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The Blue Mics Snowball USB Microphone is the worlds first professional USB mic! The Snowball finally provides you with a USB mic thats not only easy to use, but sounds as good on your desktop as it does in a professional recording studio. Whether youre recording a guitar at your kitchen table or a complete band in the studio, the Snowball can capture it with detail unheard of before in a USB mic. The Snowball is a direct plug n play mic that connects to either a Mac or PC no additional software is needed. With its dual capsule design and unique three-pattern switch (cardioid, cardioid with -10dB pad and omni), the Snowball can handle everything from soft vocals to the loudest garage band and its ideal for podcasting. Check it out and youll see why its the coolest mic in town. Blue Mics Snowball Features Plug and play design no software required! Professional studio quality performance record both vocals and instruments Mac and PC compatible Blues renowned circuit and unique two-capsule design Switchable mic patterns for a variety of recording applications Great for podcasting Includes custom mic stand and USB cable Add The Ringer for a few coins more! Designed for Blue's complete line of spherical microphones, The Ringer is a vintage-style suspension mount designed to isolate the microphone body from low-frequency energy when mounted on a mic stand. The Ringer also accommodates virtually any microphone with a standard thread mount.
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Technical Details
- USB Output: The USB output enables direct integration with a desktop or laptop computer, allowing CD-quality recording to software-based applications without a preamplifier- Dual Capsule Design: The dual capsule design incorporates omnidirectional and cardioid elements to give you a choice of what the mic "hears"
- -10dB Pad: A -10dB pad switch eliminates noise and distortion when capturing signals at extreme volume levels
- Accessories Included: A desktop stand and USB cable are included so you can begin recording right away
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By Michael Lovett (Lake Wylie, SC)
I'm using my Snowball under Windows 7. The unit is a new unit so it should have the "high gain" firmware update already installed (I can't be sure; the company says it isn't needed on models after a certain serial number but I can't find a serial number *anywhere* on this mic or the box)
Anyway, the problem, as others have mentioned, is that the mic's gain is just too little. To record voice, you have to have all your software input levels at 100% AND have the mic about 2 inches from your mouth. Then on playback, you will need strong speakers as well. If you can't get the mic close to your mouth, or you are trying to record a room of people, forget it.
I've sent an email to customer service, but no response.
This *could have been* a great product-- what were they thinking??
By Ben
I've tried out quite a few USB microphones for various purposes, and the Blue Snowball was, by far, the one that I'm the most ambivalent about. It has a great quality, it's pretty much plug-and-play (in theory), and it's sexy. Unfortunately, I found its gain to be so low that it was almost inaudible unless held directly in front of the mouth (not always a possibility) or I spoke very, very loud (not good for extended consecutive sessions). Sitting 4-6 inches away on my desktop, the speech was nearly inaudible and literally incomprehensible even with the input turned all the way up and post-production volume boost. I found it humorous that the instructions tell the user that the mic is so sensitive that it should be kept several feet away from the sound source.
Further, this was not an isolated problem. Tech support forums were full of people with similar results, so much so that Blue released a firmware patch (compatible with both Mac and Windows OS). While it seemed to work well for most people, for a significant number of users -myself included- the installer simply refused to run. To elaborate, the download worked, but when opened, the installer's "run" button was be grayed out, prompting me to "connect my Blue Snowball," despite the fact that it was plugged in, powered up, and running. After several hours of restarts, re-plugs, and time wasted with Blue tech support, I ditched it as much on principle as out of frustration; a $140 mic shouldn't require hours and hours of work just to be usable.
Since not everyone had the problems I had, I can't say that I don't recommend the Snowball. What I would recommend is if you want a mic with great quality at a reasonable price, pick it up from someone with a generous return policy (having gotten mine from an Apple Store, I had no problem getting my money back). If you can get it to work better than I could, congrats: you've got yourself a great mic. I would actually have considered a four-star rating just because for people who get it to work it's great quality, but as I said, at $140, I think I can expect better.
By Mike M. M. Net
Easy to install and worked as advertized.
I had used numerous microphones for IP intercom system in the past but none provided the clarity and volumethat this product provides.
By Meta S. Brown (Chicago)
I have an audio-technica atr5300 headset and have been struggling to record a decent audio track for a video. My voice is fairly soft, and although I never had any trouble making a good recording in a small studio with older mics, reel to reel tape, etc., volume has been a big issue for me with digital recordings. The recordings I made using the audio-technica mic were not cutting it at all. I was filtering out noise and then amplifying as much as I dared, and still had too little volume and unpleasant sound as well.
A friend lent me a Blue Snowball, and my troubles disappeared! I could have used the recording without any editing at all! No problem with volume, nice sound quality. This is a terrific product.
By Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States)
This was an impulse purchase during an Amazon Gold Box showcasing of the mic. I'd been looking, without success, for a mic that could equal the sound I was getting from the studio mics at the radio station, which uses professional Sony's costing close to five hundred. Each of the mics I tried was either lacking in bass or overly "sibilant" or "pop"-prone or susceptible to all three problems. I started with the Blue Snowflake and, to be honest, didn't notice any difference in the sound of the spoken voice with the more expensive Blue Snowball microphone. But the Snowflake has a problematic design. Its not made to stand on a desk or similar surface, and it's unforgiving hard-metal makes it impractical to clip the gizmo to any but the thinnest computer screens. Moreover, the Snowflake tends blow in the wind with the least movement of the computer, adding to the challenge of positioning it in an optimal relationship with the speaker's elocutionary apparatus.
So the Blue Snowball, though not sonically revelatory, is a more stable mic than the Snowflake. You can easily set it up alongside a computer and place some sort of pop filter in front of it, making it a more practical mic than the Snowflake. Moreover, while some of the mics I've looked at (including the Snowflake) have gone down in price (at least marginally), the Snowball has gone up, suggesting that it's a popular, in-demand item with some resale value. And if you're not obsessive about colors, you can save a sizable chunk of change by going with white (it's called a "Snowball"--remember?) rather than brushed aluminum or black (admittedly, both of the latter colors are more flattering to the company's logo, making "BLUE" unavoidable to even the casual observer's eye--but if price is secondary to color and style, you may as well wait for the inevitable: the release of a Blue Snowball in--as though you hadn't guessed--blue!).
Finally, though it's not getting the respect it deserves, the Samson "Go Plug 'N Play" is the handiest, most portable, best-designed (and awkwardly named) mic I've found for use with a computer, and it sounds as good (at least when recording the human voice) as either of the aforementioned Blue's. Also, it's priced in line with the Snowflake rather than the Snowball (though by now I've acquired enough of these things to host a convention of snowmen).
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