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moosers
Published on 01/09/10 at 14:19
Blue Microphones' Kickball is a dynamic microphone that is designed for recording bass drum in the recording studio. This is the only application that I've used this mic for, so this review will be focusing on this kind of use only, although I could see it being useful for live sound. The mic has a cardioid polar pick up pattern and also features a low end roll off. It will pick up frequencies between 35 Hz and 16 KHz, although I wouldn't mind if it picked up all the way down to 20 Hz considering that it is a kick mic.
OVERALL OPINION
I first used the Blue Microphones Kickball about two or three years ago as I really though that it was a cool concept. Let me say that I'm a big advocate of the mics made by Blue, as I think that they do great work and offer reasonable prices. The Kickball is the perfect little mic to keep inside your bass drum, as it does a great job for this application. Having the roll off is great because it makes it versatile for recording different sizes of kick drums when necessary. The mic is also a great because of its size and shape, as it fits easily inside of a kick drum without too much fiddling around, which can be a problem with other mics. It is also nice to have a mic that is solely devoted to recording kick drum, as you know that it will do its job well because that is what it is built to do. The sound of the Blue Microphones Kickball is full and well rounded, and has all of the right responses for recording a bass drum. I can't say I've used it for recording anything else, but I would imagine that it would work well for recording a bass guitar amp as well, considering it is a similar application. The price of the Kickball is very reasonable and is one of its best features as it makes it accessible to both home and professional studio owners a like. While there are definitely a ton of dynamic mic options out there that are great for recording kick drum that aren't specially designed for the application, if you're looking for a mic to devote to recording bass drum, you definitely need to check out the Kickball.
OVERALL OPINION
I first used the Blue Microphones Kickball about two or three years ago as I really though that it was a cool concept. Let me say that I'm a big advocate of the mics made by Blue, as I think that they do great work and offer reasonable prices. The Kickball is the perfect little mic to keep inside your bass drum, as it does a great job for this application. Having the roll off is great because it makes it versatile for recording different sizes of kick drums when necessary. The mic is also a great because of its size and shape, as it fits easily inside of a kick drum without too much fiddling around, which can be a problem with other mics. It is also nice to have a mic that is solely devoted to recording kick drum, as you know that it will do its job well because that is what it is built to do. The sound of the Blue Microphones Kickball is full and well rounded, and has all of the right responses for recording a bass drum. I can't say I've used it for recording anything else, but I would imagine that it would work well for recording a bass guitar amp as well, considering it is a similar application. The price of the Kickball is very reasonable and is one of its best features as it makes it accessible to both home and professional studio owners a like. While there are definitely a ton of dynamic mic options out there that are great for recording kick drum that aren't specially designed for the application, if you're looking for a mic to devote to recording bass drum, you definitely need to check out the Kickball.