This is part three in The Open Mic Guide. If you missed the first two check them out below:
There’s no point in setting up an open mic if you don’t have anything to plug the instruments into.
Mixers are the hubs that connect the musician to the audience. Assuming you already have a decent P.A. – the next step is to find the right mixer for the job.
There’s a moral to this particular blog post. It’s this:
Don’t OVERSPEND!
Small live shows like open mics have the advantage of not needing thousands of dollars worth of equipment to make a good show. You are allowed to buy the cheap stuff and skimp on a few things. There’s no need for high-end condensers or expensive pre-amps.
So what should you be thinking about when you’re shopping mixers?
Don’t. Overspend.
Live sound is called sound reinforcement for a reason. We use our small P.A. to enhance the presence of the musician. Small cafes aren’t the places to show off your fancy equipment. It’s where we want reliable and sturdy, but inexpensive equipment.
Get the Mixer You Need
In a similar vein, don’t worry about getting a big mixer. On average, an open mic performance consists of a single guitar player singing a song. Sometimes you’ll have two players but your instruments usually don’t exceed three. You might get some percussion from time to time, but that doesn’t need to be plugged in.
Therefore, you can limit your options to small mixers that have 5 to 12 channels. The first few channels will usually include a microphone input, but the rest will have line inputs for instruments.
One of the cheapest options out there is the Behringer Xenyx 8 inputs mixer(affiliate link). It’s small and portable, comes with two microphone inputs and 6 line inputs. It has everything an open mic needs, and no extra gimmicks.
Let’s look at the different connections this mixer has.
Channel Connections
- Microphone inputs – See that white input with the three dots? That’s where you plug in the microphone cable. From there down to the bottom are all the knobs and switches specific to that microphone.
- Line inputs – Below the mic input is the line input. The line input is used to connect instruments such as guitars and keyboards.
- Gain – This knob controls the inputs volume, or how much volume you want from the microphone into the mixer. The level knob at the bottom of the channel is the volume of the complete channel. So if you set that to twelve o’clock like in the image you can turn up the gain until you’ve reached a nice and clear level.
- EQ – The next three knobs are EQ. The top one controls the high frequencies of the signal, the middle one controls the mids and the third one controls the low end.
- FX – This particular mixer has onboard effects. You turn up the effects here and by using the AUX return in the MAIN SECTION you can control how much of it is added to your signal. This is great for adding just a little reverb to the musician’s voice.
- Pan – The pan knob moves the signal around from one speaker to the other. Since we’re in a small venue you probably won’t be panning things around. Keep things in the middle so that it comes equally out of each speaker.
The great things about mixers is all the channels have the same knobs. Once you’ve learned how one channel works you’ve learned them all.
Main Connections
A few things about the main section and the main outs.
Main Out – Notice that the main out on this mixer has line outputs, or connections that require jack plugs instead of normal microphone cables. Main Outs on bigger mixers have XLR outs instead of Line outs, but if you get a small model like this you either need an adapter to convert an XLR cable to a Jack cable, or you need a microphone cable that ends in a jack plug.
MAIN MIX – This is the volume knob for the whole mixer. This volume knobs feeds your speakers.
PHONES/CTRL ROOM – This volume knob is for the control room and phones outputs you see beside the main outs. IF you needed to hear how an instrument is coming into the mixer you could listen to it through the headphones only, instead of through the speakers. For example, if you have distortion it’s handy to know if it’s coming from the speakers, mixer or microphone. By listening on headphones you can eliminate the speaker from the equation.
Phantom Power – If you are using condenser microphones you need phantom power in order for them to work. Make sure that switch is on when using condensers, otherwise they won’t work.
CD/TAPE – If you happen to have a rapper, or somebody that bring his laptop then you can plug it in by using the CD/TAPE inputs in the MAIN SECTION. Just make sure you have an RCA to minijack cable present. Musicians never bring them themselves.
Most mixers have the same functions, so it should be easy to figure out how they work. And again, don’t overspend on a mixer that has 16+ channels if you only need three.
Does your mixer have any extra functions you use? Are mixers intimidating? Why? Let us know in the comments.
Image by: Eschipul
Loading ...