Blue Baby Bottle

Since 1995 Blue has been providing the audio industry with professional microphones, which sound phenomenal for a “prosumer” price. Most professional studios will have at least one of their microphones from their various lines.
Since then Blue has begun to develop microphones that are more affordable for the home studio engineer; some of these microphones include the microphones from their Essential Series of microphones. These microphones range from the price of $199 up to $399. 

I was able to get a hold of the Blue Baby bottle, which is on the higher end of Blue’s essential series of microphones. This microphone is sold along with a wooden case, shock mount, and a custom blue pop filter. The microphone itself is built very sturdy and looks just as great as it sounds. It has a cardioid pattern with a frequency response from 20Hz-20kHz and a maximum SPL of 133dB, which makes this microphone ideal for practically any situation. Artists ranging from Bob Dylan all the way to Miley Cyrus have used this microphone.

I have used this microphone in several ways since acquiring it. When recording guitars I used it to capture a cool lead guitar tone since the microphone has a boost around 5kHz. The tone that was captured sounded perfect for a lead guitar with some distortion towards the higher end of the frequency spectrum; the tone was similar to the tone the band, Silversun Pickups, uses.  This microphone is also ideal for drum overheads as they are present in the low-mid frequency range have a dip in the mid range and capture silky highs, which is perfect if you want your drums to sound smooth in your mix. However, this microphone was built to record vocals. For a recent project of mine I had recorded lead vocals at a professional studio using a U87 through Neve Porticos and Tube-Tech compressors, but due to time constraints I had to use my Blue Baby Bottle to do the background vocals. I ran the Baby Bottle through the ART MPA II straight into Pro Tools and I was blown away when I put the two vocals together in the mix. The background vocals sounded great, if not better, than the vocal tracks that used the 87s. The vocals came out warm yet present in the highs without sounding harsh. I was honestly happier with the tracks using the Baby Bottle than the tracks I had used the U87s on.

Overall I am very satisfied with the results I have gotten with the Baby Bottle and it will be a microphone that will stay in my Mic Locker for years. It is definitely my go to microphone for almost everything I record since it is so versatile. For the price of $399 you couldn’t ask for more this microphone is perfect for most recording scenarios.