Blue Ball-Am I Out Of My Mind?

[the_image]

Within the last few months, I had some change burning a hole in my pocket and decided to pick up a Blue Ball, more because of the interesting look than anything else, I will confess. I am addicted to all types of dynamic mics...a dynamic slut?

I would normally run this through one of my outboard preamps... but instead I patched it into a prosumer pre from a very popular software company. I was floored at how it sounded. It had a rising peak on it that was amazing on vocals... it allowed the tracks to stick out a little bit, but also sit very well. An amazingly deep and 3d sound. The tracks were a mix of synths (roland, korg) and traditional instrumentation (guitars, drums, bass, etc.) that had been recorded using an array of pretty damn expensive stuff... AEA ribbons, some Neumann's through API and Sytek pre's.

So, a few days later I tried it out through a V76 or 72 (I have a horrible memory... I am sure it DOES make a difference which model it was!) It was not so impressive sounding. The telefunken typically makes things sound pretty great.

I am not sure what the point of this post is! He. I think that I am still a little miffed about the fact that the mic would sound worse through what I would typically consider a superior pre.

I am also surprised that I dig this little mic so much, when it is not that highly regarded. I have read some past posts and everybody seems to be kind of "ehhh" about it. I think in the right situation that it is certaintly a peer to the SM7 and RE20.

[David@MVS]

Originally Posted by the_image

Within the last few months, I had some change burning a hole in my pocket and decided to pick up a Blue Ball, more because of the interesting look than anything else, I will confess. I am addicted to all types of dynamic mics...a dynamic slut?

I am also surprised that I dig this little mic so much, when it is not that highly regarded. I have read some past posts and everybody seems to be kind of "ehhh" about it. I think in the right situation that it is certaintly a peer to the SM7 and RE20.

Is this the ~$100 Blue Ball? This mic is great. I use it whenever you would normally like to try an sm57. I have used it on vocals where they needed to cut thru a dense mix and did not need to have a soft quality to them.

I dont think it is a choice among the SM7 or RE20, but then I may be mistaking the mic you are refering to.

This mic responds to different mic pres less than my SM57s, which I believe is due to the phantom powered amp circuit of the Ball. But that is good for me as I get a more consistent tone among different pres.

Enjoy the Ball!

Regards,
David