This is part two (of three) in our series exploring the various types of "one man band" performers who are popular on YouTube. In part one, we looked at "beatbox musicians" who combine vocal abilities with instruments to create the unique sound of a larger group.

NUMBER 2: Multi-instrument musicians who create montaged video performances edited together.

This form of "one man band" can't be recreated live so well, but it does work very well for the YouTube video format. Similar to what many solo artists do in the studio, a musician or singer will create a multi-track recording of not just audio, but also video, that can be edited together for, most commonly, a multi-screen, layered effect, reproducing the sound for which you would normally need a larger band. For example:



That take evolved a bit, and we now see these types of "one man band" videos that eschew the multi-screen format for something a little more visually clever:



But what if you didn't even want to deal with mastering a bunch of instruments? One of the most popular trends in a cappella videos over the past two years has been the rise of one-man a cappella, something we've spotted not just in the U.S. but in the Middle East as well.



Popular YouTube artist KurtHugoSchneider showed that one-man a cappella doesn't need to be limited to the multi-screen format either.

Want more? The spread of the tablet has also given rise to one ipad bands as well...