Top positive review
8 people found this helpful
Inexpensive, Sounds Great, Looks Good.
By Bob Bowen on Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
Don't write reviews very often, but I feel like I should for this. I personally think this is the best mic you can get at this price, the quality is absolutely great for the ~$60 range. I have convinced literally three people to buy this mic: my brother and two of my friends. This particular model has a three-way selector switch on the back. Pos. 1 is mainly good for commentating, podcasts, and Skype calls. Pos. 2 takes in audio from both sides of the mic, generally used for interviews or conferences. Pos. 3 dampens the amount of dB coming through, mainly used for recording things that are very loud and bassy, i.e. live music, so that there isn't any crackling and things like that. It also has a sturdy and plenty long USB cable. It is also worth noting that this is compatible with the NEEWER scissor arm (NEEWER Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand), but what you'll have to do is take the threaded part on the stand that you screw your Snowball onto off, thread it onto the scissor arm, and then screw the snowball onto that. I had to learn this from a video ([...]), so I thought I'd save someone some time by saying it here. And with recording instruments, it's great. As I said, the quality is plenty good especially for the price. But what you have to do is make sure the mic is nice and close up, otherwise the instrument sounds faint, and you just get a lot of reverberation from the room (but make sure it's not TOO close or your rumbling bass or piercing flute will make your audio go into the red) (duh). In conclusion, everyone I coaxed into getting this mic are also very pleased. My friend got his a week ago, and he's happy with the extra range of frequencies it picks up, unlike his old headset. My other friend and my brother got theirs about two or three months ago (my other friend got the iCE), and I, at the time of writing, have been running strong with my brushed aluminum Snowball for about 7 months with no issue, except that the connection between my Snowball and its cable has become kinda loose (it slides out easy). But it's really no big deal. So I guess my point is that it's great, and if you're looking for a mic in this price range, look no further, especially since it's probably the coolest looking one.
Top critical review
6 people found this helpful
Good entry-level microphone with an OK sound profile.
By Donnie Gladfelter on Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2011
You really don't have to look much further than the reviews here on the Amazon product page to see the Blue Snowball was an absolute hit for the company. Having used the product myself, I can see why; it's a wonderfully built product offering professional sound at an affordable price (around $60-$70 when I purchased). Despite these qualities, I found sound profile of the Blue Snowball to be noisier than I expected, and it's response to be a little flat. As author of AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required, I purchased the Blue Snowball to help me create professionally sounding how-to videos. Before trying the Snowball, I was previously using the Logitech ClearChat Pro USB Headset mic. While it's certainly among the best headset mics I have used, it didn't have the full sound I was looking for. Based on the positive reviews here and elsewhere on the internet, I chose to give the Blue Snowball a try. For me the Blue Snowball easily outperformed the Logitech headset I had previously used, but the sound still wasn't to the standard I would expect of a professional grade microphone. As expressed by several other reviewers, I found the mic to have a very low recording level. During post-production I found myself having to increase the sound level on every recording I did with this mic. Likewise, even before normalizing the volume, I found the mic to be rather noisy. Moments of silence were filled with the hiss typical of lower-end mics. I'm not a sound engineer, but I suspect this could be due to the fact this mic relies on the computer for gain settings. Likewise, while I'm sure the frequency response of this mic is perfectly suited for many people, I found the sound profile to be rather flat for me (narrating how-to videos). I have since returned the Blue Snowball, exchanging it for the Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone. Having experience with both mics, I can say there's a night-and-day difference between these two mics. The Yeti's frequency response is both cleaner and fuller than what I experienced with the Snowball. The independent Gain control of the Yeti is something that I feel allows me to capture cleaner recordings, and the rest of its features are just icing on the cake. Bottom line, I find the Blue Snowball to be a great first-step for anyone looking to add professional audio to their recordings; however it does come with several shortcomings. At the time of this review the Blue Yeti sells on Amazon for about $100 and the Snowball about $65. If you can spare the extra cash, I highly recommend stepping up to the Yeti. If you're looking for decent professional quality audio on a budget; the Snowball is, in my opinion, the best entry-level mic on the market today.
Sort by:
Filter by:
By -
Verified Amazon Purchase
Vine Customer Review of Free Product
Sorry, no reviews match your current selections.
Try clearing or changing some filters.Show all reviews
Show more reviews