Ben Hale.

From Manchester’s iconic music venues to festival stages and international tours, Ben Hale has turned his passion for live music into an impressive career in live audio and production.

After studying Live Audio Engineering and Music Production at Spirit Studios in 2021, Ben began gaining industry experience while in his second year studying at Spirit. Today, he now works across live events and touring productions as a Front of House Engineer, balancing venue work with shows across the UK and beyond.

We caught up with Ben to chat about his journey into live sound, the experiences that have shaped his career, and what it takes to make every show sound its best.

Could you tell us a bit about your current work as a FOH Engineer and the different types of events you work across?

I’ve been working as an in-house FOH engineer for over 3 years now across a number of different venues & festivals, starting whilst still in my second year at Spirit.

I have been working at a few different venues across Manchester, such as The Ritz and Warehouse Project and enjoy the challenges that come along with different venues and setups. I have also been working as a touring FOH engineer for a band for over 2 years as well, which has been an incredible experience so far, but has meant I’ve had to find a good balance of working across these different roles.

What first got you interested in live audio, and what made you choose to study at Spirit Studios?

I was always interested in live music and tried to go to as many live shows as I could. Then my first full time job after school was working in a music instrument shop, which gave me a deeper look into the equipment used, and more specifically, different microphones & PA systems.

This is where my love of live production developed, and I knew that I wanted a career in the live events, and decided that a course at Spirit studios would be the best way to get into the industry.

Since completing your studies here, what has your journey in the audio industry looked like?

I was very fortunate to start getting paid work whilst still studying, which really helped with my studies as I was gaining real-world experience that helped me alongside the course.

Since graduating, I have picked up as much work as possible, varying from working in the warehouses at PA rental companies dbnAudile & Solotech. I also took on freelance work, varying from corporate shows, music videos as well as live gigs and festivals.

I have recently taken a full time role working at the O2 Ritz, as the assistant technical manager, which has been really good for getting to grips with all of the elements that make up a live show, not only audio but also lighting, special effects and learning more about how shows are prepared and ran.

Looking back, what did you enjoy most about your time at Spirit?

I really liked having the freedom to be able to practice and find my feet mixing bands & multitrack recordings in the Charlie Jones Live Venue, using professional grade equipment, but without the pressure of having a full paying audience in the room. I found this was ideal for gaining the skills required and importantly, the confidence, to take into shows when I was ready.

I found the contacts that Spirit Studios have within the industry really helped me to get a lot of the opportunities that have since led to a lot of paid work.

What have been some of your favourite jobs so far?

There have been countless shows that I have worked on which I could’ve only dreamed about before I started at Spirit. I’d say my favourite job so far would have to be the set I mixed on the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury in 2025.

We weren’t too sure how many people would show up for the set as it was on the Friday night at about 8:30pm, and therefore we clashed with some huge names, but thankfully the tent was overflowing for the entire set and in my opinion, the show sounded great!

You’re now working as Front of House Engineer for Antony Szmierek. What do you enjoy most about working on tour, and what does your role involve day-to-day?

I think the most enjoyable part of touring as a FOH engineer is doing the job I love, but whilst travelling all over the world.

With Antony and the band, we have now done a UK tour, 2 European tours and a tour of America. I’d never had the opportunity to go to America before this, so travelling there in itself was an incredible experience, but being there for work was amazing.

The day-to-day on a tour can be quite repetitive, but you find that there are always new challenges you face in every venue you visit. This really helps keep you on your toes. But thankfully, Antony, his band and the rest of the team are some of the best people I have ever worked with, which really makes my job so much easier!

You’ve worked at events ranging from smaller venues to festivals with audiences of around 70,000. How does your approach to sound change when you’re working on a much larger production?

In honesty, there are a lot of similarities with working smaller venue shows all the way up to massive productions. The fundamentals are often the same, I think the thing that changes most is trying to ensure that the audience areas are covered as evenly as possible which is a lot down to the design of the PA system.

I find it really important during soundcheck (if you get a soundcheck!) to walk around the audience area and see how it sounds from a number of places. You can then make changes to the mix if necessary to try and ensure the most amount of people will have a good experience. That being said, it is important to remember, you can’t always please everyone!

Is there a particular piece of equipment, console or software that you particularly enjoy working with?

For me personally, I really enjoy working with Allen & Heath desks. Any time I’m using in-house desks and it is an Allen & Heath, I know I can get a good sound out of it, and find that they’re the most user friendly and intuitive.

Although, I think it is important to not get too hung up on any particular piece of equipment, I just feel most at home on those desks specifically! There have been many occasions I’ve had to use desks and PA systems I don’t really like, but you can’t let that get in the way and you just have to try and do your best with what’s in front of you!

What advice would you give to Spirit students hoping to build a career in live sound and touring?

I think the thing that helped me most to get a foot in the door was showing that I was willing.

You’ll likely get unpaid opportunities when you first start out and you have to take them to show you are interested.

When you do get opportunities, make sure to ask questions about things you’re unsure of. For the more experienced people you work alongside, some things may seem obvious to them, but if you’ve not experienced them before then its better to get an understanding rather than pretend you know about it already.

Finally, I’d say networking is such a big thing in this industry. If you encounter or work with a band in their early stages, offer your services as an engineer. You never know if (or when) they’re going to blow up, and if you get in with them early, they might even take you along to Glastonbury or on a tour of America with them one day!