Live Sound With Audix Microphones

By Hugh McKenna

Live sound can be tough, long hours, changing setups and keeping everybody happy requires gear that's designed to sound great, work in a number of roles and it helps if it can take a beating too. Audix mics fit all these criteria perfectly and that's why any number of touring engineers rely on them as their main microphones.

On Tour With Jeff Beck

Ben Findlay  & Shon Hartman are experienced engineers, together having worked on stage and in the studio with Peter Gabriel, Jimmy Eat World, The Offspring, The Cult and Goldfrapp. When they started on tour with Jeff Beck they had a broad assortment of microphones, going with what they knew had worked in the past. However early on in the tour they were introduced to Audix, picking up the SCX25A, ADX51, OM7, i5, D4 and D6. From that point on it was Audix all the way and Ben was so impressed with the sound that he's bringing Audix with him into the studio.

"It has been a bit of a revelation for me, engineers are instinctively conservative in their choice of mics and when you find a set that works for you, you tend to stick with that. However thanks to the encouragement of Narada and Audix, we have put together a mic package that is giving the best results I have ever known in the live environment." - Ben Findlay

Playing Portland With The Decemberists

Rich Hipp and Marcel Cacdac are FOH and monitor engineers for the Decemberists. With quite an elaborate stage setup they need a versatile set of mics and use nearly the whole range, from i5 on snare & guitar, D2 & D4 on toms, D6 on kick, OM series mics on vocals and the Cab Grabber comes in handy for accurate, repeatable micing of acoustic amps. Hear what they have to say about Audix.

 

If you want to learn a little more about the Cab Grabber and micing up guitar amps, here's Audix to explain how.

Audix Mics At Dolphin

The Mics	Ideal For	Used By
Audix i5	Guitar, snare, percussion, toms	It's i5 all day long for Steve Earle, on snare, bass and all the guitars on stage.
Audix OM7	Lead & Backing Vocals	Blink 182's choice of vocal mic.
Audix OM5	Lead & Backing Vocals	It's been Alanis Morisette's main mic since 1995.
Audix D2	Rack Toms	My Bloody Valentine rely on D series mics on drums and indeed Audix all around the stage on guitars and vocals.
Audix D4	Floor Toms	Travis Barker relies on the D4 for deep tom sounds and i5 on snare.
Audix D6	Kick Drum	Crosby, Stills & Nash have almost entirely Audix on stage.
Cab Grabber	Perfect Guitar Mic Placement	Dick Dale uses the i5 mic and Cab Grabber to deliver his famous Surf Tone.