Get the inside scoop on how to improve your stage sound, with Hal Leonard's recently released book, Rockin' Your Stage Sound: A Musician's Guide to Professional Live Audio by Rob Gainey.

Rockin' Your Stage Sound ($24.99) is a step-by-step guide for improving your stage sound with over 170 stage tips for musicians and 100 tips from players in national acts. According to Hal Leonard, the book was designed to help musicians understand what they will be facing onstage during a performance and how they can best use their gear to improve their sound on stage. Professional live-sound engineer Rob Gainey combines his experience and observations with the perspectives of successful players from various genres of music.

From this 256-page book, you will learn conventional and radical approaches to solving stage problems, plus multiple strategies for achieving the best sound in any venue. The book provides a wealth of tips and viewpoints along with many illustrations and diagrams on topics such as microphones and miking technique, monitor setups and mixes, standard and alternative stage setups, as well as information on getting the most from your stage equipment and instruments.

Said to be a practical "field" guide for any musician, band, or sound engineer, Rockin' Your Stage Sound would be a good companion to musicians playing coffee houses and small clubs, those playing large clubs, auditoriums, and more. Gainey covers nearly every conceivable setup or situation, and the ideas he presents can apply to almost any size or shape venue. The information is said to be presented in clear, easy-to-follow language and is rounded out by a glossary of audio terms to help you decipher important technical concepts.

Who is this Rob Gainey? The author is a Los Angeles-based musician and live-sound engineer with over 30 years of experience. A native of Greenwood, South Carolina, he began playing guitar and bass professionally at age 17 and soon began focusing on live sound, which has become his specialty. He has mixed dozens of national acts in Los Angeles' top showcase venues.

For more information on Rockin' Your Stage Sound, visit Hal Leonard Books at halleonardbooks.com.