Customer Reviews

Blue Microphones Snowflake USB Microphone

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If you are looking for an inexpensive but high quality, small & portable, USB microphone, the Blue Snowflake is a great choice. Blue Microphones Snowflake USB Microphone

I have been testing USB mics for the past week for use with a web-based seminar ("webinar") program we run at my company. I needed a mic small enough that I could ship it to remote presenters, with excellent audio quality and super simple setup (our speakers are not audio pros). Today, I found that mic, the Blue Snowflake. It folds into its own case for protection, and the USB cable fits inside too. The package is about the size of two decks of cards, stacked. The case opens to allow you to stand it on a desk, or hang it from an upright laptop display. Both sounded great, the display mount a little better, because of the better positioning.

We've been doing our seminars through higher-end, XLR and this is not as good as them, but costs much less and works over USB. I have the Blue Snowball as well (I also recommend), which I use for podcast recording and in my tests this sounded as good (if not better) for the narration style recording we will be doing.

On our Macs (10.5 and below) it's plug and play - plug in and select the mic as the Input mic in the System Preferences, and you're done. Whatever app can accept audio on your machine, can use this. These seminars use a Flash-based audio system, and it picked up the mic instantly. You may have to adjust the Input level in the system prefs, depending on your app, and it's controls.

Downside: the mic pivot on my unit is a little loose, so I have to be careful placing it. The USB cable is stiff enough to stabilize it though. Once it's set, I don't fear it will move, unless hit.

I bought mine at an AppleStore (on a whim, I had been thinking about buying one to test) for $79. I have no regrets at that price, so considering that at the time of this writing, the price here is $20 cheaper, I think this mic is a phenomenal value. Especially if you've used common USB headset mics with their miserable sound.

It is a good design, but I find myself not liking it as much as others seem. It works well mostly, and looks cute, but is also quite obviously flawed.

Pros:

(1) Convenience and mobility. No need to wear a headset or handhold a mic.
(2) Sound quality much better than built-in microphones.
(3) Built-in soundcard (A/D converter) with quite good quality. No need to worry about the humming noises of laptop internal sound cards, and no need to mess with external sound cards.
(4) USB compatibility. Truly plug-and-play.
(5) Pretty good build quality, better than most consumer products.
(6) Good-looking.

Cons:

(1) Picks up too much ambient sound. Even a slight wind generates unacceptably high level of background noise. Completely unusable outdoors. Consider to use it only in a quiet room. This is partly because of the far placement required of this mic (much further from the mouth than a handheld mic and therefore the gain level has to be set high to pick up the sound), and partly because of the mic's design itself. This microphone is supposed to be unidirectional, but its ability to reject ambient sound is not even remotely close to that of handhold microphones I've used, not to even mention microphones that have noise cancellation mechanisms.

I believe this microphone was designed with conflicting goals which forced compromises. When it comes to microphones, there are two very different types of uses. The first type is the recording of a single source from a single direction (such as an individual speaker's voice), the second type is the recording of multiple sources from multiple directions (such as a conference room). These two types need very different types of microphones, namely unidirectional for the former and omnidirectional for the latter. I feel the maker of the Snowflake would like to have both type of buyers with a single design. Not a good idea. I think they should give an option of two different types to the Snowflake, either using a modular system or using a switch. In addition, because the Snowflake is intended for mobile use, they should also consider adding noise cancellation feature to deal with ambient noises. With the present design, this limitation alone makes the Snowflake nearly useless to me because I intended to use it on my laptop mostly in the backyard.

(2) In addition to the unacceptable ambient noise level, inherent noise (self-noise) level is also higher than a good handheld microphone or good headset. (The inherent noise is the noise generated from the microphone and the circuit even when there is no ambient noise.) When used at the supposed placement in relation to the user, this microphone is clearly not as clean as the high-quality microphones I've used. This may not be a problem for noncritical recordings, but it is something to be remembered if your recording demands high quality. Personally, I want to use it for voice recognition, which I believe is a more challenging environment than casual recording. Based on my short experience, I am somewhat satisfied, but not without reservation because of the noise. I just hope the noise does not significantly impact the recognition accuracy. So far, it does not appear to be a serious problem, but the higher noise level is obvious and I am concerned. Of course, this is talking about dictating in a quiet room. If there is any appreciable amount of ambient noise, the Snowflake is completely unusable as I discussed above.

(3) Aside the noise issues, the sound quality is not as good as professional microphones used with a good sound card. The recorded sound is simply not as round, tight and solid. The sound quality is in the middle between a built-in mic and a good separate mic (such as a decent headset or a handheld microphone). I say this based on testing with actual recordings, not speculation. While the Snowflake is noticeably better than a built-in microphone, it is noticeably inferior to a good handheld microphone or a quality headset (such as those used in wireless microphone sets).

(4) There is an annoying bug when used with voice recognition program NaturallySpeaking. Whenever you put the computer in sleep and later wake it up, the USB Snowflake will not come out of the sleep. You will have to unplug the microphone and replug it to make it work. This happens only when voice recognition program is running. I'm not sure what causes the problem (the microphone, the voicerecognition program, or the computer operating system?), but this shouldn't happen. I use Vista. Other external USB devices all work fine in this respect. Regardless what the cause is, this is quite annoying because I put my laptop in sleep frequently. Because the problem may not be caused by the microphone, I don't mean to downgrade the microphone by this problem. But those who consider to use this microphone for voice recognition should take notice of this issue.

(5) The joint of the microphone head is very loose, hardly able to hold a position firm. This makes you nervous all the time, and in fact does cause frequent adjustments. This is clearly an overlook and must be improved in the next iteration of this product (if there will be one). Nothing affects the user experience like unreliability.

(6) There is no tightening nor adjustment mechanism for this thing to be clamped over the edge of the computer lid. It just loosely and barely hangs there. Not very stable, and easily falls off with any laptop movement. I eventually decided to place the microphone aside the computer. This works well (but does require a support surface), because thankfully the metal case can be flipped over to become a standing frame. Very convenient.

(7) I wish they could change the shape of the frame to make it comfortable to hold in hand if needed to (for example, if you really need a low noise level for recording by placing the mic close to your mouth). With the current design, the metal frame is not only heavy but too edgy and uncomfortable to hold for very long.

(8) I feel the whole thing is a bit too heavy for its intended type of use. Is it possible to make it lighter without sacrificing the integrity? I don't know. I kind of like the feel of its metal make, but still think lighter would be better.

To be fair, however, the lower sound quality and worse noise characteristics compared to handheld or headset microphones isn't totally surprising, because such characteristics are inherent to the detached type of use in which the microphone is placed at a distance from speaker. The sound quality of any microphone depends greatly on the distance between the user and the microphone. I tested the Snowflake handholding it close to my mouth (about 3-4 inches away), and found the quality of the recording was quite close to that of a good handheld microphone. But of course this is not how the microphone is designed to be used. Placed over the top edge of my laptop lid (the intended way to use it), the Snowflake sounded decidedly worse. The noise floor is much higher, because at that distance, the recording level has to be raised to the maximum in order to have a decent pickup. Still much better than a built-in microphone, but if you are hoping for very high-quality recording comparable to a handheld or studio microphone, you shouldn't buy this microphone. Especially, if you intend to use it outdoor, I strongly recommend not to buy this microphone. On the other hand, if you would like to have the convenience of not having to handhold a microphone or wear a microphone over your head, I'm not aware of a better USB-based computer microphone out there at this time.

Overall, interesting and promising design that may satisfy lots of users who are not very discriminative in terms of the sound quality, but for those who don't want to compromise too much, don't hope too much. It's very good for indoor use, but are unsuitable for outdoor use, and also not to replace a high quality microphone for high-quality recordings (even in a quiet room). And yes, the sleeping bug and several other flaws do bother me.

I've had this a couple of days and am totally impressed. The sound quality is very good. You might not want to make that important demo CD of your band with it but for voice it is excellent. I've tried it to record my guitar but I just hear how bad I am so can't give an objective report on its music capabilities beyond saying they seem reasonable. I've recorded a couple of podcasts with it. The results are good. It's nice that it allows me to not wear a headset, when out of the office, which I just don't like to do. I have Blue Microphone's Snowball mic in my office for recording but that is not at all something I'd want to carry around and set up for portable audio.

The Snowflake is solid and seems very well made. It's just fits in my laptop bag, which is the reason I bought it. I'm doing more and more of my work on my MacBook, so a good quality mic is welcome. It opens up to stand on its own on a desk or clips to my computer lid. I put it right beside the built in video camera. It seems semi-directional. It seems to pick up everything in front of is and not too much from behind. And I don't have to lean in close or speak loudly to be heard. Three feet away works just fine.

This morning I used the Snowflake USB microphone to allow an absent member of my writer's group to participate via Skype. We've done this before, using the built in mic in my MacBook. Prior results doing this were marginal. Each time we've done so the person on the other end often had to ask for things to be repeated. Not today. Our absent member asked what was so different because everybody sounded so clear.

This is the best modestly priced microphone I've ever tried. I spent 17 years associated with a public radio station and all our mics were analog which, in my estimation were fuller and richer than any digital product but I have to say that the Snowflake surely provides an excellent recorded result. It was equally valuable when using MacSpeech and Dragon Naturally Speaking dictation software as well. It is only somewhat directional as it is meant to be placed some distance away from the speaker, several feet still yielded an excellent result. In fact it could be used centrally to record a conference by leaving the mic flat in the case as you see it pictured.

The only downside I discovered had to do with my recording environment. The Snowflake is was sensitive enough that you really need a quiet room for all ambient noise is recorded as well. So if you have a quiet recording area which doesn't require without a noise canceling headset mic, this little unit is probably the best value you'll ever find. Oh yes, you can't use a set of computer driven speakers as a monitor if they are placed too closely to the Snowflake. Feedback is a real issue because of the sensitivity.

This microphone is an excellent alternative to trying to travel with a Snowball. I own both mics and love my Snowball as the best USB mic ever. However, traveling with the big box (I'm always concerned with damage) is a pain in the ... neck. So, when the Snowflake came out, I was excited and skeptical. Excited because its based on the same technology, skeptical because in audio smaller is very rarely better (or as good).

I am pleasantly surprised. It is true that the Snowflake is not omnidirectional, but when I need that I'll carry the Snowball. Otherwise, the Snowflake is the perfect travel replacement for the Snowball. Small, light, flexible, and fantastic sound quality. Who could ask for anything more?

Purchased this because of the good reviews. Have used Blue Mikes in the past and so I thought I'd try the USB version for home recording. It looked good out of the box and was solid, seemed well built as I expected. However, I tried to hook it up to both my laptop which runs Win Vista and then to my desktop which runs Win 7. Neither would even acknowledge the mike when plugged in.

I searched and searched the internet and found a review on a competitors site that mentions that the early models of these were sent out with the inner circuit boards disconnected. It recommended that you try unscrewing the screen top and checking out the circuit boards inside. I looked in and that obviously seemed to be the problem. One of the circuit boards was not connected to anything. It was easy to connect it to the 3-prong connector, so I tried that and then plugged it in. This time both computers acknowledged that it was plugged in but got the error that the device was not compatible with Windows.

So off I went to check for a fix or driver to download. Everything I found said that no drivers were necessary and the faq on the Blue website gave no information. However, I did notice several bad reviews of people having the same problem I had on other sites. It seems that it is a gamble to buy this from a distributor because apparently the early stock sent out is known to malfunction. It is unfortunate that Blue hasn't done something to correct this. I would not recommend that you buy this unless you know that the distributor has a hold of the later models. The one I received from Amazon was not. On a positive note however, Amazon's return process is quick and easy. But why gamble?

[The newest entry in the suddenly awakening field of personal digital audio recording is the Samson Go, which I've just ordered and tested after misplacing my Blue Snowflake. Both are USB Condenser mics, both highly sensitive, and neither requires fantom power. I won't retract any of my comments about the Snowflake, but at this point I'm more impressed by the Samson Go (Samson is the maker of the Zoom H2 and H4n digital recorders, the most popular and effective such machines available). The Samson Go is smaller and lighter than the Snowflake, attaches more securely to a laptop screen (a spring-clip design) and stays securely in place (no need to "balance" it and fuss over a stray wire), whether attached to the computer or set on a flat surface. It's immediately recognized by an iMac, has a small switch with three directional patterns, and a mini-input for no-latency monitoring. The sound strikes me as richer and fuller than the Snowflake in the bass frequencies. The Snowflake has slightly crisper treble and appears to be the more rugged, less delicate of the two mics. The aesthetics of the Go, from the device itself to the packaging, are iPod-inspired, so it's at least equal in terms of "style points." Neither mic, unfortunately, can be attached to the top of most desktop computers. The Go is admittedly less ostentatious than the Snowflake, but if the price is close to even, the advantage goes to the Samson Go.]

My original review:

The Blue Snowflake no doubt sounds as good as the Snowball, as many Blue fans have attested. The main argument in the Snowball's favor is that its imposing appearance, alone, may be sufficient to encourage the speaker or musician to be on his or her best behavior.

The advantage of the Snowflake is that it slips over the screen of a laptop (but most desktop screens, such as those on an iMac, are definitely too thick to accommodate the device). The pictures don't provide a good representation of the look of the Snowflake next to a desktop machine. The white plastic part that you see is merely a "traveling" box that protects the wire grill of the mic and serves double duty as a carrying case for the included USB cable. This part is removed while the mic is in use. With a laptop, the thick and heavy aluminum base slides over the top of the screen; with a desk top, it serves as a base for the mic, which sits just in front of the computer screen. (It's necessary to tilt the microphone backwards on its swivel so that the base is balanced and consequently "anchored" to the desk.)

Unlike more expensive mics that I've plugged into a 3.5mm audio input on the computer, the USB Snowflake required no preamplification whatsoever in order to be adequately sensitive and loud for effective announcing. However, its extreme sensitivity is somewhat of a double-edged sword, as it's almost certain to pick up every plosive consonant and similar artifact. I've finally broken down and ordered one of those overpriced 6" pop filters (Amazon carries several, though they all look and cost about the same).

The quality is the best I've heard outside a professional studio: crisp, natural, very present. The only thing missing is the deeply resonant sound that only an expensive large-diaphragm condenser mic can provide. As for build quality, the Snowflake is heavier and more solid than I had expected (I had even imagined being able to bend the clip sufficiently to make it fit on top of a desktop screen--but Arnold S. I'm not). I wouldn't be surprised if it proves as rugged as a Shure SM-57 or 58.

I purchased this product to use with Remote Classroom Instruction. As an instructor I can't be tethered to my PC with a wired headset. This microphone cost less than wireless headsets and performs as well.

As with all USB devises, the installation is practically non-existent. We have used this constantly for 2 months and have had not problems.

I use this Blue Snowflake mic only for voice recording (spoken word, not singing) with my desktop computer. While it costs twice as much as a Logitech mic I returned, it is twice as good. The Logitech sounded very hollow in comparison.

The Snowflake is powered by the USB port on a computer and sets up easily. You may have to fiddle with your sound setup to enable it for some applications. I use it to record with the Audacity free software wav editor, which sometimes doesn't recognize it until it is unplugged and plugged in again after my computer is turned off.

It reproduces speech clearly, and I would be excellent for pod casting or other live applications. However, because of its reproductive clarity, recordings made with it can be improved significantly. This is easily done with the Audacity software. After you record, you can amplify, remove computer fan noise, and equalize for a professional sounding spoken word recording.

This mic is well made and compact in design. It can be twisted around to sit on a desk, hung on a laptop or held in your hand. For the best voice recording quality, and to avoid popping, use a folded hanky over the grill and hold it a few inches away. However, it can easily pick up sound a couple feet away, if used for live pod casting.

For convenience, size, and good spoken word recording quality, this mic is an excellent value for only $60. You would need to spend two or three times or more for a non USB condenser or dynamic mic to produce similar sound quality.