[Music] I'm Philip Graham with Ear Trumpet Labs microphones. We're here at the IBMA World of Bluegrass, and with help of D'Addario and the fabulous Man About a Horse, we're gonna talk a little bit about some of the best techniques for making a bluegrass band and specifically how to get beyond the five-up five-down standard line-up approach. We'll talk a little bit about that and the differences between the kinds of microphones that you kind of need for different approaches, and something about, with the help of the band, how to best address the mic and how to practice and how to get used to doing a more dynamic performance style. When you first go to perform live in a place that's doing sound reinforcement you're probably going to run into a bunch of dynamic microphones all lined up, usually one for your vocal and one for your for your instrument and what you'll usually be told is "Get right up on that mic, you have to get as close as you can". With dynamic mics, that's true– one of the main differences between dynamics and condensers is that dynamic mics are really designed for very close use and the tone really only sounds decent if you are very close on them and as soon as you get a few inches away from the microphone, the tone is going to change drastically so you really do have to perform sort of pinned in place to the microphone. One of the advantages of using condenser mics and going to a single mic or fewer microphone setup is that it can really free up your performance, both your individual ability to perform more naturally and as band to add a little more dynamic and dance to what you do. The other real advantages are that acoustically it is just gonna sound more natural. It's gonna sound more like your instrument and your band sounds in a room from somebody just sitting there right in front of you. You know, a condenser mic is the kind of mic that's used in the studio, it has more detail, it will get the subtlety of your instrument much better. That said, there are some challenges, some real challenges to learning to work a single mic effectively as a band. [laughs] These guys well know, and they've been practicing at it for quite a while. They're very good. You know, it's on the one hand a more natural performance approach, I guess, right? I mean it does feel a little more like playing knee-to-knee when you're learning tunes or when you're sitting around jamming: that part of it is great, but in reality to get a decent amount of volume out front you do have to be real conscious of the distance that you have to your single mic, and that can really take some practice when you've got five strapping lads and all their instruments and head stocks and fiddle bows. I was hoping maybe you guys can talk a little bit about the process of figuring out how you address the one mic and practice at it.