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2,833
4.6 out of 5 stars

Blue Microphones Snowball Pro Quality USB Mic: 2 Colors

$49.99
$69.99 29% off Reference Price
Condition: New
Color: Brushed Aluminum
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Top positive review
1 people found this helpful
Good Performance Overall, Wish it Could Operate as External Mic
By D. Landers on Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2015
The performance is pretty impressive for a microphone that is low cost with USB capability. I agree it is a bit on the quiet side, but the software I use for recording has a gain adjustment. I found that it requires about +10dB to hear me talking normally. That would be the volume I use to communicate with people sitting about 8-10 feet away. Beyond that, I would raise my voice. If you talk loud, like a radio announcer or TV reporter, it will work very well. I just don't tend to talk that loudly for dubbing videos. The ball shape is funny to me, not sure what to think of it, it's just different. It is larger than it appears, look at the pictures with people in front of it for an accurate representation. It looks kind of cool or at least different from a normal mic, not sure if it functions differently for that reason, but maybe it helps with the omnidirectional mode. I tried all 3 modes, which is kind of cool and is the final reason I bought this over the Samson Meteor which was a close 2nd for me. http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Meteor-Studio-Microphone-Chrome/dp/B004MF39YS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431886633&sr=8-1&keywords=samson+meteor+usb+mic The legs splay out quite a-ways on this snowball mic, so it isn't a small unit by any means, but it isn't unreasonable and is about right for the laws of physical and being fairly stable. I bought a pop filter, but I wish they would have designed one specifically for the Snowball tripod/mount. The one I bought works Ok, but it can fall off when bumped a little. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RZIH62U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought the Dragonopad because it had a magnetic mount. It kind of works if I jam it into the mounting stem below the ball. I will probably modify the mount to make it work better and so it doesn't fall off so easily. The other reviews can explain its audio details better. Because of the low gain and no adjustability I wanted to rate it a 4-star or 4.5-star, but since it is a low cost mic compared to its bigger brother, I will just have to learn to speak up a bit or adjust the gain up about +10dB. The only other reason I would rate it a 4-star is because it won't adapt to a camcorder to act as an external microphone. It requires a lot of power, which is not likely to be supplied through a mini microphone jack. Eventually, I will do some of my own audio testing beyond what I did to check it out, and I will update my review then.
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.

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