This new wireless sax mic has some clever features.
Today I’m testing the NUX B-6 Wireless Sax Mic, while I record some lessons for Sax School. This mic caught my interest because it’s so compact. So I’m going to show you what this microphone is all about, and the cool things that I think make it stand out and made me want to try it. We’re going to listen to what it sounds like and see if this might be a good option for you.
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Why Use a Wireless Sax Mic
Loads of our members in Sax School are using wireless microphones, and I do in fact as well. They’re a great choice for recording at home, but also if you’re out gigging, maybe playing with a local band or playing by yourself as a solo artist, a wireless sax mic is a brilliant choice because it gives you so much more freedom.
First impressions
Now I’ve done a bunch of different reviews for wireless microphones. One of them is actually for the Cloudvocal system. I think the Cloudvocal is a brilliant system, and lots of our Sax school members use this mic.
But why should we consider this new NUX B-6 mic?
Well right out the gate, the first thing that really impressed me was the size. Look how compact it is.
NUX actually sent this to me to try out, see what I thought about it. What really appealed to me, was the fact that unlike all of the other systems that I’ve tried, where you either need to put batteries or you need to plug a power supply in, this NUX microphone actually charges itself inside the case. Let me show you what I mean.
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Inside the case
So inside the case for this NUX, it’s all very neat.You’ve got a receiver, you’ve got the gooseneck for the microphone itself and the transmitter. But the coolest part, is inside this case, is a charging battery. On the side of the case is a USB-C socket, and if you press the button you can see what the battery charge is now.
That means that whenever the equipment is back in the case, it’s actually charging it up. Plus you can easily see how much charge you’ve got remaining inside the case.
Charging in the case
Now, I haven’t checked this out to see how many gigs I could get out of a single charge. Just the fact that I can charge it in the case without having to bring another piece of equipment with me, makes it so much easier. It means as long as my case is charged up, and my devices are charged up, I’m bound to get a fair bit of playing time out of it.
And of course, the other thing that’s great is how compact this is because that’ll easily fit into any saxophone case.
So let’s pull it out and let’s see how it fits on the saxophone.
On the saxophone
So inside the case, it’s super-simple. You’ve got just three things – the receiver, the transmitter, and the gooseneck. Now you can see it’s actually charging up at the moment. So I’ve got my red charging indicator where it’s charging from the internal battery.
So to assemble it that easy, you take out the gooseneck, and your transmitter, and the two things just clip together. It’s very much like putting a pair of headphones in; then you tighten it up to secure it.
Now, what I really like about this design, is the clamp integrated into the transmitter, which clips onto the bell of your saxophone. You can see the charging connectors on the back of the transmitter, co whenever it goes back into the case, it charges up. Included with the box is a charging cable stashed neatly into the little pocket in the top as well.
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The Receiver
The receiver is also really compact. You can see there’s a charging point on the side for if you wanted to plug it in directly. Of course, though, the receiver charges in the case. There’s an indicator on the top to show you that it’s connected, and it has a standard XLR connector, which would go straight into your mixer or into your audio interface.
Now there’s a little on and off switch on the side of the receiver so when we press that on, the red indicator comes on to show that it’s working. And then there’s another on/off switch on the side of the microphone. When I press and hold that down, you can see the light comes on. And when the two things are connected, they both turn green so you know that we’re all good to go and everything’s working.
Setting up the Wireless Sax Mic
Today I’m recording straight into my computer., so I’m going to plug this into my audio interface so that the signal goes straight into the computer. There’s no cables, and no other things to worry about. Of course, if I was doing a live gig, I’d plug it straight into my mixer. Or, if you’ve got one of those compact PAs, you could just plug it into one of the input XLRs on the back of that. So it’s really, really useful and versatile, and so small. I love it.
Clipping to the Sax
It’s really easy to clip the mic onto your sax using the integrated clip. It’s simple and quite secure. And actually this wireless sax mic compares really well to other models I’ve used. For example, my main touring wireless microphone is the much more expensive AMT Wi-5, which has a very secure clamp, but it’s much more industrial-looking and clumsy.
I love the Cloudvocal – it’s a very clever system, and it’s so light, with a really simple little clip to attach it to the sax. But a really like how positive this clamp is on the NUX B-6. You can put it anywhere and actually, it will just as easily clips onto the bell of my soprano as my tenor or my alto or my bari sax.
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Pitfalls with a Wireless Sax Mic
Now, one of the problems with wireless microphones on a little gooseneck, like this one, is the separation from the saxophone so you don’t get lots of key noise. You can see there’s flexibility in there for the capsule. Let’s hope that that keeps the key noise down. I’ll be listening for the key noise and also listening for the overall sound of the microphone. It’s always difficult when you’ve got a wireless system and a tiny capsule to get a good quality of sound. So let’s have a listen.
Testing the Wireless Sax Mic
So today’s lesson I’m recording for Sax School is the Leonard Cohen tune Hallelujah. Let’s have a listen to what sounds like.
I’m actually really impressed with the sound of this microphone, but I have got a few effects on there. And if you take the effects off, you can hear a little bit of key noise. Listen again as I demo this.
My Verdict
That’s actually pretty good. There’s a little bit of key noise in there, but you get that on any wireless microphone and even with my really expensive, fancy microphone, I do get a bit of key noise.
You know, I’m not trying to shoot out these two microphones because they’re in completely different price ranges. But I think the most important takeaway from here is that the key noise isn’t a really big issue. You could beef up the sound a little bit with a bit of EQ, but for 99% of applications, when you’re using this microphone in a live setting with a little bit of reverb or something on your sound, this is great. It’s going to really do a fantastic job.
And I think it sounds lovely. What do you think It sounds like? let me know!
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Sax-specific settings
There’s one other cool thing about this microphone that I forgot to mention.
It’s got these inbuilt “scenes” or EQ settings, depending on which saxophone that you’re playing on. The green light indicates that it’s set up for tenor saxophone. There’s a little button to change it to red for alto saxophone, or yellow for soprano saxophone.
I’ve not seen that feature on any other wireless microphone system, and certainly not in this price range. This is a pretty cool feature and I’ll definitely be playing around with this a bit more to see how it affects the sound and if it’s really noticeable.
Final Thoughts
So just to wrap up, I think this is a fantastic option if you’re looking for a wireless sax mic.
Now there are loads of other things that we could test. We could test the range. We could see what the battery life is like. But just as a quick test here, we were looking at the sound and the practicality of this system. I think it’s fabulous. Now, there are lots of other options and lots of our members are using the Cloudvocal mic, which I still think is a great option, but I love how this system is so simple.
We don’t have to worry about extra plugin devices and cables and all that sort of stuff. And I love the fact that it charges in the case. I’m all about keeping things really simple, and I think that’s what this microphone does. And it sounds pretty good too.
Find out more about the NUX B-6 here.
If you’re using one of these already, please let me know what you think about it because I’m always trying to test things to help our thousands of Sax School members. So any info that you can share with us, we’d really appreciate it.
Making progress on your saxophone
If you want to push ahead with your playing, and you really want to explore your skills so you can develop your playing further, or even if you want to try the lesson that I was recording in this very video, then go check out what we’re doing with Sax School. You can try out some help from the tutors. You can connect with the community. You can come and see a masterclass. You can get some feedback on a spotlight session. There’s tons of stuff in there to help you, just like we’re helping thousands of other students every single day.