Snowball
Professional USB Microphone
Blue
Microphones $139.00
retail
System requirements for Macintosh: Mac OSX; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB
Ram
Review by Steve
Douglas
There have been numerous
USB microphones to hit the market and none that were much good
in my opinion. Most were fairly cheap and you got what you paid
for, not very much. They were tinny sounding, often had a pronounced
reverb, and simply weren't much good for even the simplest of
narrations or voiceovers, let alone using them for instrumentation.
I recently came across the Snowball
USB microphone produced by Blue Microphones. Having some of the
sharpest looking microphones around, the 40's retro look of the
Snowball is certainly eye-catching.
Setup was a cinch, simply attach
the USB cable from the back of the microphone into your USB port
on the computer and you're ready to go. Whether you have been
using an iSight cam/mic or not, make sure that you have gone
to your system preferences to your sound input and highlight
the Blue Snowball. Then just adjust input volume to fit your
needs and you're set. The Blue Snowball is a fairly sensitive
microphone and I found that setting it to about thirty-six percent
for the input worked very well.
The Snowball utilizes two separate
capsules for use depending upon the capture applications, be
it for a variety of instruments, or for narration and voiceovers.
In the back of the Snowball there is
a three-position switch, which determines which capsule is utilized
and the sound that you will get. The first capsule has a fairly
fixed cardioid pattern which allows the Snowball to pick up what
is directly in front of it. In several tests, with the switch
in the first position (the cardioid capsule in use) off axis
audio was greatly dropped off as was to be expected. In the second
position, the cardioid capsule is again activated but with a
-10db PAD. This setting would be best used when recording loud
noises where distortion of the signal could be a problem as the
capsule has now reduced the output of the microphone.
The third position activates the omni
directional capsule. A more transparent sound is apparent and
while others may have different preferences, for narration, this
was my favorite setting position.
The 3 position switch
allows you to easily switch
between using the Snowball as a Cartioid or Omnidirectional microphone.
Using a pop filter with the Snowball Microphone is absolutely
necessary for any voice work. Because it is wisely suggested
by Blue Microphones that one eat the mic from about 2 inches
away, (eating the mic is the act of keeping your mouth very close
to the microphone itself. This practice is not necessary for
all types of microphones but, for many it is, and the Snowball
is one of them) not using a pop filter will be problematic. With
the pop filter which will greatly eliminate the popping sound
one hears when pronouncing words with the 'P' sound or words
with an 'Sh' syllabication, the Snowball sounded clean and clear,
able to reproduce the lows in one's voice effortlessly. There
was none of that tinniness that is often associated with other
USB mics. Looking at the frequency response chart supplied in
the eight page manual it is easy to see why as the response is
fairly flat from about 50 Hz to 8 KHz, especially so when using
the omni capsule in setting 3.
The frequency response
of the Snowball confirms the neutral sonics that your ears are
hearing.
The Snowball comes with a nifty little
desktop tripod that will raise the microphone to about 8 inches
at its center point. I found that unless one was a 'little person'
or scrunched down real low, or could place the tripod on a higher
elevation, perhaps the top of your NTSC monitor, that it was
not very useful. From my sitting position at the computer, it
would simply not raise itself high enough to reach my mouth.
The Snowball was much easier for me to use by unscrewing the
Snowball off the tripod and placing it on my boom stand. With
the pop filter in place the Snowball worked like a charm providing
good tone and clarity.
While it is relatively
easy to make a pop filter of your own,
usually they are inexpensive enough to just go to your nearest
guitar store and buy one.
Placing it in front of any microphone may prevent articulation
problems.
While I did most of my audio testing in QuickTime, I also experimented
recording in both Soundtrack and Garage Band and all worked and
sounded professional.
No matter what the
application used, Blue Microphone's Snowball performed flawlessly.
And this brings me to my bottom line.
USB microphones have never really had much of a good reputation.
The Snowball is not a cheap microphone by any sense of the word,
and I'm not referring to price. It is not a toy mic with horrid
colorations, no bottom end, and a sound that reminds one of someone
stuck down a well somewhere in Kansas. However, the Snowball
is fairly inexpensive, and well worth the small investment for
such an easy to use and neutral sounding mic. Sure there are
going to be many mics much more hi end than the Snowball, but
isn't it about time that there was a USB mic that you could use,
be happy with, and not have to apologize for? Blue Mic's USB
Snowball is here.