I have been around a lot of mics in my days, and I can tell you, not only is it hard to find a good one that will adapt to your home studio, but they are quite expensive. So when the nice people at Blue offered to send us their Snowball mic, I jumped at the chance to review it.
The Snowball, with its unique, unmistakable design, literally looks like a giant eyeball and; the LEDs that lights up when plugged in makes me think that it’s staring at me. It comes with it’s own tripod, adjustable from 5 to 6.5 inches. As long as you don’t mind looking at the Blue logo strategically places right on the mic itself, the Snowball looks pretty nice among the rest of your tech accessories on your desk.
Looks, of course, aren’t specifically what home recording artists are looking for, but the sound quality on this mic makes up for any qualms one would have with the aesthetics.The Blue Snowball mic captures dependable and clear sound quality that can rival mics much higher in the price spectrum. The user can switch between three different recording modes (cardioid, cardioid -10dB, and omni) with the switch labeled 1 2 3. It would have been nice if they had just used the symbols to indicate what each number represented, but it just seemed like a hindsight on the design end of the mic.
The sound recording quality isn’t too bad, a nice alternative to a Shure SM58, the go-to mic for most studios. The recording quality had minimal hiss, accurate sound, and a wide dynamic range. With all this in mind, I would clearly like to state that the Snowball is not a all-in-one recording studio. The monophonic mic is excellent in recording single sources, such as vocals or an instrument, but is not recommended for groups or natural noises. However, while the advertisement on the box says that it your solution for podcasting and recording music, the mic isn’t a professional recording device, which is something that can only be done through mixing, compressing and EQs.
This microphone is perfect for beginners who just want to get right into game commentary or some other type of recording and also doesn’t want to crack open their computer case to install a high quality sound card, as this mic will plug directly into your computer’s USB port and be available to use in seconds, no additional software required. It is PC and Mac compatible and for the recording artist on-the-go this mic will also plug into your iPad via the camera connection. You can download the Blue Fire app on your iPad for fast and easy recording. For the cost of $99.99, you can’t ask for a better deal, considering all the options and features. The mic is available for purchase at www.bluemic.com, Amazon, as well as many retail stores.
Rating: 8/10
