Ableton Forum

What's your opinion on the Blue Snowball microphone? I'm considering ordering one as my first desktop/studio microphone for recording acoustic guitar and my pathetic attempts at singing (nothing that some auto-tune can't fix probably) .

BoddAH wrote:I'm considering ordering one as my first desktop/studio microphone for recording acoustic guitar and my pathetic attempts at singing

Don't...

...ever consider an USB microphone for musical use.

You'll never get a grip on monitoring.

i have a blue mic and it works great, but I don't know about the snowball.. I haven't personally heard it but I don't know about USB mics. I honestly think if this is your first mic, you are going to replace it and upgrade to something better.. Buy something that you know you will like and keep as part of your mic collection.. Buy one that you can actually plug into a preamp.. I would hunt for a used shure sm7b. even brand new, they are not that bad and sound good IMO on alot of sources.. But you do need alot of gain to see the benefits of this mic..

I would go with the Yeti or Yeti Pro over the Snowball. A little bit more cash, but way more product for your money.

More mic patterns (cardioid/bi/stereo/omni), it can work as its own interface with monitoring via headphones on the bottom of the mic, the onboard AD/DA converters are decent (especially for starting out), the drivers are pretty good, and you can plug a regular XLR cable into it and it becomes a very capable phantom-powered condenser mic.

Plus it has onboard gain+volume knobs, whereas the Snowball has no gain controls to speak of.

The Snowball works fine for what it is, but it's more aimed at bedroom podcasters and the like.

I also forgot to mention that I'll be using this for Skype, Teamspeak, etc. alot as well. Probably more than for recording music (although it would still be cool if it did that as well).

SO yeah, I considered standard XLR mics but those wouldn't be so practical for these applications I guess.

Yeah - in that case, I think the Yeti would be perfect.

BoddAH wrote:SO yeah, I considered standard XLR mics but those wouldn't be so practical for these applications I guess.

Why that? Get a desk stand or a desk arm and you're just the same.

What's your audio interface btw.?

Using an USB Microphone means handling two different devices with separate drivers for input and output.

Skype and Teamspeak may be okay with this, but wanting to record to a playback like that is definitely asking for trouble.

An aggregate device under MacOS may or may not work, and seeking ASIO latency under Win will only be possible with ASIO4ALL, which, again, may work or not work.

chrk wrote:

BoddAH wrote:SO yeah, I considered standard XLR mics but those wouldn't be so practical for these applications I guess.

Why that? Get a desk stand or a desk arm and you're just the same.

What's your audio interface btw.?

Using an USB Microphone means handling two different devices with separate drivers for input and output.

Skype and Teamspeak may be okay with this, but wanting to record to a playback like that is definitely asking for trouble.

An aggregate device under MacOS may or may not work, and seeking ASIO latency under Win will only be possible with ASIO4ALL, which, again, may work or not work.

Really? All reviews I read and watched made everything look pretty straightforward. The mic doesn't actually have drivers. it's plug & play on both Mac and PC. I guess it just works natively without drivers, that being said, would those problemes you mentioned still potentially be there? My audio interface is a Line 6 UX1 (designed for guitar but it also has XLR). If I can't run the interface for playback and record with the USB Blue mic at the same time within Live or Reason on both Mac OS (laptop) and PC (desktop) that would definitely be a dealbreaker.

BoddAH wrote:Really? All reviews I read and watched made everything look pretty straightforward. The mic doesn't actually have drivers. it's plug & play on both Mac and PC. I guess it just works natively without drivers, that being said, would those problemes you mentioned still potentially be there?

Straightforward for podcasters who don't need direct monitoring and don't have to care for latency too much because they don't have to be in sync with their playbacks. Those plug'n'play devices also call themselves 'class compliant', drivers are provided by the operating system and are not at all optimized for latency. Yes, those problems won't go away with that. I don't know much about the Mac myself, for some configuration the aggregate device does work, but it's a gamble. Same for ASIO4ALL - a few interfaces with shitty drivers may even get better latencies through it. It should recocnize a class compliant device OK, but may fail to see your UX1 completeley, I really don't know.

Plus you may be stuck with only one possible configuration for resolution (16bit usually) and sampling rate (44.1 or 48 kHz), and you would have to match your UX1 to that.

My audio interface is a Line 6 UX1 (designed for guitar but it also has XLR). If I can't run the interface for playback and record with the USB Blue mic at the same time within Live or Reason on both Mac OS (laptop) and PC (desktop) that would definitely be a dealbreaker.

Yes, call it off, there's not much to gain.

But keep in mind that the UX1 has no phantom power, so, for a condenser you would need an additional phantom adapter.