Blue Microphones Cactus User Guide
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ongratulations on your purchase of the BLUE Cactus, a premium
large-diaphragm, multi-pattern tube microphone made the oldfashioned way, without compromise. In the tradition of the world’s
best (and most expensive) vintage vocal microphones, the Cactus
has been designed to provide commanding, intimate presence and
larger-than-life detail in a wide variety of professional recording
applications.
At a distance, and in omnidirectional and figure of eight patterns,
this microphone delivers every nuance in the room, with finely
focused resolution and clear, musical frequency response out to
the extremes of the audible spectrum. But this is also a Cactus
you’ll definitely want to get close to! With its detailed highs,
smooth midrange, and minimized proximity effect (a bass boost
inherent in all unidirectional mics), the cardioid Cactus excels at
delivering a vocal or solo track right to the front of the mix
where it belongs. When processed with limiting and/or compression, as is standard practice for most pop vocals, tracks recorded
with the Cactus will be free of pumping and low end thumps.
The Cactus System and Electronics
The basic Cactus microphone system includes the BLUE Series One
shockmount and wire mesh pop filter assembly, a Champagne
tube microphone cable, and the model 9610 power supply with
adjustable pickup pattern control, shipped in a blue velvet-lined
ATA flight case approved for the utmost protection. In order to
familiarize yourself with the specialized and unique features of
the Cactus microphone, please take the time to read this manual,
and be sure to try the suggested recording tips.
The Cactus amplifier utilizes a single hand-selected sub-miniature
vacuum tube. This tube circuit is Class A and fully discrete, meaning that the sound which arrives at the diaphragm of the BLUE
capsule is transduced (converted to electrical energy) as accurately as possible, with no integrated circuits (a.k.a. “IC’s”) in the
signal path. To this end, the Cactus utilizes electronic components
of the highest quality (such as expensive metal-film resistors and
a custom-built transformer), and there are no pad or low-cut filter
switches in the microphone circuit. In short, this is a signal path
of the highest possible quality, allowing the user to get the maximum benefit out of the multi-pattern capsule created by BLUE.
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