Blue Mics?

DammitJanet

DammitJanet

Well-known member
Has anyone had any success using the Blue Ball mic for typical boom/filmmaking purposes? I know it seems a bit unorthodox, but I was just wondering if anyone's ever tried it and had good results. Thanks.
 
I have not used a Blue Ball mic, so take the comments with an appropriate level of skepticism. This mic is some sort of wierd powered dynamic hybrid, but I think it basically boils down to being a dynamic mic. It is not gonna have the reach that a condensor has, nor will it have the high end response.

I would say it would probably work about as well as any other dynamic mic for this purpose, which is not that well. But give it a try :)
 
I plan on adding one to my arsenal for music recording, so I'll give it a try at some point and report my findings here. Thanks.
 
I've got Blue Balls and 8-Balls. And basically, the answer is NO, for 2 reasons:

1) They're both designed to sound best pretty close to a source, and neither has as much reach as you'd like for a boom mic. They're also both fairly wide cardioids, so have a little less directionality than you'd like.

2) They're a little heavy and unwieldy for boom work. And the shockmount (The Ringer) is absolutely huge. And it's hard to get the Ringer/Ball combination tightened down enough in stable use; I imagine it would always be in danger of flopping around on a boom. If you can even find a beefy enough operator to hold the heavy combination up...

Don't get me wrong, I love my balls and use them all the time in other applications. And, as a prop/visible mic, the 8-ball/Ringer combo is awesome... it looks like a 1950-s future approach to a 1930's mic... scary! Think Buck Rogers bad guys or Darth Vader. But not the mics you want to use for boom work. Ow, hurts to think about it.
 
Thanks for weighing in Ullanta! I was just curious. I think I'm gonna get an Oktava MC-012 for boom stuff anyway. Thanks again.
 
ullanta said:
I've got Blue Balls and 8-Balls. And basically, the answer is NO, for 2 reasons:

1) They're both designed to sound best pretty close to a source, and neither has as much reach as you'd like for a boom mic. They're also both fairly wide cardioids, so have a little less directionality than you'd like.

2) They're a little heavy and unwieldy for boom work. And the shockmount (The Ringer) is absolutely huge. And it's hard to get the Ringer/Ball combination tightened down enough in stable use; I imagine it would always be in danger of flopping around on a boom. If you can even find a beefy enough operator to hold the heavy combination up...

Exactly right. I bought a Blue Ball for the novelty value, but ended up eBaying it within a year.

And the Ringer has to be seen to be believed! It's roughly the size of a microwave pizza!

David Kuznicki
Production Manager, WGTE-TV30
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