Blue Microphones Woodpecker

The Blue Woodpecker is a ribbon mic that proves very very good quality for your recordings with vocals. You will get a very warm sound with depth to it without effort. it’s a very natural sounding mic. Blue Mics always provide a very good quality. I know so many different studio’s that have used or are using this mic and other mics from Blue. The only issue with these mics is the price is very steep. So don’t plan on making this a easy purchase. Once you see the price of the woodpecker you will be shocked. But you will love the quality of it. This mic cost right around 950 (I think) online now and that’s with a discount. It was a little more than that when it first came out. But don’t expect it to drop down much more. The Blue mics tend to hold up well and keep their value because customers are crazy over these things and after hearing it I know why.


OVERALL OPINION

My final thought on this mic is very up and down. Its sounds so good and warm, and you wont need to cut off much of the frequencies. But for the price it doesn’t do “enough” for me. I have use plenty of Shure mics that have similar quality of this for half the price. So if you are going to record from a home studio (which most of us do) then get a cheaper mic that will sound great. I just don’t feel te need in investing in a mic that cost this much just for home and demo recordings. Now if you are working with a great budget then go for it, the Blue Woodpecker will do just great for you. I guess it just depends on what your budget is looking like. Mine is good enough to have this at home just yet.

Blue Microphones' Woodpecker is a unique designed ribbon microphone that can be used with any type of preamp.  It has a pretty high output for a ribbon microphone and is best suited in the recording studio since it still is a ribbon mic.  The mic has a figure eight polar pick up pattern and will pick up frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 KHz.

OVERALL OPINION

I only first used Blue Microphones Woodpecker about six months ago in a recording studio and upon first use I immediately liked what I was hearing.  While the mic definitely has a ribbon sound to it, it has a much cleaner sound than most ribbon mics and isn't exactly a traditional ribbon sound.  I've used the mic to record female as well as male lead vocals and found that the mic brought something to the table for both of these applications.  While I wouldn't say that it would be the best choice for recording vocals, for some people's voices it works quite well; the trick is figuring out which voices will work well with it and which ones won't.  While I'm sure that it will work well with other acoustic instruments, I can't say which for sure as I haven't yet had the chance to experiment too much with this microphone.  Like all Blue Microphones, the Woodpecker is very well built and will last a long time as long as you treat it right.  It is also bigger than most microphones out there, but it comes with a shock mount that will keep it in place well.  The price of the mic is definitely right and is a great deal for anyone looking for a high quality ribbon microphone at a good price.  Overall, my favorite aspect of Blue Microphones Woodpecker is that you are getting a true ribbon microphone without the low output level and other problems that come with more traditional ribbon microphones...

This is a really amazing ribbon mic. These are a pretty penny so you don't want to use these live if there is a chance someone could knock it. Ribbon mics are known for being fragile, but this one can handle up to 136dB, which is plenty of headroom for your loud sources. You don't need phantom power for this mic, in fact it would be a very bad idea to switch that on with this mic. It comes with a really nice brass shockmount and a wooden box for storage. It's a figure 8 polar pattern, so you're going to get a very open and balanced sound with this mic. It connects to your mic preamp with an XLR cable.

OVERALL OPINION

I got this mic soon after it came out a while ago. I love Blue mics and figured they would do a great job on a ribbon mic. They did, of course. The entire frequency spectrum sounds wonderful through this mic. I find that it truly excels on delicate acoustic instruments and vocals. My favorite is acoustic guitar. If you want a nice smooth sound, say for a stripped down folk song, this mic will definitely get you the sound you hear in your head. I do with it had a switchable polar pattern, since that would make it more useful. Sometimes the figure 8 pattern is a little bit limiting in some recording situations. Other than that, I have few complaints about this great ribbon mic. It's very easy on the eyes as well. At a thousand dollars, you get a top tier ribbon mic with some nice accessories. That sounds like a good value to me. I would get it again if anything happened to mine.