{"id":26890,"date":"2025-06-09T15:22:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=26890"},"modified":"2025-11-19T11:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:41:19","slug":"live-sound-engineering-what-you-need-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/live-sound-engineering-what-you-need-to-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Sound Engineering: What You Need to Start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How Knowing Your Gear and Signal Flow Sets the Stage for Great Sound as a Live Sound Engineer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The following information on live sound engineering is excerpted from the Berklee Online course Live Event Sound Engineering and Concert Production 101<\/em><\/a>, written by Toby Francis<\/a>, and currently enrolling.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A common saying in the field of live sound engineering is that sound reinforcement is a series of compromises: the fewer you make, the better the result. Learning how to create a great-sounding event involves eliminating as many obstacles and compromises as possible. Let\u2019s take a look at some of the equipment that will bring out the sounds that enable you to make fewer compromises!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power Amplifiers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Power amps supply the speaker system with the power it needs to perform. They come in many sizes, in regard to output power. A power amp has an input which can be analog or digital, and sometimes they offer both for each channel as well as an output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The input connector is usually a socket XLR and they accept line level. Sometimes they offer a plug XLR next to the input, which acts as a pass-through to be used in daisy chaining more than one amp together. This allows you to use the same signal to power more than one speaker.
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Older Crown Amp Front Panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The output of a power amp uses binding posts to connect the speaker wire to the amp. Since various types of connectors are used on speaker cabinets, panels with panel-mounted connectors are often mounted on the backs of amp racks with the bare wire leads connected to the binding posts on the amp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Older Crown Amp Rear Panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Power amps output both a positive (red) and negative (black) output. The positive leads go to the positive input to the speaker and the negative goes to the negative speaker input, ensuring that the phase is maintained. We discuss phase throughout the 12-week Live Event Sound Engineering<\/em><\/a> course, but what you need to know first and foremost about it is that keeping the system phase correct and all the speakers working together is very important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you place two speakers next to each other and power them with the same signal, both in phase with each other, they produce the same sound. Disconnect one of the speakers and you will hear a slight reduction in level. Now reverse the phase to the second speaker and reconnect it and you will hear a great reduction in level, which is very noticeable when you listen from between the speakers. As you move your head from side to side you will hear a big change in both the level and frequency response. This happens because if the sound level is equal and the two speakers are out of phase, they are canceling each other out. A big part of sound engineering is identifying and eliminating as many phase issues as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power rating of power amps is listed in different impedances. Most amps will function with an impedance between 2 ohms and 16 ohms. The lower the impedance, the higher the wattage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crossover Systems<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speaker systems are generally composed of components that reproduce the different frequency ranges. Cone speakers come in various sizes: some reproduce low frequencies better than others but they don\u2019t reproduce high frequencies efficiently. In this case compression drivers\u2014mounted on horns which reproduce high frequencies, but not low frequencies\u2014are used to complete the frequency spectrum. A crossover network divides the signal between the cone speaker and the compression driver. There are both passive and active crossovers.

A passive crossover<\/strong> is placed after the amplifier output and divides the signal between two or more speakers, each outputting a different frequency range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/em>Active crossovers<\/strong> are placed before the power amplifier. Therefore, active crossovers deal with line level signals. When using an active crossover network, separate amplifier channels are required for each driver or set of drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The crossover has an input and an output for each section you are trying to create. The input signal is full range; it is then divided at whatever the desired frequency or frequencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n