Great microphone value...can you guess what it is?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:33 am

Okay, so I was in Guitar Center the other day...you know...just talking to friends...I wouldn't *buy* things there, right? Wink

Anyway, my usual sales guy always tells me of the good deals they have in the store that he knows I'd be interested in.

So, they had this mic. It was $230 (regularly $350 new) because it was a floor sample and they didn't have the accessories to go with it. Knowing the company that makes it and knowing their usual quality, I bought it without hesitation.

The mic in question is normally $350 (recently reduced). It used to come as a bundle with other gear that was well below the quality of the mic and what it deserves.

The sound is very nice - here are my observations:

Advertised as "cardioid" but a little tight for cardioid - I'd call it hypercardioid for most things.

Great proximity effect - warm and rich when up close, slightly rolled off far away.

Crystal clear, smooth top end with a noticable but very pleasing (not grating or annoying) top end bump around 8k (similar sounding bump to classic u87).

BIG sound..."you are there" kind of feeling.

Perfect for up front vocals...male country and rock and VERY good on hip-hop.

Great on sax! Great on trumpet and bone!

Very high sensitivity and wonderfully low self-noise.

Built like a tank and gorgeous to boot.

Low output impedence - due to the resistance, noise, and sensitivity, this mic will pair well with even moderate quality pres. It will do wonders with high end pres and will work on loads as low as 300 Ohms without a problem.

I would pay $1000 for this microphone, much less get 3 of them for that price.

Anybody care to guess?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:42 am

MD421? or SM7B

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:57 am

Rode NTK

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:05 pm

One of those Heil LDCs? Blue Bluebird?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:06 pm

Well, there is only one mic that comes to mind that was bundled with "less quality" gear, is supposed to come with a number of accessories, and is "BIG" sounding...
The less quality gear was a Focusrong Platinum something-or-other
The missing accessories would be the case, special popscreen and suspension.
Some folks say it is "too sensitive", some, like every hip-hop studio in town, love it...
It is a BLUEBIRD, no?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:29 pm

We have winners...
It's the Bluebird.

What did you win???

My respect and admiration. Wink

J

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:34 pm

Great! Jeremy, how does it pair up with the Summit 2BA-211 (assuming you still have yours) ? And, since you say that it acts more like a hypercardioid, is it good at keeping the room out of its' pick-up pattern? I tried a Baby Bottle and that drove me crazy...

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:01 pm

Nice. Would you mind posting clips?

For those of us on a budget, would you endorse this as being better than anything in its price range for general use? What about specific (vocals, acoustic guitar) use?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:09 pm

i've always been fond of the aesthetics of BLUE mics and the bluebird particuarly catches my eye. I need to pick up a condensor mic in the $200-500 range in the next few months.

You guys keep saying it's good for hip hop. what about folk vocals, acoustic-rock vocals, or jazzy sort of vocals?

thoughts??

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:32 pm

Hey guys...let me answer one guy/gal at a time...

Mooney -
I don't have the Summits any more (since I closed up the commercial place, they weren't finding much use.) However, I do know their character and I would suspect that they'd be hellacious through the Summits. Especially with a bit of tube bite and a middle to low impedence.

As for keeping out room sounds, I'm going to try them on toms and kick drum later this week and I'll let you know. As for a comparison to the Baby Bottle... the Bluebird has a smoother, more laid back mid range (which I always found quite aggressive on the Baby Bottle) and definitely a tighter pattern. Ironically, the guts are essentially the same, but the capsule is apparently different. I wonder how much the physical mechanics of it affect this.

Patrick -

I don't have any samples yet (other than my own voice and a couple snippets of my tinkering with some instruments...none are post worthy). However, I hope to real soon. I'll let you know when I do.

As for "general" use...it's tough to say. The presence peak does limit its use. I'd hate to hear an edgy female voice through this mic. However, it would do well on most male vocals, acceptable to good on guitar (needs tweaking on placement but could be a magical experience if just right), musky, deep female vocals would be f'ing fabulous (Diana Krall in the lower octave!)

If I had to choose ONE do it all, perfect mic for a traditional studio with a finite budget, I'd go Soundelux U195 - relatively flat, perfect on so many voices, awesome on drums and the "Fat" switch doubles its versatility. But alas, that mic is 5 times what I paid for this mic.

Rockstardave-

Bear in mind, I only give hip-hop as an example. I record maybe 2 hip-hop vocal tracks a year and not even in my studio...For folk, acoustic, jazz, this would be great. Again - shrill voices need not apply, but yeah, it would do well on most any voice where you want a little presence or sheen.

Cheers all!

Oh...and when I get the shockmount via Fedex in the next couple days, I'll put it through more paces and maybe get a sample or two. Right now, I have been stuffing it into an AT shockmount with a sock to make it fit the rest of the way.....

J.

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:05 pm

Ha!!!

It turns out there's a rebate on the BlueBird and it's $50!! I got the mic for $170. Well spank me and call me Sally!

The replacement shockmount only cost me $20 and I don't give a damn about the pop filter.

Yay me!

I might have to buy another one on principal!! That would be two Blueberries for $470 or an average of $235 each...not bad.

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:37 pm

I win, I spent $120 on the AT2041 mic package and they are for the money the best you can get. Im not just blowing smoke guys go snag a couple you'll see....

Oh and sm57's for the money....

Oh and the SM7B

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:27 am

Cucco wrote:

Ha!!!

It turns out there's a rebate on the BlueBird and it's $50!! I got the mic for $170. Well spank me and call me Sally!

The replacement shockmount only cost me $20 and I don't give a damn about the pop filter.

Yay me!

I might have to buy another one on principal!! That would be two Blueberries for $470 or an average of $235 each...not bad.

How about we kick you and call you SCHMUCK...LOL!!!!

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:28 pm

Hey now...just cuz I sell my Summits I'm a scmuck??

Okay, maybe. But I had to sell a lot of stuff when the city shut my studio down and I had to get out and lost over $25K!! Bye bye Summits, Soundelux, Langevin, DAV, Manley, Crane Song...

I'm down to on-location classical stuff only right now thanks to some b*tchy desk jocky at city hall who insisted I needed 12 off-street parking spaces in a crowded, down-town historical district to get my occupancy permit!

By the way...
Why the hell did this get moved to Budget Gear

This is starting to piss me off - the mod in Pro Audio Gear doesn't care for the gear being discussed so he automatically moves it to Budget Gear. This isn't the first time. What the hell?

This is a top-notch professional caliber microphone that I would choose over a Neumann TLM103 or AKG C414, but because it's affordable, it automatically goes in Budget Gear.

Seriously. That's just annoying.

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:33 pm

Cucco wrote:

...microphone that I would choose over a Neumann TLM103 or AKG C414

These are the blanket statements I'm after! Amendments or retractations?

Who do you like in the ADK Vienna/Hamburg games?

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