One of the greatest shows we did was an "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Fortunately, the sleek look mirrors, By Scott Colburn Right now, I'm using an old favorite of mine, an AKG C535. It comes with a good mount for your mic stand and case to carry out for the road. The $959 Model KSM32/ CG is the same mic but in a nonreflective, charcoal gray finish for stage applications; it ships with only the swivel mount and a pad-ded, zippered carry bag. I've used it on the mandolin, too. No floor wedges. However, even close miking suffers from the effects of floor monitors. When you do that, you're getting the true tones of the instruments while letting the band do the balancing as they hear the PA in the room. The first thing I like to do to a (non-ribbon) mic I’m testing is to blow into it. The Shure KSM32 is a side-address, cardioid condenser microphone for studio recording and live sound productions. Only time will tell if the diaphragm will hold up to repeated punishment. If you are wanting to use this mic in your recording interface or PA, you better have some phantom power. We've used the KSM9 on instruments, too.CM: I'm a big Shure fan so I try to use as many Shure mics as I can. This is because of its very respectable specifications. However, the microphone has been known to fill in a very complete workhorse role. The stringed instruments be- came much more prominent, of course, yet each individual sound remained focused. This mic looks good! I would use a pop filter with this. Cookies help us improve performance, enhance user experience and deliver our services. I get all the gain I ever need and it has such a nice tone. The KSM32 was solid in the low-end department: The sound was round, fat and moved considerable air on the subwoofer. That is where it counts. On vocals however, I would normally gravitate towards the 4050 (for a fairly natural, but dark sound) or towards the KSM44 for a bigger more extended airy type sound. November 19, 2020, Gemma Stenberg | You know how natural those mid-’60s jazz recordings sounded? If you get close to them, they're really loud. In fact, it had much better low frequency response than I expected.Allison and the band are all in-ear. November 25, 2020, Marc Henshall | I also tried the KSM32 on electric bass. And if that weren’t enough, each member of the Twins walked closer to the mic during the course of the recording, plink-a-plinks a-plinking away. It's whatever works. I liked the strong grille and the metal construction. It's a condenser microphone with a lot of proximity effect. When we use a mic, we use the KSM32 or KSM44A. Davida Rochman | The Shure KSM32 / SL is a workhorse condenser mic with a natural, extended sound and lightning-fast response, great for vocals and a range of instruments. All in all, the KSM32 is a reasonably priced condenser mic that holds its own on a variety of instruments. A three-position switch selects between flat response and two low-frequency cutoffs: One is a -18dB/octave slope at 80 Hz; the other is a less aggressive -6dB/octave at 115 Hz. For the individual mic technique, an SM58® or a KSM9 for vocals and a SM57 or a KSM137 for instruments works well. (No banjo jokes, please!) Convince the act not to have ridiculously loud monitors as they greatly affect the sound at FOH.Here at the Ryman, when all the acoustic elements come together, there is nothing greater that having a "goosebump" moment. What's your experience with this technique in live applications?CM: Close miking may be better in a situation where you need a lot of gain before feedback. I think not. November 25, 2020, Linda Hansen | It certainly passed the mono mic test. They mix themselves using few or (more likely) no monitors.The Ryman is very conducive to bluegrass. When all three of them sing vocals, the one with the loudest voice backs away from the mic (usually a KSM32). While the techniques vary – there's no real formula. Cliff Miller, founder of SE Systems in NC, has handled live sound for just about every bluegrass act that ever was (including Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Doc and Merle Watson all the way up to Allison Krauss and Union Station) for over 40 years.Our experts pegged the genre's special challenges as the ability to capture the individual instruments' resonant characteristics and achieve a natural balance across all the string instruments.