Is This The Best Saxophone Microphone System Ever?

Get the NUX Pro B-6 Sax Mic System https://geni.us/a0PUZv9

The Only Saxophone Mic I’ve Used in Over a Year

Nobody expects a Chinese-made microphone to make the big brands look like they weren’t even trying. But here we are. For the past year, I’ve been using a new sax mic that has design features so much better than anything else I’ve tried, it’s not even fair. So, in this video, I’ll show you exactly what makes the NUX B-6 Pro mic stand apart and why it’s now the only mic I use on every gig.

This video is not sponsored. However, I did receive this microphone for free. At first, it sat in the box for a while. Then one day, out of curiosity, I brought it on a low stakes gig for a test. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. That was over a year ago, and I have not used another mic since.

If you follow the channel, you know I have many others that cost much more. The reason I’m only using the NUX B-6 Pro now is not about sound, it’s about everything else. And to be honest, I haven’t even compared the sound of this mic to any of the others yet. So, let’s start by doing that part together.

Sound Comparison NUX Pro B-6 vs Neumann MCM 114

First, we have the Neumann MCM 114, which I was using for a while previously because of its excellent sound quality. Turns out the sound of the NUX B-6 Pro certainly holds its own. But even if I thought the Neumann sounded way better, I would still use this one. And here’s why.

I’ve come across a lot of sax gadgets with bells and whistles and features that don’t have any useful, real world application. And when I saw this mic and everything that was on the box, I assumed it was going to be another thing packed with features nobody wants or needs.

But I was wrong. I’ve been using pretty much every feature on this mic, none of which comes with any other mic that I’m aware of, and they’re all pretty much game changers.

Best Saxophone Mic Gooseneck I’ve Tried

Let’s start with the mic itself. It’s a condenser that sits on this really sturdy and well-designed shock mount that’s attached to the best gooseeneck I’ve ever had on a wireless mic.

Somebody finally got the tension right. I can put this in whatever position I want and it won’t budge.

The Sax Bell Clamp

The clamp that holds this mic and transmitter on your bell is also the best design I’ve ever used. It’s very easy to get on and off and it’s not fiddly at all. It doesn’t budge no matter what you do with your saxophone.

Okay, Jay, we get it. That part of the mic is great. But no, you don’t get it. They could have stopped there, but they didn’t.

Wireless Charging (All Wireless Sax Mics Should Have This)

Yes, it’s wireless. We’ve all seen that before. Another game-changing feature of this mic is that the transmitter charges wirelessly as well. No batteries to replace, no cables.

The best part is this foot switch receiver base. You just drop the transmitter on the base and it charges. Meaning that since I’ve been using this mic, I have never had to think about the battery one time. It’s always full. You do your sound check, you pop the mic back on there. You play a set, you drop the mic back on there. It’s always charged.

Interference While Performing

Whenever you have a video about wireless microphones, people go into the comments and start talking about frequencies and interference.

I have used cheap wireless mics before, and I have had interference on gigs, and I can tell you there’s nothing worse than that. But in the past year plus, I’ve been using the NUX B-6 Pro on lots of gigs, and I have not had one single instance of interference. I never go very far away from the receiver, though, so I haven’t tested it at a range of more than about 10 m.

It also has these transmission optimization settings you can customize along a spectrum of low latency to stability. So, if you wanted to sacrifice latency for the sake of an even more stable connection, you put it at this end. But if you were in a low interference environment like a studio and wanted to have the lowest latency at the expense of signal stability, you would put it at this end.

The default setting is right in the middle. That’s where mine has been on every gig, and I have not experimented with changing these settings. On their website, they talk about ultra low latency and intelligent frequency hopping.

All I can say is that I haven’t noticed any latency or frequency issues using this exclusively on the default setting. Now, they could have stopped there and this would be an excellent microphone that I would recommend enthusiastically, but there’s more.

The Foot Switch That Sax Players Dreamed Of

The receiver bass has a programmable foot switch, which I absolutely love and use constantly. You know when you’re playing with a band and you need to figure out what key a tune is in or what the chord changes are? One tap on my foot switch, my mic is muted.

I can noodle around and hear myself, but the audience doesn’t. Check this out. If I long tap on the foot switch, I get a gain boost. So, if you’re in a situation where you don’t have a sound engineer actively monitoring when there’s a sax solo that needs more gain, just tap your foot switch and get an instant volume boost. Take that, guitar players.

You can program the foot switch to also be a tuner and to toggle your return or send outputs. I’m not using either of those features, but someone else might find them quite handy.

EQ and Reducing Saxophone Key Noise

It also has this EQ button to cycle through some presets for soprano, alto, and tenor. You can also customize your own EQ presets if you want. I just leave mine flat because I have it running through my Line 6 HX Stomp with a custom EQ and reverb already set.

However, you can also customize the amount of low cut. I have the low cut off. Now, normally low cut can come in handy if you find you’re getting a lot of key noise from your saxophone mic. One of the things I love about the NUX B-6 Pro is that even with the low cut turned off, there’s very little key noise.

Connections and Display of the NUX Pro B-6 Sax Mic System

You can connect to your board via XLR cable or quarterinch jack. And the whole thing is designed to easily connect with other pedals. Finally, the display is really easy to see on stage. You can see your level in real time as well as the amount of battery in your transmitter.

I’m not even sure why they did this, but they made the receiver also work wirelessly. I always have mine plugged in, but I suppose there might be a use case where you’d want it to run on battery power.

As I’m making this video, I just discovered another game-changing feature I wish I knew about before. The receiver has a USBC connection, and I thought that was for charging a device like an iPad. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do that, but it does allow you to realtime record with your phone. Again, this is so obvious, yet this is the sort of feature no traditional company would ever include.

The NUX B-6 Sax Microphone System is a No-Brainer

I’ve been enjoying this mic so much, I thought it was time I shared my experience with the community as I think a lot of other saxophone players will also love this tool. If you’ve already got a NUX B-6 Pro mic, please tell us how it’s working for you in the comments.

For the price, I consider this a no-brainer and it is now my top recommendation for most saxophone players looking to get an all-around mic they can use in nearly every situation.

Now, if you want to know about the one piece of gear I regret not buying much sooner, watch this video next. After my saxophone, this is the one thing I cannot do a gig without. How In-Ear Monitors Made Me A Better Sax Player