Members philboking Posted April 11, 2015 Members Share Posted April 11, 2015 Got it for $30. Probably an excellent deal; I'm not sure yet... It works fine though. Anybody have any experience with these puppies? It definitely has a strong coloration to it. Might make a good instrument mic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 11, 2015 Share Posted April 11, 2015 If I recall correctly, they are a dynamic mic, but have an onboard buffer that requires phantom power. That way, the mic sees a constant impedance load and can drive longer cables without loss. I think they were originally marketed as a general purpose dynamic instrument mic. They were about $100 new - somewhere in that ballpark (sorry! ), and there's one up on Ebay right now for $70, so if you got one for $30, I'd say you got a very good deal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted April 13, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 13, 2015 Thanks for the reply, Phil. I originally tried it without phantom power, and actually got some signal out, but it was very weak and didn't sound too good. Then I noticed the LED on the front and thought "hmmmm... wonder how that's powered?" which led me to try turning on the phantom power.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 I went to Blue's website to see if they had a downloadable manual for it, but it's discontinued and I didn't see one. They do have a customer support / contact link, and might be able to provide you with one if you email or call them. What sound sources have you tried it on so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted April 13, 2015 Members Share Posted April 13, 2015 I thought about buying one of those when they were being blown out when discontinued but they sure seemed like an answer to a question nobody asked . Kinda fugly too . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Someone here did a review on them a few years back when they first came out. He seemed to be getting some good results from them for various applications. I saw one myself selling cheap on EBay but I didn't bite. Something about a plastic casing that turned me off. This article by SOS reviews it and confirms the plastic housing produces allot of handling noise. https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug03/articles/blueball.htmThat's not a big issue with a studio mic that's likely to remain untouched while in use. They rate it capable of holding its own with a Beyerdynamic M201 and Sennheiser's MD421 II which sounds a little over optimistic to me but I haven't tried one myself so I'd have to leave that to others. I do know the senheiser mic well having used one for years and know its capabilities and find it hard to believe a plastic import could come close to that mic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 They did offer a shockmount for it, which would help with noise, but even if it did hold its own with a MD421, the issue I had with it is the size and shape, which would tend to limit where you could place it. It wouldn't be an issue on guitar amps, but it would definitely be a limitation if you wanted to use it in tighter quarters, such as on a drum kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted April 14, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 I haven't used it to record yet (unfortunately, recording is not an everyday thing for me. It's more like: I finally have some time, I don't have anything I have to do, so now I can do what I want to do for a bit...). I don't think it has the high-end detail of a 421, just from the quick voice test I did into my Ramsa console.The plastic is pretty stout, but I doubt if it would survive a fall.It has a standard mic stand screw mount nut built into the case, so it works nicely on a mini-boom stand. When I finish the mastering work on my current project (a CD: 'Philbo's Blues', all-original blues songs) I'll be getting back into tracking for the next project, and will post up some audio samples for you to listen. Might be a while though since it's so part time for me... I did find an owners manual on the web:www.coutant.org/blueball/manual.pdfin case anybody wants to take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted April 17, 2015 Members Share Posted April 17, 2015 I bought a Bluebird condenser mic last year at Gearfest. I hear they're quite good and some day I swear I'm going to open the box and find out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted April 17, 2015 Members Share Posted April 17, 2015 BTW am I the only one that gets a every time I see the name of this mic? Maybe it could be the official mic of Open Jam ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 It was definitely a risqué name. Hardly the first MI product to have one though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted April 17, 2015 Members Share Posted April 17, 2015 It was definitely a risqué name. Hardly the first MI product to have one though.Between that, the ergonomics, and construction/look/feel - could they have set it up to fail any better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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