Recording - February 2016 - 56

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Neat Microphones King Bee
An eye-catching condenser mic with ear-catching tone
In our December 2015 Holiday Buyer's Guide, we
looked at a new microphone called the Worker Bee.
The Worker Bee comes from Neat Microphones, a
brand-new company under the Gibson family of
brands. While Neat may be new, the folks behind
Neat are none other than Skipper Wise and Martins
Saulespurens, the cofounders of Blue Microphones.
As noted in our review, at $199 the Worker Bee is
an unashamedly bee-themed mic with a solid sound,
aimed squarely at the entry-level market. This month we
take a look at its larger sibling, the King Bee.
Long live the King
Like the Worker Bee, the King Bee looks to deliver
topnotch quality at an affordable price. It's bigger
than the Worker Bee in every way!
They share a similar look and design, with a
large 3" diameter lollipop head perched atop a
rectangular body that is 21/8" square, like the
Worker Bee's, but is 51/8" tall. It weighs 1.7 lbs.
The black metal body is adorned with 3 yellow
rubber/plastic bands-primarily for looks, but
they might offer slight resonance damping. Note
that the Worker Bee is 23/8" shorter and looks
like someone removed a few pieces of its thorax;
other than that the two appear identical.
Internally the King Bee is an all class-A discrete
design. Its capsule is an externally polarized
34mm center-terminated design (larger than the
Worker Bee's), internally shock mounted in a triangular rubber suspension. Some specs: frequency response 16 Hz-20 kHz, 140 dB maximum
SPL, 89 dBA signal/noise ratio, and 6 dBA selfnoise. Oh, and the logo illuminates under phantom power.
Sonically the King Bee is flat from 50 Hz to about 2 kHz,
where there is a gentle rise up to about 5 dB centering at 8
kHz, with a small dip just below that at about 6 kHz.
Beesides the mic, you also get...
When I mentioned above that this mic is unashamedly beethemed, I wasn't kidding! The accessory package that comes with
both mics starts with a plastic honeycomb-encased box, completely made from recycled materials. Along with the microphone you
get a number of accessories to get you started at once.
The Beekeeper is Neat's name for its custom made shockmount. These mounts are made of rugged plastic with yellow
rubber suspension bands. The King Bee sits in a plastic tray on
the bottom of the Beekeeper and is held firmly in place by a
pair of thumbscrews.
Continuing our bee theme, the Honeycomb is a pop filter
with fine yellow metal mesh. It snaps in place directly onto the
front of the mic head. Unlike standard pop filters that can shift
around, it's always exactly 3/4" in front of the capsule grille.
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RECORDING February 2016

The package is completed with a large velvet drawstring bag and a serial-numbered plastic Bee figurine,
wearing a crown... of course.
One additional accessory in the Bee series that is
sold separately is the Beeline, a 20' black and yellow braided, cloth-wrapped 22-AWG quad cable. I
was also sent one of these to try, and it is one of the
nicest mic cables I have ever used. In addition to its
clear, quality sound, it boasts a cloth wrap that's thick
and tough and connectors that are some of the most
robust and durable that I have ever seen. It will stand up
well to the rigors of daily studio life and then some.
In use
The King Bee is a solid, hefty mic for its size; I
would recommend a decent counterweighted stand.
Actually it's better described as "dense feeling";
there is very little body resonance beyond a dull,
thick, quickly-damped thud when tapping the mic.
Setup is quick and easy with the included shock
mount, which is an open-front design so you can
get the mic right up on a source. The King Bee has
a nice smooth proximity effect; you can get right up
on the capsule when singing, as the Honeycomb
makes the mic all but immune to plosives.
The King Bee doesn't have the sharpest off-axis
rejection I've heard. It's more of a rolling off on the
sides rather than a sharp null. That having been
said, I never found this to be an issue in use.
Sonically the words that come to mind are rich, full
and big. The high end is nicely forward but not
overly so, and it does not sound harsh or spitty at
any time.
The King Bee worked well on pretty much every source I tried
it on, from lead and background vocals to front-of-kit, acoustic
guitars, percussion, spoken word... i.e., all the usual suspects.
This is a mic that works well up close and personal on
acoustic instruments, where it captures a very full sound that is
natural and believable with a nice amount of sheen and polish.
The most surprising use of the King Bee was in front of a drum kit,
where I was impressed with how big the low end sounded. It was
not hyped-sounding at all, just big and natural. So much so that as
with a classic FET mic, I wholeheartedly recommend the King Bee as
a front-of-kick mic (use the Honeycomb if you are going for sound
hole work). It also makes a nice bass cab mic, especially in conjunction with a classic dynamic mic like a Shure Beta 52 or Audix D6.
Worker vs. King
There are three areas where I like the Worker Bee a tad
more, however. Although I like the King Bee better on male rock
vocals, I think the Worker Bee is better suited for female vocals;
it adds a bit more girth and surrounds the vocal rather than
thrusting it forward like the King Bee does.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2016