BLUE Spark Large Diaphragm Cardioid Professional Studio Recording Microphone

Other than in the choice of colour, the Spark follows a familiar Blue cosmetic theme, which is to place the capsule in a saucer‑shaped basket supported above the main body of the mic. The purpose‑designed, large-diaphragm, cardioid-pattern, capacitor capsule is teamed with conventional Class‑A discrete FET circuitry, and although the capsule size isn't detailed in the specifications, it looks to be around an inch in diameter. The mic's sensitivity of 28mV/Pa is comparable with other side‑address capacitor mics, and it can tolerate SPLs of up to 128dB, which should be fine for all of its intended applications. The Spark also has a fairly low noise figure, at just 10dB A‑weighted, and requires the usual 48V phantom power to operate. The overall frequency response is quoted as 20Hz to 20kHz, and the response curve shows this to be within ±5dB up to 15kHz. Its response is nominally flat, but with a very slight mid‑range dip: there's no dramatic presence peak (maybe a dB or two of lift in the 5‑12 kHz range and an even lesser bump at around 1kHz, but that's about it), so the mic sounds pretty natural, but it retains the capacity to flatter and enhance vocals in a quite subtle way. Intriguingly, the Spark incorporates something Blue call a Focus Control, which they say allows the user to switch between two different tonal characters. Closer examination of the frequency-response plot shows that in normal mode (with the switch out), the mic has an increased low‑frequency sensitivity, adding a couple of dBs of lift at around 80Hz, whereas engaging Focus rolls off the low end below around 120Hz. How this differs from a standard low‑cut switch I'm not sure, other than the low end being slightly boosted when the cut switch is not in use. The switch is located in the lower circular recess at the rear of the mic body. The Spark's large-diaphragm, side‑address format and sonic character make it well‑suited to vocal recording. However, in the project studio, where you can't always justify buying different mics for different jobs, the Spark is also capable of producing good results as a drum overhead (you wouldn't normally use this type of mic for close‑miking individual drums), and on acoustic guitars, pianos, wind instruments and most other conventional instruments.