Music, Style & Culture
| Print : Web : Radio : Mobile

Review: The Blue Snowball USB Mic

If you can’t afford numerous trips to the recording studio, get yourself one of these.

Posted 7th February 2012, 1:03pm in Extra by Amy Rich
Review: The Blue Snowball USB Mic The Blue Snowball USB Mic RRP £89.95 from Apple

You’re in a band. Or at least an imaginary band. You have lyrics (perfected while you should have been revising). You have mastered a three-chord riff (you feel like the next Bowie). And you have finally got your hair just right (a sweepy side-fringe anyone?) Congratulations. It sounds about time you got yourself a decent mic. Especially if you’re in one of those bands that likes to record their music on Mac’s garageband (though it works on PC too). Cue the Snowball USB mic from Blue.

LooksCall us fickle, but we like things to look good. Whether that’s purposefully having messy hair, wearing jeans that look like you’ve loved them since the 90s, or a mic that will make your mates think you know what you’re doing. Either way, beautiful things make us a little bit happy inside (not too happy, we’re still fans of The Smiths). And one thing’s for sure the Snowball mic from Blue is most definitely easy on the eye. It’s basically the size of a decent size snowball you’d happily lob at your little sister (though quite a lot heavier).

DetailsThe Snowball is a condenser mic that has a dual capsule design and a unique three-pattern switch (cardioid, cardioid with -1-dB pad and omnidirectional). For any tech newbies out there, that basically means it will record what’s either right in front of it, or everything around it. So use cardioid for vocals or recording instruments one at a time, or omnidirectional for multiple things happening at once.

The Snowball comes with its own tabletop mic stand, but helpfully the guys at Blue have also included standard threads on the bottom of the Snowball so that it can be easily attached to a normal mic stand. This dual functionality means you’re really in charge of where you want the mic to go and lets you get up close to all sorts of instruments, whatever height they’re at.

Tech SpecsAcoustical operating principal: position 1-3: pressure gradient
Polar pattern: 102: cardioid; position 3: omnidirectional
Frequency response: 1-3: 40-18000 kHz
Sample/word rate: 44.1 kHz/16 bit
Weight: 460g
Dimensions: 325mm circumference

The VerdictIf you can’t afford numerous trips to the recording studio, get yourself one of these. You’ll get a smooth, open, and realistic sound and a mic great for recording demos. What’s more, with no batteries needed and no software to install, the Snowball mic by Blue could be used by even the most technophobic of bands. It’s pretty much a case of plug in and play.

Comments