AKG Perception 400 or Blue Bluebird?

[PunkInDrublic]

This will be my first purchase of a condenser mic. Which one would be better suited to recording male alternative rock vocals?

If it helps, the AKG costs $325 CAD and the Blue costs $350 CAD. Both come with cases. The AKG also comes with a shock mount.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

personally, i would skip both and look for some sort of audio-technica

but that's just me

 

[pohaku]

I'm not a big fan of most AKG mics, especially their lower cost condensers. There certainly are exceptions, of course, the C12, C414, C535, C451, and C460 come to mind - but these, with the exception of the C535, aren't their lower cost products. Blue mics are good but peculiar in that they seem to be more special purpose mics. On reputation, the Bluebird may be an exception, although I've never used it. Is there a reason you are limiting yourself to these two mics? For male rock vocals, I'd be more inclined to use an SM7.

 

[Alfred E. New]

I'd go for the Blue mic, I don't know if your into Blink-182 but they recorded all their vocals from their last album from a Blue Bottle mic

 

[billisa]

I'd go for the Blue mic, I don't know if your into Blink-182 but they recorded all their vocals from their last album from a Blue Bottle mic

Personally I love the Bottle on the voices I've used it on. Not all share this view. But in any event, the Bottle is not the same as the BlueBird. From recollection, I believe some folks feel the BlueBird is more capable of general application...

 

[pohaku]

I'd go for the Blue mic, I don't know if your into Blink-182 but they recorded all their vocals from their last album from a Blue Bottle mic

Keep in mind that the Bottle is Blue's top mic, lists for $5000 and streets for about $4000. Each of their mics tends to have a very individual sound, which may or may not be what works for you.

 

[billisa]

Keep in mind that the Bottle is Blue's top mic, lists for $5000 and streets for about $4000. Each of their mics tends to have a very individual sound, which may or may not be what works for you.

I stand corrected in that I was thinking, Blue Baby Bottle -- much less $$ than the Bottle. Though Bob Dylan uses the Baby Bottle...

 

[pohaku]

It seems the Blue mics capable of more general application (this is by comment only, I haven't used either) are the Bluebird and the Kiwi. I have used the Blue Baby Bottle, and while it is a well built mic, wasn't workable at all for the voices I was recording. I think if you search for reviews, you will find a real split between those who thought the mic was great for their voices and those for whom it really didn't work. I also think it might work better in a dense mix rather than solo or singer/songwriter type stuff. There's a pronounced bump peaking at about 6khz which, depending on the voice and the music, may or may not be attractive.