These are my impressions so far of a Beesneez Producer Series ‘Jade’ tube mic with a K7 capsule (NOT the K47 capsule) which I have been using for a couple of months.
Overall, it is a reasonably natural sounding mic with a nice sense of depth, & it’s quite versatile. It certainly has the potential to be an all-rounder, if that’s what you wanted. The areas of ‘colouration’ I found to be in the very low mids (or is it high bass?) where you might want to reduce it a little if you were using this mic on various sources on the same song, and also around 2kHz where there seemed to consistently be a little ‘hardness’ that I found I often wanted to dip a little. But other than that it sounds quite even & low frequencies came across solid & tight, which made it excellent for bass guitar. You could certainly get away with minimal or no eq on this mic providing you had the source & mic placement right.
This mic seemed to want to hear loud sources. It was almost as if the louder the source the better the Jade was it capturing it. I have found with some mics that when you really push them it brings out their bad qualities, but the Jade never got harsh or screechy or brittle, it was smooth all the way through. On the flipside, if a vocal was a bit soft or once you got a bit of distance from it the tendency was to sound a bit thin. I’m actually not 100% sure on this aspect of the mic & I think I need a bit more experience with it to confirm my impressions. Also, ideally, I would have liked the midrange to have been a little more ‘forward’, but perhaps not if it’s at the expense of other favourable characteristics.
Here are some more specific observations:
Bass amp – sounds pretty much like the amp sounds in the room. The bottom end was pretty solid. Not quite as thick in the low mids as an AKG C12B (my favourite on bass), which I found made it comparatively harder to sit in the mix than bass that I had recorded with the C12B. It was a pretty close second though.
Guitar amp – made for a slightly thicker electric guitar sound. Not as ‘in your face’ as you might get with an SM57 or a U87, but if you wanted to dial in a lot of ‘bite’ on your amp this mic would record it quite well without getting abrasive.
Acoustic guitar – a bit softer in the midrange on acoustic guitar than I usually go for. That’s not a bad thing, just a different choice. I would choose this mic if I was going for a ‘jangly’ or sweeter acoustic guitar sound.
Drums (mono overhead) – I normally like a Coles 4038 in this position. The Jade was not as ‘thick’ sounding as the 4038. It didn’t require much eq & was quite natural sounding on drums. It also sounded fine on various percussion instruments.
Piano – I’ve only used it once on piano. It sounded like the piano.
Vocals – I used it on a wide range of vocalists & it sounded good on all of them. I definitely preferred it up close (within 1 foot). Really nice high frequencies with no harshness, even when pushed.
I’m very happy with the Jade. I think that it compliments the (original) U87 in my modest mic collection perfectly, but it would certainly be sufficient if you didn’t have other choices. Now that I have one I would probably consider buying two more before looking at any other mics (next time I have a microphone budget).
Obviously I’m not a writer, so please feel free to ask questions if you need further clarification on any points.