Blue Mikey Microphone Review

Neo-Fight gives detailed tech product reviews for the not so geeky. This video will focus on the Blue Mikey microphone .

Blue Mikey Microphone Review Andi: Hello and welcome to neo-Fight.Tv the technology show for the not so geeky. My name is Andi Barnes. Ben: And I'm Ben Freedman, since today in the show, we are taking a look at a couple of recording devices. Now you do a lot of voice-overs Andi? Andi: I do voice-overs studio at my home. Ben: You do have a lot of voice-over studio at home and when you do; voice-overs, the way you travel – what do you do? Take everything with you? Andi: You know I haven’t traveled with my voice-over stuff, but I am starting to get busier. Ben: And the problem is that it is bulky and hard to pack. Andi: Exactly. Ben: A good friend is Blue microphones have a couple of solutions for you. Andi: Very excited. Ben: This is the first one; this is called the Blue Mikey. Andi: Good name. Ben: Like a mic but it is Mikey and what it is not Bluetooth, the company is Blue and why did they named it Blue? Andi: I don’t know that is my advices to them but go ahead. Ben: That is bizarre branding, this is designed to work with any iPod and in the last recent generation or two. It doesn’t work with the iPhone but it does work with the last generation or two of iPods. You plugged it in like this and it will go up at a couple of different angles like so. And then it enables the thing called voice recording, so I can go in here and what I am going to do is start it recording. Andi: Okay. Ben: So start recording – click. Andi: That’s it? Ben: That it. Andi: That is all we need. Ben: So you need right there is on there? And it is recording right now, so I am going to sit up on this table here and what I am going to do now in Podcast to the next minute. I am going to switch over to this audio. Andi: Okay. Ben: So right now, you are now hearing us on the Blue Mikey attached to this iPod. This is what it will sound like, so here what I am going to do just an experiment here. You can either have in on the table like this; this is by the way great for students, recording lectures at a classroom or if you want to record voice memos really quickly. But also good for Podcast or quick and dirty voice-overs if you need to a voice-over real quick. Andi: Right. Ben: You can also just hold it in your hand; I'm going to ask you to hold that about a further and a half or so away from yourself. Andi: Okay. Ben: And go ahead and give a little voice-over. Andi: A little. Ben: Imagine your are demo your product. Andi: Okay, I am demoing a product. Hi I'm Andi Barnes and I'm here ate Neo-Fight.Tv working with Ben Freedman and it’s a great place to be. It’s a lot of fun and I know this is not a voice-over but what else can I say? Ben: Well it is a big good way to get the idea of the clothing. Andi: That is true – okay. Ben: That was great, give it back. Andi: Okay. Ben: You like it don’t you? Andi: I do. Ben: Now you pause this, now – you would now sync this with iTunes and get those high – get the files off from iTunes. But you can also if you need to in a pinch hear what you are recorded. You are going to plug headphones in and hear it right in your iPod or this actually includes a built-in speaker. Now it is a tiny little speaker. Andi: But still it might work with my iTunes so I can listen to my songs too. And it amplifies the speaker. Ben: It does but it is not very loud, so let me show you. I am going to play what we just recorded. Andi: It’s really cute, really small. Ben: It is, not very loud. Andi: Not really loud. Ben: If I can hold to my mic? Andi: Can you make it louder? Ben: Not that is full volume right here now in the second we have your little voice- over. Let’s hear if you will it a little a better. Andi: Okay. Ben: Because we had it out to hear. We have it out to hear so it is always going to be full bag. So that is always going to be a little bigger, so hold it a second. Andi: Did we talk for a long time? Ben: And you can go in here and I can skipped forward on this as well. Andi: My television folks, it doesn’t sound too bad. Ben: No, it’s quiet but what you would really want to do is plug headphones in and then you could really listen to it back and have a good feel. Andi: Really hear it. Ben: So what you have heard on there – we haven’t heard it yet. But what you have heard was that now, sometimes you want to use you specific microphone. And you don’t want to use a little guy like this; you have a certain mic that you like to use so for instance I got here a Sennheiser E-815S, a good little microphone for dynamic recording. Maybe you are doing Karaoke or maybe you are doing it’s a directional mic, so it does pick up a lot of background noise. Another product here by the good folks of Blues is called the Blue Icicle right here. And what it does is it turns any mic that has an XLR jack on into a USB mic that goes straight into your computer. So you see here I got a NXLR jack that attaches like so. Andi: So for impromptu interview and you want to record something. Ben: Indeed and you will notice that it goes in to the – it’s got a volume control. And there is just adjust the volume, check one, two testing. I got to hook that up to my MAC here it is a little loud. Andi: It is very slim too, I like that it is not big and bulky. Ben: It is not too big and bulky and it hooks up to whatever preferred mic that is fine. So what I am do now is the same thing I am going to start recording on the MAC – boom. And now I am recording on here as we are talking; now we can go back and forth and I can say, “Hey, how are you?” Andi: I am doing great, how are you Ben? Ben: I am super thank you very much, now let us imagine that you were doing an interview and you are going back and forth. Let me ask you a question like “tell me a bit about your Android phone?” How do you like that? Andi: Don’t get me start on my Android phone; I really would like an iPhone. I would love someone to send me a new contract with the iPhone please. Ben: So there you go – there we have an Andi Barnes wants an iPhone. Got a Google phone, got to like it. So here that is just a good example and you can hear. Andi: Please. Ben: She really wants that iPhone, so I will stop recording here and we will go back to our studio. And normal likes but that should give you an idea of the kind of quality and of course the quality of this will be determined by whatever mic you have. But again if you want to plug a mic in that is all you have to carry with you. Andi: That is great. Ben: 60 bucks for that guy, 80 bucks for this guy it is pretty good quality as you heard before. So and it’s very portable. Andi: I mean I really like this one because it’s easy and the mic I already have has USB. So I would need this. Ben: So you would this because you have already an USB mic, but if you want something recording in a pinch you can have that in your purse. Andi: Right, exactly, or if I forgot to bring my mic and I am on vacation and someone needs – a download of voice-over phone real quick – yeah I like it definitely. Ben: So there you have it – two products by Blue we have the Blue Mikey and the Blue Icicle. 80 and 60 dollars respectively, great products if you need to record notes or memos or Podcast or even voice-overs. Andi: Voice-overs yes sounds good. Ben: And we will be right back in a minute with another product. So please stay tuned. And we are back and on the second products for you spotlight today. We area looking at this now – Andi, you know you use bungee cords right? Andi: Yeah. Ben: And I am not just talking about in the bedroom. Andi: Oh my goodness, you didn’t. Ben: Just generally, use bungee cords to tie stuff that in you car and what have you? Andi: Yeah. Ben: Let me tell you this is the evolution of the bungee cord. This is called the Smart Bungee System, take a look at that. Andi: Okay. Ben: Now what do you notice immediately about that? Andi: How the heck I am going to hook this up? Ben: That is right because it has no end. Andi: Right. Ben: Well the great thing about the Smart Bungee System is it has all kinds of different ends. So you find the length of bungee that you will need, let me for instance take the one the you are holding. And let us see you just want a regular bungee cord – snap the end like that – snap this end and then like so. Andi: That was pretty sturdy. Ben: Yeah. Andi: That is pretty neat. You know my kids they make forts in their bedrooms. Ben: Forts? Andi: Forts. Right. Ben: Sure your boys. Andi: My boys, three boys. Ben: You know what I have girls and sure thing enough they don’t make forts. Andi: They don’t? Ben: No. Andi: What they make – castles or? Ben: You know that they like to dress up dolls and they name stuff. In fact my five year old will name anything. You give her a piece of bread, she says “This bread is called princess buttercup.” Andi: That is so cute. Ben: I know she names everything. Andi: Okay so that my boys in the forts. They want me to tie things up and get their blankets to make the fort. Ben: Your are boys. Andi: Not that, but this doesn’t work for that for to get them the blankets to stay and hook under chair. But I bet you there is something in there. Ben: Well right so let us say I am going to clip this one on. This one however or you maybe you don’t want this kind of an end; maybe what you want is a Carabiner End. Andi: There you go. Ben: So now you can actually clip something, you know hook it on and it’s going to stay clipped on. Andi: Now does all of this go in that bag? Ben: Well I don’t know? Andi: Will they fit? I bet it work. Ben: That is a good question it would probably would. Andi: It can get pretty small - yeah. Ben: But so here is the thing, here’s a long one right and here is another long one. And people say what if you want one that is even longer. Andi: Right. Ben: You know how sometimes you like hook the two end together. Andi: This one. Ben: Talk about stealing my thunder. Check this out if you need to make one longer, you take this one and you clip this one in like so. Andi: You know – don’t love if people find the need. Ben: Look at that. Andi: They know what they need and they – that is great. Ben: Now we got a much. Andi: Don’t let go. Ben: I won’t let go but look- you got a much longer bungee okay. Andi: Perfect. Ben: Now if I may, let us say that you got a pick-up truck or something and you need kind of cover an area to hold something down. What you need is the three-way, and who doesn’t need a three-way --. Andi: Of course. Ben: So here, this clips in like so, you put one in like here. You put one end. Andi: Does your wife watch the show? Ben: I got to hope not, - like this and now you can like a bungee. Andi: And this goes right center of the pick-up. Ben: That goes runs then I pull that on that bottom one. And okay. Andi: That is a great sling shot. Ben: Yeah. Andi: I mean like right? Ben: That would be great. So now you got a three-way, let me ask you this. How many times you have in your garage do you what need away to hold things to the wall in your garage. Andi: Okay. Ben: I'm not going to let you get much word this one. Andi: I know just go for it. Ben: I just really love this product it’s really cool. Andi: It is a dude thing. Ben: It is a dude thing; this is designed for permanently mounting on a wall. So you mount this on a wall, whenever you need to hold something against the wall, you will put this in here and not two of them. And flick this in there like that and this will be mounted on the wall. Andi: And you just pull it back, stick your rake in. Ben: Stick your rake in. Andi: Just keep going. Ben: And away you go, and they have like I am not quite sure anything like holding a rope, you can adjust things to the— Andi: - there is like a clamp you know, like if you could. Ben: And there maybe other ones that didn’t come in this kit. Andi: I think this is great. Ben: Whenever you want to get it, really? Andi: I really like this. Ben: But I totally blown away, I thought you are going to be like anti to this. Because I thought, you are going to say, “I am going to lose all the ends.” And you know here is the problem. Andi: But there is a bag. Ben: There is a bag and when you lose the ends you are done. Andi: Yeah I wonder how much that the replacement ends are. Ben: You can buy a little different ends and stuff. Andi: Right. Ben: But so you like this. Andi: Yeah, wait how much is it before I start saying. Ben: This whole kit was 20 bucks. Andi: Great. Ben: You get it at Cosco, Amazon, you can get --. Andi: You know I love when people there is a need and then they go out and they create something and they meant something. Ben: That is the Smart Bungee, what do you guys think about this let us know. We would love to hear comments on whether this is an improvement on the bungees or whether you will just lose all the pieces. Place to go is www.neo-fight.tv, leave us a comment and tell us what you think. Andi: Let us know I want to know what you think. Ben: I want to know what you think too. And if you have an extra 30 seconds – take a look at this. Andi: Watch this.