International Bluegrass Musicians Association: Difference between revisions

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* Steve-at-Bose (Steve Skillings)

* Ken-at-Bose (Ken Jacob)

This originally appeared in the Bose Community Message Boards.

I'm at the IBMA event in Nashville, TN, USA and thing are really cooking. Thanks to an invite from bluegrass lover, Rich Stillman, we decided to come down and see what's happening with the system and the Bluegrass folks. With Rich's help we outfitted a few "showcase rooms" with systems and decided to see how thing would work out.

I'll let Rich (Stillman) cover the "how we set it up" stuff in detail, but basically we've set up two microphones (each going to a system) a couple feet apart for doing these showcases. Now if you've never been to one of these read then next paragraph, otherwise skip one.

Here's what happens at a showcase event. A room is run by a venue, or an association or a manufacturer, and bands or individual artists come in and play a 20~25 minute set. Then, you've got 5 minutes until the next band is on. It is rapid fire and very interesting to observe (and stressful to work).

We've had to {{L1 CR}} set up in a few rooms and I've got to say I'm pleasantly surprised at how well they are working. Last night I left one of the Bose powered rooms and wandered. I wanted to see if we were better than other rooms (sound quality wise) or about even or worse. I quickly found out why the Bluegrass musicians were flipping out over the Bose sound.

The easiest way to describe what I heard was this. It sounded like there was no amplification ... until someone walked away from the microphones and spoke. Amazing. Even I was surprised at how well our little speaker sounded.

With Bluegrass they are far more concerned with quality of sound over volume. I had one room that during setup the host said, "let's turn down" and I (the dumb rock/blues guy) thought, wow, this isn't even loud yet. Then I went to speak and realized that my voice was quite loud. We had a nice level for about 50~75 folks to enjoy the music without being blown away.

I've got to share that the feedback from listeners and musicians has been shocking. They see "Bose Corporation" on my badge and start gushing. Great complements and great questions: "How does it do it?" "I can't believe how good it sounds." "Yey, I love that new speaker of yours."

It's been a fun trip so far and I'm gearing up for my third late shift. The running joke is IBMA means I've Been Mostly Awake. Sleep is a rare commodity.

Oh, no. I've gotta fly. sorry for the quick post. More to come. Ken's here today and he was smart enough to bring a camera. More to come.

For those in the Bluegrass community we're planning on doing a trial with Rhonda Vincent tonight at 10:30 in room 207 ... shhhhhh ... Wink if you're nearby come on by and I'll let you in.

I guess she heard the systems last night and said something like, "That sounds fantastic. Can I bring the band in for a trial." We said "yes, of course." We're excited to hear her try the systems out.

Gotta fly,

== Introduction - Ken-at-Bose  ==

Hi Everyone,

I just got into Nashville yesterday and the place was already SMOKIN'. There's about 2500 professional bluegrass players here and as you can imagine, all heck is breaking loose. These are the big boys and girls, and the fabulous assortment of up and coming acts.

This music is totally happening and totally alive. There's tons of musicians of all ages here and you can easily see the next gen coming up through the ranks.

It's a total blast to be able to hear well, and really appreciate the cookin' string licks and fabulous vocals.

I was very pleased with the performance of our Traditional Music configuration of two wide-area condenser microphones, each connected to one {{L1 CR}} pushed downstage and to the side. As a reminder of the technical details of our new setup see: [[L1™ Traditional Music System]]

The rooms could hold about 100 people each, and most performances were stuffed to the rafters.

What's utterly wonderful about the new configuration we worked out is that it's a walk on and play solution for the groups. There's nothing for them to plug in. This creates a beautiful and relaxed environment.

Players use a kind of choreography already worked out for single mic technique commonly used in this genre. When it's your turn to solo, your bandmates make room for you to move in on the mic. Our new system makes it possible for this to be much more relaxed because there's two mics, although the main reason for the two mics to have glorious spatiality to the music out in the audience (the acoustic ensemble on stage gets this "for free".)

I'll post a few photos from last night (late late late) with apologies for the moment in not being able to name the bands (if I were anybody, I'd know instantly who they are as they're all touring pros.)

Here's a picture of how a lot of bands are set up for showcases. There were LOTS of problems with this system last night. Guess what was the biggest? Yup, you got it, feedback. Ear splitting and lots of different frequencies. It was very hard for the musicians to relax.

http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/ga/ul/1541052562/inlineimg/Y/old_way.JPG

Here's one of the groups ([http://www.grasscals.com/ The Grasscals]) that played on our new system. These guys TOTALLY ROCKED. Killer players. Many are multi-time champions in their instruments.

http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/ga/ul/9251052562/inlineimg/Y/P1020443.JPG

Here's another group on the system. Note the "dummy mic" in the center. This was used to give the players a familiar target while they got used to the dual mic system.

As you can see, the tightness this new approach allows is real back-porch stuff. This is the way these guys learned how to play and love to play and this system allows them to play that way. It's totally lovely and naturalistic. Look at the expression on the guitar/vocalist's face. That's the deep living structure of live music performance. There ain't nothin better.

http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/ga/ul/8161052562/inlineimg/Y/P1020448.JPG

I add this shot because it shows you one of the young up and coming professional bands. The fiddle player was about 11 years old and the others were in their early twenties I'd guess.

http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/ga/ul/8271052562/inlineimg/Y/P1020450.JPG

== Report - Rich Stillman ==