Still nursing the Baby Bottle... 
by Eric Gay from Trussville, AL, September 2008
Music Background:  Producer/Recording Engineer

I purchased the Baby Bottle about 4 years ago, upgrading from a Shure KSM27. The mic was intended for use on guitar cabs, ride or room mic, but primarily vocals. For guitar cabs it sounds great, it has some low mid stuff going on that beefs up the signal. On acoustic guitar I found the low mid boost was a curse. I found it to be too boxy and boomy with my Taylor 410. The mic sounds great on lower register male singers, you can hear the character in their voice. It starts to thin out on higher ranges. But in my experience, the Baby Bottle excels as a room mic for drums. I just plug it in to my UA 2-610 and crank the tubes. It is 50% of my drum sound right now, it's too bad I don't have a pair to make my drums sound even bigger!

  baby bottle rocks 
by DB the investor/musican from west cocoa fl, December 2007
Music Background:  rapper and investor lamar music my company

if you stuck on your neumanns and akg mics's check out the babybottle mic. i bought this mic and match it with a personus mic pre and was blown away. hey neumanns are great mics but thats if you have the bread but for 500$ this mic is well worth it. hell i bought mine for six hundred and i'm smileing.

  Great Mic For the Price 
by Chris Henderson from Sugar Land, TX. USA, October 2007
Music Background:  Worship Leader

i have owned the baby bottle for close to 9 months, and have been recording with it for most of that time. i have also recorded with other mics of varying quality...some nice, some not so much.

to my ears, the bottle does an overall better job than any mic in a less than $1,000 specifically price range for many things. things i did not like micing with the bottle:
- area drum mic - it sometimes pics up a little too much room noise, and i do not like the tone. you can make it work well though if you have a good gate and a good multiband compressor.
- electric guitars - again, pics up too much excess noise and is too harsh in the mids for electrics unless you eq a ton.

things i love recording with the bottle:
- vocals - i put it about eye level and and boominess goes away. i have to bring down the highs a bit, but when i do that it sounds amazing!
- highhat - dude!
- acoustic - when you use this mic with one more to add depth, it really shines. i really do not have to even eq the acoustic after i record it...it sounds that good.
- snare - crisp...clean

overall, i'd say this mic is rock solid and would put it up against anything under a thousand bucks. you will need some eq'ng, as with all mics, but you can get it to work on anything you want. and with acoustic guitar, no eq'in required!

  Decent Mic, Not so much all around 
by Alan from New Orleans, LA USA, September 2006
Music Background:  Recording Engineer

This mic is fabulously well built. But like most of the Blue line of mics, it has specialties and pitfalls.

The Bad first:
Vocals have not been one of its strong suits. It seems to allways need quite a bit of eq to sound right at all. I'm sure though if you find that one type vocalist it will sound amazing on him/her. Also I've tried using it on some trumpets and saxes with less than stellar results.

The Good:
Best thing this mic has done for mis is electric guitar tracks. There is something about it that adds girth to an otherwise boring MD421 guitar track. As said in other reviews this mic is sort of an sm57 in that it will never sound terrible but there is probably something better.

That said I bought this as my first mic, which was a mistake because it is very picky. It would be better to pick something more allong the line of the Shure KSM series, or even better the studio essential 414.

no_title 
by michael from portland, September 2004

The Babybottle is, in my opinion, the perfect all purpose project studio mic (for less than 1,000 bucks). It takes your time and patience to get the sound that you want in any given application. However, you really can record almost anything with this one mic! Does it really do everything? No. It does _almost_ everything. Here are some things that it really doesn’t do: cymbals, tambourines and drum overheads, room mic, etc..


Here are some examples of what it does do:


The placement for acoustic instruments is quite finicky. If the guitarist moves a little with the music, you’ll hear it in the mic due to its exaggerated proximity effect, sensitivity and high output. If the guitarist grooves with the music, then the recording quickly become unusable. This mic lives and dies based upon mic placement, more than most directional mics. Still, be patient, you’ll get the sound that you’re looking for and without paying 3,000 bucks.


About the same is true for vocals. If what you have is time, energy and creativity, and not a lot of money, then this mic will serve you quite well. I’ve found that I can dial in a wide range of vocal ‘sounds’ with this mic. Keep in mind, however, that this mic has an exaggerated mid range. You’ll find reviews on this very topic from the pros and its true. This mic will easily ‘boom’ your vocals and add a lot of power. Tilt it at a hard angle, facing the vocalist’s belly button, and you’ll get a much sweeter sound.



Notice the patter? This mic can be an incredible asset, once you and your performer get to know it. But it takes time, patience and some creativity. You’ve heard of ‘working’ the mic? Well, the more control your performer has, the more you’ll be able to do with this mic. I know what you’re thinking: all directional mics are ‘workable’. Yeah, true, but with the Babybottle’s boosted mids, super hot output and sensitivity your options are either opened or closed based upon your performer. I’ve found that the time I’ve spent getting to know this mic has been time really well spent. I can do nearly everything with this one mic, and do it well given time and patience. It’s the perfect studio mic. Well, not really.


The perfect studio mic costs between 3,000 and 6,000 bucks. So, if you happen to have 3k burning a hole in your checking account, buy the Neumann. Otherwise, you can accomplish _nearly_ the same thing with the Babybottle, you’ll just need more time, more patience and creativity – as apposed to cash.


If you can only buy one mic right now, buy this one.


Michael

Smooth 
by Alex Calvo from CT, May 2004

I'm enjoying using this mic. I have to EQ my vocals a bit to get the sound I want...but overall...quality is excellent for the price...If you want to hear it, listen to my "Cloudy Blue Angel" tune, on ACIDPlanet.com...search for "Alex Calvo"

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