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How Recording a Single-Mic Bluegrass Band Differs from Close-Miking Each Player

Recording a single-mic bluegrass band captures a performance that is already mixed by the players' movement around one stand, whi…

What are the unwritten rules of a bluegrass parking-lot jam circle?

The short answer: a parking-lot jam runs on a shared repertoire, a single key negotiation before each tune, and a rotation that g…

What roles do banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bass play in the single-mic arrangement?

In a one-mic bluegrass setup, each instrument has a fixed job and a fixed distance from the stand. The banjo plays a continuous t…

How does a bluegrass band mix itself around a single microphone?

A bluegrass band mixes itself around one microphone by turning the arrangement into the mix: there is no engineer balancing anyth…

What Is One Mic at dumplinvalleybluegrass.com?

One Mic is an independent editorial publication about the single-microphone tradition in bluegrass — the practice of five players…