BeesNeez Lulu Tube

Boutique Aussie brand BeesNeez impress with their versatile valve pencil mic.

Australian pro‑audio company BeesNeez have been making microphones and accessories for over 20 years, and owners Ben and Veronica Sneesby are rightly proud that they manufacture all of the key parts of their products in house. Their website reveals an impressively large range, which is categorised into four ‘series’ of mics aimed at different areas of the market. These include their own bespoke high‑end designs, as well as models that attempt to recreate the sonic characteristics of specific vintage mics of German and Austrian heritage. Although aimed at the professional market, the higher‑end models in these series, in particular, seem very competitively priced when compared against other boutique options.

The subject of this review comes from their more budget‑friendly Studio series, which, whilst still aimed at professional studios, is priced within reach of serious home recordists too. BeesNeez are keen to highlight the level of quality on offer for the money, which they have achieved through long experience and investment in their in‑house manufacturing processes. The Lulu Tube is an evolution of the solid‑state Lulu FET, which was their tribute to the classic Neumann KM84. BeesNeez say that the inspiration for the Lulu Tube is the coveted (and expensive!) Neumann KM54, but as the capsule doesn’t have that mic’s distinctive nickel diaphragm, it is perhaps closer in spirit to the KM64 — the valve precursor to the KM84.

Despite housing a valve in its internal circuitry, the Lulu Tube is a surprisingly compact little mic. The body is made from brass, with the final finish being a powder coating. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, this also makes this diminutive mic more ‘grippy’ when handling. A robust‑looking power supply is included, along with cabling and a simple but effective suspension mount. All of the above is housed in a Pelican‑style case that fits everything in a neat and reassuring manner. The Lulu Tube features a fixed‑cardioid capsule that is inspired by the Neumann KK84. All the key components, including the ‘E‑Core’ single‑spool transformer, are designed and built in‑house. Last but not least, the all‑important valve used is a new old stock 5784WB.

In Use

I was sent a pair of Lulu Tubes to play with, and they turned up at my studio on the morning of a busy live tracking session for a band I’ve recorded a number of times. As is the case with a lot of bands now, some of the members have a keen interest in studio gear and they were quite happy to try a Lulu Tube as a violin spot mic. This can be an unforgiving job, but the mic passed its audition with ease and we were all impressed not only with how nicely the sometimes ‘pokey’ upper midrange was contained, but also with how well the sound felt supported in the lower mids.

You could hear the valves being driven into saturation on the louder hits and it sounded superb...

For my next session, I had a chance to try out the pair as drum overheads, and I learnt a lot about how these mics perform with a few more SPLs thrown at them. The first thing I noticed, when positioning the Lulus above the kit, was that they sound quite ‘open’ for a cardioid mic, and I had to position them a little closer than normal in my room to get the tight sound I was looking for in this particular session. I liked the bright but not overly detailed way they presented the cymbals, but the real standout was how chunky and fat my Ludwig 400 snare sounded! You could hear the valves being driven into saturation on the louder hits and it sounded superb, though I would have almost certainly had to back them off distance‑wise on a hard‑hitting drummer. Keen to explore this theme a little, I tried the Lulus as top and bottom snare mics (with a careful drummer!), and I liked the ‘splatty’ saturation effect I got on the bottom snare in particular. It seems you can a great combination of detail and character out of these mics when used carefully on louder sources.

Calming things down a little, I have a Martin acoustic guitar at my studio that sees a lot of action and I was keen to hear how the Lulu Tube sounded on this very familiar instrument. As before, I was more aware of the sound of the room than I typically am when a using cardioid‑pattern mic — though I mention this as an observation rather than a problem. Tone‑wise, I was impressed with the well‑balanced and gently flattering capture of the guitar, and while the emphasis was very much on the player to make it sound good, it felt like the Lulu was giving a helping hand. I got to try these mics on a few different acoustic guitar sessions, and there was plenty of detail for fingerpicking as well as a nice sense of subtle valve compression on louder, more strummy parts.

Last, but not least, I used the Lulus as a spaced stereo pair on my studio’s Knautz upright piano, with the mics positioned towards each side of the open strings at a distance of around eight inches. The resulting sound had a gorgeous character, and although I didn’t have a strong sense of a lifelike stereo image — as I sometimes get with a really good matched pair — I loved how these mics seemed to combine the detail of a capacitor mic with just a hint of the vintage character you might get from a ribbon mic.

A stereo pair of Lulu Tubes proved an excellent match for upright piano.

Summing Up

I enjoyed my time with the Lulu Tubes a great deal, and as I don’t have a valve SDC in my mic locker, they gave me a great new option to pull out of the bag on recording sessions. These little mics offer a combination of precision and character, and with a little time spent you can learn how to steer them more in the direction of one or the other: you can push these mics a little on louder sources to hear the sound of the valves fatten and slightly compress your transients, or back them off and use them as more a traditional ‘pure’ SDC for all‑round acoustic recording. You perhaps trade off a touch of that sharp, ultra‑focused capture you get with more modern‑style SDC mics, but I never found this a problem when it came time to mix. Priced very reasonably when compared against other contemporary or vintage valve SDC options, one (or two!) of these mics would sit superbly in a small or larger mic collection.