Baby Bottle vs Bluebird?

Mach5

New member
The Blue Bluebird is about $100 cheaper than the Blue Baby Bottle. I don't know much about the Bluebird aside from the fact that DigiDesign helped develop it. Anyone have any thoughts?

I will more than likely be using a DMP3 pre-amp.
 
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No clue. The Bluebird has been mostly only sold as part of a preamp/mic package, so not that many people have used it. It certainly looks like a Baby Bottle, but what the internal or sonic differences are, I don't know. I've used a Kiwi for a long time, and recently aquired a Baby Bottle. It isn't exactly what I expected, but it is a very useful mic.-Richie
 
The baby bottle is a really straight-forward; with a mostly flat response. Probably best suited as an instrument mic.

The bluebird appears to have more of a tailored / scooped thing going on with a hefty presence boost and midrange dip like a lot of their more expensive models -- probably more of a vocal mic kind of deal.
 
Yo Chessrock! I expected everything you said to be true,based on what reports I've heard, but I didn't find it that way in real use. I got the Baby Bottle as kind of a summer replacement for my 414, which sees a lot of duty on acoustic guitar, mandolin, percussion, especially Djembe, but- the Baby Bottle, while fairly flat, as you say, has quite a bit of color, which suits it more for vocals and voiceovers than instruments, to my ear. It's like a cross between Octava MC012 and a Rode NTK, if that makes any sense. I like the mic a lot, but not for what I thought I would. It works pretty well on viola, but so do MC012 and NTK.
Well, I suppose it depends on application. I like the MC012 a lot on cheap guitars, but I don't like it on good ones. It may be that the Baby Bottle would rock on a $200 Washburn, but on my Taylor, it sounds fuzzy. I used it recently for a set of female voiceovers, and it won the mic shootout against everything in the studio on that application. I tell you this- I would dearly love to audition a Bluebird.-Richie
 
hmm. i'd be using the mic mostly for pop vocals, and acoustic and electric guitars. do you all suggest the baby bottle? what about the dragonfly?
 
<<what about the dragonfly?>>

i love my dragonfly, but it's a finicky bastard. great on some voices (mine among them), not at all great on others. very nice for some amps/guitars, not at all on others. very nice on some acoustic guitars, not at all on others. get the picture? ;)

it's not at all what i'd consider to be a veritable workhorse or jack of all trades. it's picky as hell, but where it works, it works wonderfully. and even a fraction of an inch is the difference between fantastic and craptastic.

try one before plunking down the cash and make sure it works for you. hell, do that with any mic...... :D

no experience with the other BLUE products, though.....YMMV


cheers,
wade
 
i'm a humongous fan of the dragonfly. you get one of these and you might sell off your chinese vocal condensers with their hyped high end as i did. the dragonfly possesses a complex accentuated high end. it matches well to mid and lower register male voices in particular. it's a genius acoustic guitar mic. i think it should get a lot more love.
 
i'd been a big fan and evangelist for my Rode mics before i got my Baby Bottle, and it's now my first 'go-to' mic. i'd agree with a few posters above and say that it is fantastic on acoustic guitar, especially in the neck position, it gives a great definition whilst picking up good low-mid and bass definition.

i used it on a bass cab recently and was also really pleased with the result.

for vocals, i think i'd agree with some of the comments above. i find it great for most rock and pop stuff, but i was looking for a really warm soulful bluegrass sound (a brit recording bluegrass? did the world just stop turning and change direction?) the other week and i resorted to my GT67 for a bit more warmth and proximity depth. it just felt better.

but on the whole, i love my baby bottle - and i agree with Ozraves, it looks damn cool too - i know it sounds stooopid, but you sling that wierdo sucker in the shockmount in front of an impressionable singer for the first time and they just get really excited about using it, and bizarrely, it can lead to a great performance. psychologically i think it's important - get a singer supporting one of your mics and they just always give you their best. the other week i wanted a different sound from one of my regular singers and slung up the Rode, and i immediately got "Awh - why are we not using the Bottle???"

go figure!

also used on: bouzouki, classical guitar, bodrhan, VO, audio drama, 12str guitar, hammer dulcimer (oh yes!), violin and recorder - all good!
 
<< you get one of these and you might sell off your chinese vocal condensers with their hyped high end as i did. >>

thankfully (luckily), i hadn't gotten around to getting any of the chinese LDCs with hyped high end. i've got an SP B1, which i wouldn't say is hyped at all, and i've got a V67, which i'd call non-hyped (others might call dark).


<<the dragonfly possesses a complex accentuated high end.>>

that it does. which is what, IMO, makes it either "really work" or "really not", depending on the source.

<<it matches well to mid and lower register male voices in particular.>>

which is why i think it works well on my voice--i've got a weird, in-between voice. not quite a tenor, not quite a baritone. :b

<< it's a genius acoustic guitar mic. >>

i'd agree. it mates *very* nicely with my pair of 603's on my Martin D15.

<<i think it should get a lot more love.>>

agreed.....mine gets plenty. i need to get a 2nd....


cheers,
wade
 
The Dragonfly is supposedly inspired by the C-12.

It's frequency response curve is really odd. In fact, the curve would suggest an almost ideal drum overhead mic. And some have reported it as being just that.

That odd curve, though, can really sound perfect on just the right voice. Very pop-radio sounding in the right situation is how I'd describe it.
 
chessrock, i think you're the one who turned me on to the dragonfly. i'd agree with your assessment of it being very pop radio with the right voice. there's a fine line though between the high end grating you get with cheap large condensers versus what you get with the dragonfly. btw, your comment about pairing it with an sm7 or an ev re20 to fill out the vocal mics in small mic cabinet is spot on.
 
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