The ultimate guide to live band mixing! As a leading sound system hire company in Auckland, we at Star Sounds understand how important is proper live mixing for a band. No matter whether you are planning a wedding, party, DJ, or live concert, understanding how to mix instruments for a balanced and quality sound is important. In this article, we will discuss all the necessary steps that you need to follow to achieve a well-balanced sound where your event audience hears every note of the band or the music you play.
What is live band mixing?

Live band mixing is different from studio mixing. Studio mixing involves pre-recorded audio, while live band mixing is mixing audio instruments and vocals in real-time.
This means setting live band instruments and microphones' input and output sound levels in a specific way to get well-balanced audio out from the mixing desk. When you properly balance your instruments and vocals, the audience will experience distortion-free well-balanced sound.
Key Elements of Live Band Mixing
- Understand each instrument
Before you begin sound balancing, it is important to understand each instrument. Because each instrument has unique audio frequencies. So when mixing you should adjust frequency levels in the mixing dest according to the instruments.
- Vocals
Vocals are one of the most important parts of live mixing. When you properly balance vocals with other instruments, your audience can feel the emotion and the message of the song. When balancing vocals, you should not overpower them, but they should be clear and prominent. You can add some delay, reverb, and equalization to vocals to reduce the dryness of the voice and add some shine to it. The frequency range is generally 80Hz and 10kHz.
- Electric Guitars
Guitars are usually set in the mid-frequency range. For example, rhythm guitars are 100Hz to 500Hz, and lead guitars are from 1kHz to 5kHz. When mixing electric guitars, remember not to overpower vocals and other instruments.
- Bass Guitars
The bass guitar can be described as the backbone of a rhythm section of the live band. It provides lower frequency ranges that drive the groove. Most people find difficulties balancing bass guitar sound. If it doesn't blend properly, your audience will experience muddiness. Blending the bass guitar sound will add punch to the overall sound. When adjusting the sound, remember to set it between 40 Hz and 200 Hz.
- Drums
The drum set is the most prominent instrument in a live band. Every component of the drum set has separate frequencies to set in the mixer. For example, kick drum operates in the low-frequency range, toms in the mid-range, and hi-hats and cymbals operate in high frequencies. So when blending these components, you should not overpower them. Instead, each component should be balanced well.
Below are the frequency ranges you need to consider when balancing the drum kit:
Kick Drum: 40 Hz – 100 Hz
Snare Drum: 120 Hz – 250 Hz
Toms: 100 Hz – 1 kHz
Cymbals: 5 kHz – 8 kHz
- Keyboard
In live music, you must balance keyboard sound to avoid clashes with other mid-range instruments' sounds like guitars and vocals. The best frequency range is between 20Hz and 8kHz. When you properly adjust the keyboard sound in this range, your audience will hear well balanced and clear sound.
- Acoustic guitars
Acoustic guitars can be used to play both the lead and rhythm parts of the sound. Therefore, their frequency range is wide, mostly from low to high. When setting adjusting you can set their frequency ranges between 80 Hz to 1kHz.
- Strings and brass
Strings and brass instruments involve trumpets, violins, saxophones, cellos, etc. These instruments are not used frequently in general live band setups. However, you can often see them in most classical music and other bigger live setups. These instruments generally operate between mid to high frequencies. Below are the frequencies you need to consider when working with strings and brass:
Strings - 100Hz and 5kHz
Brass - 200 Hz and 5 kHz
- Percussion
The instruments like congos, tambourines, bongos, call precussion instruments. These instruments help to fill the space between drums and bass. They usually operate between mid-high and high-frequency ranges. These instruments can often seen in jazz, Latin, or world music. When setting frequency ranges for these instruments, you can place them between 150Hz and 3kHz for best performance.
How to mix these instruments to get excellent quality and well-balanced sound?
When you balance a live band, knowing each instrument's frequency range and role is important. We will now discuss the five tips to help you mix these instruments to obtain a well-balanced sound.
- Panning
- Compression
- Equalization (EQ)
- Frequency clashes
- Venue setup
Panning (Separation): Panning is one of the best practices that you need to develop when mixing live sound. This can increase the sound clarity significantly. For example, you can pan left overhead to the left side of the speakers and right overhead to the right side of the speakers.
Compression: Compression is one of the best tools you can use to sharpen your instrument's sound. When you properly add compression, you can prevent your instruments from peaking. However, ensure not to add too much compression as it can affect the volume and clarity of instrument sound.
EQ: Equalization is also important in live music. It can highlight instruments' sounds. However, you should not add too much EQ as it can affect the sound quality and create other issues, such as feedback.
Frequency clashes: One of the most crucial things to deal with when live sound balancing is frequency clashing. Most of the time, drum and bass guitar frequencies overlap each other. So, when EQ, you should be careful to avoid any frequency clashes.
Venue Setup: Venue size and shape matter a lot when sound balancing. An experienced sound engineer can make the proper adjustments to avoid sound issues due to the venue setup.
Contact Star Sounds Limited for Quality and balanced Sound!
At Star Sounds Limited, we use high-quality PA equipment. All our staff are well trained and have years of experience in this industry. We hire a PA system for every kind of event. So we know what we do and what our customers need.
So contact us for your next event to have a well-balanced PA system. you can reach us using below contact details.
Phone - 021 09178190
Email - [email protected]
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