Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone (White)

• Uniquely designed plug-and-play USB mic connects to either a Mac or PC
• Dual capsule design and unique three-pattern switch can handle everything from soft vocals to loud garage band
• Switchable mic patterns for a variety of recording applications, including podcasts
• Swivel mount located on the bottom center of the mic body
• No additional software required

Includes: tripod stand.Blue Microphones Snowball – Round and white, the Snowball lives up to it’s name, and features a retro style that harkens back to the early days of audio. But on the inside, the Snowball represents only the most modern in microphone technology. Bringing you professional quality audio recording on the PC or Macintosh via USB. It’s perfect for everything from soft vocals to a loud garage band. It’s also ideal for professional sounding podcasts. PC Requirements – XP Home or Professional Edition, USB 1.0 or 2.0 port, and a minimum of 64MB of RAM Mac Requirements – Mac OSX, USB 1.0 or 2.0 port, and a minimum of 64MB of RAM

Rating: (out of 203 reviews)

List Price: $ 99.00

Price: Too low to display

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For any performer, nothing is more annoying than being there onstage all ready and hyped up to play and then getting nothing but loud shrieks of feedback from your microphone. And Blue Microphones is about to make that dream come true.

Visit the newest Blue Microphone, the Blue Encore 100 Microphone.

Blue microphones are known for its distinctive look as well as its impressive ability to capture a wide range of sounds. Through the years, Blue has stayed afloat the many competitions even when they crossed other product lines like the Snowball and the Snowflake. But nobody expected for them to take one more bold move, until now.

Blue now takes the live stage with the birth of its new Encore Series of hand-held microphones. The mics in the series easily stand out from the crowd in an instant it has an exquisite look and an impressive sound quality. And being the pioneer model among three, the Encore 100 has already gathered the thumbs-up after a series of real world tests, onstage and in the studio.

The phrase “ruggedly constructed” will not give the Encore 100 justice. The first thing that you notice the moment your hold the microphone out of the box is its weight it is not uncomfortably heavy, but is clearly more solid than any other hand-held dynamics available today. Its body fits perfectly into the grip and its slip-resistant feature helps prevent those accidental drops due to profuse sweating of the hands during performance.

The Encore 100 is equipped with Blue’s Aria dynamic capsule, an element that is specially tuned for modern audio systems. The Encore 100 is unique from other hand-helds because it is capable of producing crisp highs and upper mids without the shriek. The capsule’s cardioids pickup patterns offer a good isolation and an admirable feedback rejection feature in a real-world setting. Plus the Encore 100 offers a nice proximity effect getting close provides a lower end but does not make the vocals sound neither dull nor overly boomy.

Under acoustic conditions, the Encore 100 provides a remarkable voice articulation without having to make adjustments on your graphic equalizer in your guitar or vocal amp. It flattens the EQ’s upper midrange and reduces any potential feedback on the vocal mic and at the same time helps enhance the tone of the instrument (the guitar, for example) you are using. In the studio on the other hand, the Encore 100 gave a lot of detail to the sound without sacrificing warmth. This only means that the microphone can perform really well in both worlds. It delivers nothing but the sound that you deserve, and so much more.

The Encore 100 gives you nothing but crisp and clear sound on, and off stage. So why settle for anything less? Get the Encore 100 today!

Read more about the Blue Encore 100 Dynamic Vocal Microphone.

Review:

The Yeti from Blue Microphones is a $150 USB microphone with four recording settings, zero-latency audio monitoring via a built-in headphone jack, and a 48 kHz sampling rate at 16 bits.

The mic itself is solidly built – and by “solid” I mean that the combined weight of the microphone and stand is almost 3.5 pounds and the entire getup stands about 12 inches high.

One of the more intriguing features of the Yeti is the selectable pattern settings: stereo, cardioid, omnidirectional, and bidirectional. You can hear in the above video how the sound is affected when I switch between the various modes.

I found the microphone’s recording quality to be good, although I’m absolutely positive that I wasn’t able to get as much out of this thing as a true audio nerd would have. In my hands, it was pretty much on par with a high-quality headset from the likes of Plantronics. And, like most desktop microphones, get too close and it’s going to crackle a bit, get too far away and it’s going to sound too quiet.

And the real-time audio monitoring, while a great feature, suffers a bit thanks to the Yeti being powered completely via USB. It just doesn’t get loud enough to drown out ambient noises like you’d expect. It’s a cool feature to use for recording in quiet spaces, though.

A qualified audio engineer could probably make this thing sound angelic, though, given Blue’s fervent following and reputation for high-quality recording products. I’m admittedly just a regular guy at a gadget blog. If you’re a regular guy (or gal! Gals need mics too!) looking for a decent microphone, you probably don’t need to spend $150. If you look at all the Yeti’s features, though – THX certification, selectable recording patterns, etc. – and lick your chops, you’re not likely to be disappointed.

All in all, the Yeti is a handsome, sturdy USB microphone with a unique array of features. The recording quality is good and you’re getting solid build quality, real-time audio monitoring, THX certification, and selectable pattern settings to boot. For $150, you get a lot of microphone – just make sure you’ll be able to take advantage of it.

Product Page: Blue Microphones – Yeti – The Ultimate Professional USB Microphone

CrunchGear had its own booth at a CES event this year and of course we streamed all the interviews live. East Coasters may have missed out due to the late schedule though. So here they are for a second time. Daniel Brusilovsky started out the panel with a demo of mSpot video streaming Android app.

But we go on to take a look Stitcher, Shapeways, a Geek Not Needed router, the L5 iPhone remote, v.Clone Iomega software, Blue Microphones, Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T. mouse, LowJack computer software, an HP CTO, PocketCPR, Pogoplug and finish up two hours of interviewing with a look at the Gunman iPhone game.

Forgive all the shuffling. We did this via Livestream, after all. Click through for all the interviews and general CrunchGear hijinks.

CNET Senior Editor Donald Bell gives his first impressions of the Yeti, a three-capsule USB microphone from Blue Microphones.

Blue Microphones unveils a new USB microphone called Yeti, featuring THX certification and a triple capsule array.