Comments about Audio-Technica BP4025 X/Y Stereo Field Recording Microphone:

By way of introduction - I'm a classical music recordist, many years of experience with MANY, MANY mics....

I bought a BP4025 on sort of a whim late at night... I was just hoping for a decent small stereo backup mic to keep around in my kit more or less for contingencies. I've been testing it as an extra mic at a number of gigs, and I have to say it seems to be the absolute worst sounding mic I've ever used... and I don't say that lightly. I can't imagine what the intended use for it would be... the only situation in which I can imagine it might be vaguely useful would be in recording the sound of a too-loud rock band in a small club.

The high end is ridiculously hyped and brittle, the lows are thin, the pickup pattern is sorta bizarre (everything on-axis sounds... off-axis; things to the sides (sorta on-axis to the individual capsules) are dominant and the only things that don't seem to be suffering from drastic off-axis frequency response. I guess in practice it seems to operate kinda like a bidirectional mic with more off-axis coloration - which one might expect looking at the capsule design... I mean, there have been plenty of mics in the past that have been unsuited for my needs, but I could usually understand what they would be useful for... this thing I can't imagine ever using in any professional situation.

So I'm hoping perhaps my unit is defective?

Comments about Audio-Technica BP4025 X/Y Stereo Field Recording Microphone:

Let me say that I own a dozen or so pro mics, AKG C414, Neumann, AT 4040, Blue, etc. I have been recording professionally for around 20 years.

I am highly impressed with this mic. Dead quiet. Great sound, full - as you would expect with a LDC but not hyped. Clear on the top end without being harsh. Good bottom end without blooming or sounding boomy. Accurate would be the best term to describe it. It reminds me of my old AT-4033 only in stereo.

A cinch to use. I had been using two LDC's in an XY pattern for live recording. This required a cumbersome studio mic stand \ boom, T-Bar, running two mic cables - fiddling to get the capsules aligned and on the same plane.... generally a pain in the neck.

The AT-BP4025 is lightweight (so you do not need an overly large studio mic boom) the capsules are pre-aligned - not to mention they are matched.

Cons - this is NOT a mic that I would use on an acoustic guitar - the 45 degree spacing on the capsules is fixed. I would not use it for drum overheads for the same reason, plus I have a pair of AT-4041's that work perfectly for that. But for a stereo feed for video, recording live venues, choirs and the like, this mic is unbeatable.

Tips: fits perfectly in the small Rode shockmount - SM4. Just the thing for mounting on a camcorder.
The closer you get to the source, the greater the stereo image. This means that if you are going to be over 10' away from a single subject, then the stereo image is generally diminished. The diminishing stereo filed is less of a concern when you are capturing multiple sound sources (a band on stage or a choir, for instance)

Abe's of Maine had the best price on the Internet so I ordered from them (first time order) and they did not let me down. Thanks, guys!