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Hey everybody what is up? This is Andy, and this is my review of the Blue Snowball microphone.
This bad boy right here is probably the best USB microphone that you can get for your money
when you're first starting out. You can get it for less than $50 right now on Amazon.
The link is in the video description below. Let's get right into this review so you can
see how the star of the show sounds. Okay so now I am recording into the Blue Snowball
microphone, and as you can tell it does have a very nice clean crisp sound. And this is
the closest you're going to get to professional studio sound quality for the value. The first
thing that I want to point out: the build quality is very solid, very solid build quality.
I've had mine for over four years now. It's suffered many drops and it still works perfectly.
I've never had a problem with it so far. This nice little tripod stand is included in the
box with the Blue Snowball microphone along with a nice 5 or 6 foot long USB cable and
the instructions. The tripod stand has 3 retractable legs that you can adjust. As you can see I
put my iPhone next to the Snowball so you can get a sense of how big the tripod stand
is. The Blue Snowball itself does not take up very much room at all. It's got a nice
convenient compact size to it. And the round part of the microphone fits into my hands
very easily. I can hold it up and move it around if I need to hold it like that instead
of putting it on the tripod. You do have the ability to take the Blue Snowball microphone
off of the tripod stand if you need to put it onto another microphone holder. Another
great feature about this microphone is it's very easy to use. There's no software required.
It's plug-and-play. You just take it and you plug the USB cable into your computer and
then plug it into the back of the Snowball microphone and you are ready to record. It's
compatible with Windows 7, Windows 8, and Mac OS X. There is no power button on the
Blue Snowball. Once you plug it into your computer it does give power through USB and
the light will turn on on the front so you know that it is turned on and working. On
the back of the microphone you will see that it has three different settings that you can
choose from, and I will go over what those settings are and how they sound. So far I've
been recording at setting number one. This is the cardioid mode which is mainly used
for podcasts, vocals, even vocal singing, voiceovers, anything that you're speaking
directly into the microphone. That's what setting number one is for. Now let's switch
over to number two. Okay now I'm recording at setting number two, and this is a cardioid
mode as well but this has a -10 dB pad which means it'll help capture louder sounds but
keep the quality of it. So if you're recording something loud such as loud music or instruments
then this is the setting that you want to use. Now let's go over to setting number three.
Okay now I'm recording in setting number three. This is the omni-directional mode which picks
up sound equally from all directions, and this is best for if you want to capture all
the noise in a room. If you want to pick up all the background and ambient noises, if
you're in an interview or a conference or if you just want to pick up all the sound
in a certain area this is the setting that you want to use. It's omnidirectional, picks
up all the sounds from different directions. Alright so now I'm back at setting number
one, and I want talk about the only downside about this microphone that I found. And it's
the recording level is quite low when you're recording into this microphone. As you can
tell I'm very close to the microphone. You do have to be close to the microphone for
it to pick up that nice sound quality, that rich sound quality, from your voice on this.
Even right out of the box, even with my input control almost all the way turned up on my
computer, you still have to be close to the microphone for it to pick up nice quality
sound of your voice. So I'm going to back up a little bit and show you what it sounds
like. Okay preferably I would like to be back here at this distance away which is about
5 or 6 inches away from the microphone. But as you can tell it's very faint. It's quiet
so you do have to be up close to the microphone like this for it to pick up your, uh, the
sound of your voice very well. And since you do have to be so close to the microphone when
recording into it I do recommend getting a pop filter like this so you don't get those
pop sounds from those P's like pop that popcorn baby. You don't get that. So I'll show you
what it sounds like when I put the pop filter back on. Okay so now I have my pop filter
back on, and this thing cost me about $13 on Amazon. I'll put the link in the description
below, and this really helps on getting the best quality out of your voice. It doesn't
get those P's or B's or S's. So I really do recommend putting a pop filter on the Blue
Snowball since you do have to be so close to the microphone when you are speaking into
it. But one thing to note about you having to be so close to the microphone to record,
the good thing about that is that it doesn't pick up any of the background and ambient
noise that you don't want if you're on setting one. If you're just talking into the microphone
like I am now it does a great job of eliminating any background noise or any small noise such
as you typing on your keyboard or anything like that. It does a great job not picking
that up. Okay so that about wraps up my review over the Blue Snowball microphone. Overall
it's a highly recommended product by me. This is definitely something you want to get if
you're creating any type of content online whether it's online videos for YouTube or
you're recording any type of audio. This is the microphone to start out with. So if you
want to order this microphone again the link will be in the description below for Amazon
at the best price possible. If this review helped you out make sure you give this video
a thumbs-up. I would really really appreciate it. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure
you subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. Keep having fun out there and I will
talk to you later.