Blue Spark Cardioid Mic Review by ProAudioStar

About the Recordings: There are a number of competing schools of thought when it comes down to how to design the perfect preamp or microphone shootout. Converters, EQs, compressors and other pieces of outboard gear are fairly straightforward because you can simply run the same sample through each piece of gear you're testing, but mic preamps, interfaces and microphones are a little more problematic. Ideally you want all your competitors recording the exact same source using the exact same ancillary equipment simultaneously, but that's usually impossible. I've seen some shootouts simply mic their monitors playing back the same clip, and while that certainly helps to eliminate performance variables, I don't think it really gives you a true and accurate sense of what a microphone or pre actually does on a given source. So I've opted to simply record three different takes of the same short clip for each given sample, using the exact same settings and gain for guitar, and in this case using the same Onyx Blackjack preamps and converters attenuated to the same gain, and doing my utmost to maintain a consistent performance on vocals. There are definitely some slight variations, but most everything that can really affect the sonic signature – gain, tone, EQ, etc – was kept consistent.

The Blue Spark's “focus control,” or glorified high-pass filter, was disabled for all recordings, as was the Shure KSM-44's high pass filter, in keeping with the parameters of my prior microphone shootouts. The KSM-44's pickup pattern was set to cardiod to match the Spark's.

Clean Guitar: This was recorded using an Epiphone Supernova played via a Marshall MG15CDR studio amp and recorded into a Mackie Onyx Blackjack recording interface. All reverb and other effects were disabled, all tone controls were set at neutral, the amplifier's gain was attenuated at 75%, and the Onyx preamp gain was attenuated at line level. Mogami Gold TS and XLR cable was used for all interconnects.

Overdrive Guitar: Same as above, except gain and volume were both set at 50% for the MG15CDR's overdrive mode.

Male Vocals and Spoken Word: Using the same Blackjack interface (with preamp gain set to 30) and Mogami Gold XLR, I sang a clip from the as-yet-unreleased song The Enlightened Paige, a piece I wrote for Wire Spoke Wheels’ upcoming debut release: After The World Ends, and spoke a short introduction to the two mics.

Contains tracks

• Blue Spark Clean Guitar by ProAudioStar
• Blue Spark Male Vocals by ProAudioStar
• Blue Spark Overdrive Guitar by ProAudioStar
• Blue Spark Spoken Word by ProAudioStar
• Shure KSM 44 Clean Guitar by ProAudioStar