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| |  | Flashes | Home » » Blue Microphones SnowBall USB Microphone Bundle | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 0.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 0.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.5 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.6 inches | | Package Height:
| 4.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 156 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Great for Podcasting!Mar 09, 2010
I'm in the middle of starting up a new podcast and after reading countless reviews of mics I decided to go with this one. It's a wonderful mic and records perfectly. I would suggest this mic to anyone seriously considering starting a podcast and needing a great mic but have a tight budget!
You'll like this microphoneMar 06, 2010
Excellent. My first non-toy microphone. I love the look and feel, and it works great. I must admit I had some trouble installing on Windows 7 machine, but I figured it out. If they had updated the documentation for Windows 7 it would have been nice.
My primary use is for podcasting.
I recommend the product, and the manufacturer's website was a help.
Great microphone!! Computer security limitations got in the way...Mar 03, 2010
I've just started to do audio podcasting at work. This microphone did a great, quality job. I have no complaints at all about the sound.
However, I had a problem with the plug and play due to security restrictions on my computer at work. I work for a government agency and security's pretty tight. I have admin. rights to my computer but I still had to use someone else's computer who had higher rights than I did before I could use the microphone. I used Adobe SoundBooth. I tried it on my personal computer and laptop at home and it was instantly recognized. Just a heads-up for those whose IT departments have got things wrapped up pretty tight.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Fatal FlawFeb 27, 2010
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??
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Great Sound - Nearly UselessFeb 23, 2010
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.
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