BLUE Bottle Rocket Stage 1 / Neumann M7 Capsule

[MrJoshua]

A year or two ago I picked up a BLUE Bottle Rocket Stage 1 mic. I was intrigued by the idea of a bayonet-mount capsule where you could swap the capsule out when you wanted a different sound or pattern, and BLUE was running a special where if you purchased the BRS1 or 2 you could send in a rebate form for a free additional capsule. So I bought the mic body with the default B8 capsule (the same as they use in the Bluebird, apparently) and got a B7 capsule with it for free. Considering that at the time the mic body only cost about $100 more than the B7 capsule by itself I figured it was a no-brainer.

 

I've been happy using the mic like this, but recently I ran across an old Neumann M7 capsule for the CMV-563 bayonet-style mic and it stirred up an old memory that there was a TapeOp article saying these were compatible with the BLUE mic bodies. I double-checked and sure enough, they are. So I snagged the M7 for slightly less than a new BLUE capsule and added it to my capsule collection.

 

I'm happy with the sound, but last time I used it I was trying it on vocals (I quite like it there, by the way, at least on my voice through a Neve Portico preamp) and I noticed that with the Neumann capsule I was getting a lot of mic self-noise. On a suspicion, I tried applying light pressure to the mount to make sure it was seated firmly, and sure enough when I gave it just a light twist the noise floor dropped to being inaudible. I made it through a couple of more vocal takes without any problems, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help make sure it doesn't come back, because the slightest nudge of the mic body was enough to make the noise recur. I'm planning on using some contact cleaner on the spring and pin in the bayonet connector on the capsule. Any other suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

(Oh, and by the way - the M7 capsule through the BLUE transformerless solid-state body sounds pretty freaking good. I haven't had the chance to do a real shootout between it and my Microtech Gefell MT-71S but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be very happy with both mics for quite a long time, as long as I can keep the self-noise down on the Neumann.)

[Phil O'Keefe]

There might be a way to tighten the mount so it makes better contact... I'd contact BLUE and see if they have any advice for you regarding that. The contact cleaner idea is also worth a try, but I wouldn't spray it - I'd apply it with a swab or other similar applicator.