NAMM News: Blue Microphones Announces "Swivel Head" Reactor, Yeti Pro
Following last week’s announcement of the new Yeti Pro, Blue Microphones is also rolling out a brand-new microphone at Winter NAMM this week.
Blue's new "swivel head" Reactor
The new Reactor is a multi-pattern, large diaphragm condenser microphone with an innovative design for multi-pattern flexibility.
Featuring Blue’s condenser capsule (based on the B6 capsule) and proprietary pre-amp circuit, Reactor allows for noiseless live switching between the three distinct patterns (cardioid, omni or bi-directional) and features a “swiveling capsule head” for precise positioning.
With the reportedly “noiseless,” live pattern switching, Reactor’s sound can be tuned to specific uses such as vocals, guitar acoustics, or capturing the room frequencies of drums. Like all of Blue’s studio microphones, Reactor employs fully-discrete, Class-A solid state components.
And with the swiveling design, Reactor’s capsule head is said to rotate fluidly across a 90 degree range, with resistance to hold the head in a precise position, which conveniently facilitates multiple mic setups such as Mid/Side or X-Y recording.
Reactor (MSRP: $499) will be available in Spring 2011 at authorized Blue Microphones dealers, and comes with a coordinated carrying case, along with a custom-tailored shockmount. A custom pop filter will complete the recording experience. For more information, visit http://www.bluemic.com/reactor.
Meanwhile, Blue Microphones’ new Yeti Pro is a high-resolution (24 bit/192 kHz) USB/XLR microphone featuring Blue’s custom condenser capsules set in a proprietary triple array, providing four recording patterns (cardioid, omni, stereo, bi-directional) for studio or desktop recording.
The Yeti Pro is said to be the "world's first high-resolution USB/XLR microphone."
Like Blue’s popular Yeti, the Yeti Pro maintains the zero-latency headphone output with volume control for direct monitoring, adjustable microphone gain control and a mute button.
Featuring a mic stand thread, Yeti Pro can be mounted on a stand or positioned at the desired angle with the included custom-designed desk stand. Following suit with the rest of Blue’s desktop products, Yeti Pro is PC and Mac compatible. Yeti Pro also includes an XLR stereo breakout cable for analog recording.
Yeti Pro employs an A-D converter chip allowing the flexibility to sample at a range of resolutions, from 22kHz up to 192kHz and the common sampling rates in-between, and features separate circuit boards to maintain the integrity of the analog and digital signal paths, and discrete electronic components for the highest signal quality.
Yeti Pro (MSRP $249) will be available in February at authorized Blue Microphones dealers. For more information, visit http://www.bluemic.com/YetiPro.