engineer. While approaching a mixing console with seemingly limitless channels can feel overwhelming at first, unlocking the basics of live sound mixing is a lot less complicated than you may believe.
Below, we'll showcase some of the key components behind every successful live mix, and share some pro tips to help you on your journey to become a professional audio engineer.
What is Live Mixing?
Live mixing is the process of manipulating sound in real-time, typically in a live performance setting, to achieve a balanced ratio of individual sounds consumed by the audience as a single composition. This process involves blending multiple sonic elements, like vocals, guitar, bass, drums, and other instruments within mixing consoles.
A mixing console serves as your control board for sound input and output routing and bridges pre-fader and post-fader processing. It's similar to studio mixing, though the live elements and interactions come with some specialized considerations.
The Key Components of Live Mixing
The components of a live mix can shift on the fly since you're working with direct, dynamic sound sources. Here are some of the most important components to understand before you try your hand at mixing multiple audio sources in a live setting:
Understanding Signal Flow
Audio signal flow, or the path any sound takes from source to input to output, is imperative to understand in front of a live audience. In venues, you have the unique challenge of working with both digital and analog equipment, both of which come with their respective considerations.
For instance, the signal flow for live vocals might be from the vocalist to microphone to preamplifier to mixer and finally to the front-of-house speakers.
Understanding the path your audio takes can help you identify problem areas in your mix and make quick adjustments on the fly as needed. You'd be surprised how much damage a single faulty cable can do - if you understand the path of your audio, you know how to test each chain of the signal path to isolate and rectify any potential interference.
Gain Staging
Gain staging simply refers to setting equipment and outputs at appropriate levels for the current stage of the process. In the case of a live mix, understanding the individual needs of your gear is paramount to preventing feedback, distortion, and other forms of interference that can quickly drown your mix and distract the audience.
In a live setting, it's also important to consider the placement of each sound source since the live environment dictates that these elements are constantly interacting with one another.
Balancing the Mix
Utilizing in-board tools like high pass filters, low pass filters, EQs, and effects can certainly help shape your sound, but your gain levels and fader levels are arguably the most important. After setting your gain levels, you'll want to achieve the most balanced mix possible by focusing solely on the volume faders and then adjusting from there.
Live Sound Monitoring
Live sound is unique in that your mixing balance can change from one second to the next without you touching a fader. Monitoring on a live mixer requires active listening and responsive sound shaping to help your artists shine on any stage, rolling with the punches when the inevitable issue arises. Live sound requires a unique level of flexibility and adaptability - with something as precious as a live performance, you'll want to have backup plans for your backup plans.
7 Pro Tips for Live Sound Mixing
The best way to rock the mixing console and help any live act sound amazing is to get some onsite hours in. Understanding the technicalities of mixing is one thing, but putting those skills into practice within a naturally dynamic environment is another. Irrespective of these essential strategies, as long as you spend time on the board, take in feedback from other engineers and artists, and hone in on the basics of optimizing your equipment, you'll have no trouble mixing in a live sound environment.
With that in mind, utilize these foundational tips to help you master the mixing console under any conditions:
Optimize Signal-to-Noise Ratio Before Working with Balance
One of the most frequent mistakes made by budding engineers is confusing gain with volume. Remember that gain speaks to the power or sensitivity of the signal - volume is how high or low that signal is played out to the crowd. These points are easy to confuse, but pumping up the gain when you mean to adjust the volume can be disastrous in a live setting and open the door to distortion and feedback.
Instead, optimize the clarity of your signal, or your signal-to-noise ratio, of each input channel before you play with the balance of your mix. Cut out points of interference and independently test variables to identify and then correct potential weak spots in the mix.
Work From the Beginning to the End of the Signal Chain
When setting up your mix, do not turn on everything at once. Instead, work from the beginning to the end of the signal chain, allowing yourself to check on the noise level at each point in the chain. This way, you can monitor your gear's performance at each inflection point, helping you to eliminate unnecessary interference when it matters most.
Label Your Cables and Faders
It might sound pretty simple, but you'll be glad you labeled your faders when you're faced with 32 different channels in a high-stakes environment. Ahead of your mix, take the time to point out the channels separating the drum kit, lead vocal, electric bass, guitar, and so on. Be sure to label your cables as well: not only will this make it easier on you during setup, but it ensures that your venue does not lose cables to artists or others mistakenly thinking the cables are theirs post-show.
Start with a Basic Balance, Then Listen and Adjust
The trouble with live mixing is that every mix is different. Every second is different, for that matter, since you're catering sound in a highly dynamic environment. Once you get a couple of live gigs under your belt, you'll start to get a sense of what ranges your controls tend to lie within. It's fine to have an idea of this baseline, but don't trick yourself into "setting and forgetting" your mixing consoles.
Live environments require active listening throughout the performance and often tweaks based on the varying genres, dynamics, and sound profiles showcased on stage. One moment, you could be mic'ing a relatively delicate environment for acoustic guitars, the next for a noise metal band. As a live mixing engineer, you have to be prepared for any and all sound conditions.
Listen from a Different Perspective
One of the most challenging components of live mixing is that the sound will be experienced differently from any point in the room. Make sure that you take the time to walk around the space and listen to your mix at different vantage points once you've set the foundations for your mix. Also, remember that a live mix is often a collaboration between the engineer and the artists on stage. Ask for feedback throughout your soundcheck to get a sense of the performing act's preferences.
Prioritize EQ Cuts Over Boosts
While our first impulse for sound reinforcement might be to raise the volume of the element we're trying to highlight, consider making space by way of equalization first for a cleaner, more balanced mix.
For instance, just as in a studio recording, the bass guitar and kick drum are likely to clash since they share much of the same frequency range. Cut out what's making your mix unnecessarily muddy with your EQ curve and notice how the overlapping frequency now has space to breathe.
Find the Star of the Show
As you would with a studio mix, it's essential to identify what sound input needs to be highlighted at any given moment. In most cases, this will be the lead vocals or guiding melody in a song, but in live settings, the presence of solos can shift this dynamic at any moment.
It sounds simple, but keep track of what elements should be prioritized across the course of a song and make your sound engineering decisions accordingly.
Conversely, look out for points in a song during a soundcheck that may overload dynamics - this could be triggering a pedal on or off, a melody's apex or high note, or even an artist letting out a scream. At these moments, you understandably will have to adjust these channels to create space and avoid feedback, but the key is to not stifle the mix in a way that negates the impact of the moment.
Live Mixing FAQs
Mixing sound properly is a constant learning process. Consider these commonly asked questions and answers to help inform your mixing journey.
What is the difference between live mixing and studio mixing?
Studio mixing involves mixing tracks that have been recorded, optimizing for the typical listening experience. Live mixing introduces several new variables including the importance of adapting to changes in the sound on the fly, preserving the energy of the performance, and avoiding technical errors like feedback.
What makes a good live mix?
A good live mix provides balance and clarity, while still maintaining the energy unique to live performance. We detail several strategies to create this balance above in this comprehensive live sound mixing guide.
What is a mixer in live music?
A mixer is a piece of equipment used to shape the sound of a live performance. A typical mixing console includes channels to balance several inputs of sound, basic effects, EQs or equalizers, and sends/returns to shape the sound. Mixing units also have inputs, outputs, and inserts to help direct the sound routing.
How do you learn to mix live music?
The best way to learn how to mix live sound is to take an interest in the basics behind the craft, and then commit to many hours of practice and continued on-the-job learning. You might want to start with learning the basics behind digital recording and mixing before translating those skills to a more high-pressure live environment.
How do I become a live audio mixer?
After learning the fundamentals of live sound, you can start to look around in your local scene for stagehand or live sound internships. In time, as you build your skills, you can feasibly score a position as a live sound engineer.
When you mix sound live, the stakes are higher. You only have that moment to balance levels, bring out the best in all the instruments, and keep the dynamics impactful without overtaking the room. Live mixing can definitely take some getting used to, but perhaps this level of risk makes it so special - as sound engineers, we have the opportunity to help artists shine in their best light, creating lifelong memories for fans and music lovers alike.
Hopefully, this guide helps you make the most of the board at live shows. Remember that these tips are a basic framework. It's up to you to add your special flair to the mix according to the parameters of the venue and artist. You have the power to turn the stage into a transformative sonic experience.
