Reviews for Blue Microphones Snowball Microphone

I read a considerable number of the Snowball reviews, and find there are widely diverging opinions about this mic. People seem either to love it or hate it. I am among those that am very disappointed with this product. I purchased it to record voice, and placed the mic on the desktop approx. 1-2' from my voice. The recording is so soft, it cannot be heard without maxing out the speaker gain settings. Some reviewers have stated this problem can be fixed by downloading a firmware update from Blue Microphones website. I would be happy if a solution existed. However, I cannot find any firmware downloads anywhere on their website. If you buy the product, be sure to give it a trial run during the return period to insure it works for you.

I just bought a new Mac Pro. I have updated my OS to the latest 10.5.2. I grabbed my Snowball mic and plugged it in and started up Garageband . . . and waited, and waited. I got spinning beach balls galore. I never could record with the Snowball mic. I looked in the Apple discussion forum and found others with the same problem. Apple continues to sell this mic even though it's broken. The product developer has no solution and neither does Apple. I'd stay away for now. I really need to record some podcasts so now I am going to have to purchase another mic. What a waste of my money. This is disappointing.

I bought this for recording podcasts and voice-overs for my films in iMovie HD and Final Cut Pro. I couldn't get any audio other than a small bit of sound that know one could understand. I tried everything but still, no sound.

Even after downloading the firmware update, the microphone does not send a strong enough signal to the computer. I've cranked up the "input" setting to the maximum, and put my lips about as close as one can to the microphone, but it just doesn't send a strong enough signal.

Now I'm looking for something with a pre-amp or other "booster." It's too bad, because it's big enough that it should provide great quality.

I don't know what to do. From the very first time I plugged this mic in it sounded terrible. I've tried all types of situations from a full live band to a single voice. In all cases the mic sounds like tin can and distorts like crazy no matter how low I have the input volume set. Also, the 3 "settings" on my mic all sound exactly the same. Maybe I just got a bad one.

My usb cable input arrow sits at 10-o'clock, not 12 like the photos, making it look cheap. Even after pumping the input level to 100% on the system preferences, I can not get normal voice levels unless I am practically screaming 2-6 inches away--and that is using regular setting #1. I get nothing on setting 2 (seems more like a 20 decible drop). Setting 3 is similarly faint to nonexistant depending on the direction.

The first Snowball I bought produced nothing but static when I plugged it into my PowerBook to record some audio. After I exchanged it for another one, it worked for about a week or so and when I plugged it again, the 2nd one produces nothing but static. I would wait until Blue offers some kind of support documentation, some kind of driver or something that resets this otherwise great mic. Oh, and the USB cable and stand are extra.

The mic is a beautiful piece of equipment and when it works, it sounds great. But there is very little documentation for troubleshooting and it intermittently produces static instead of good audio. This problem occurs on PC's and Macs. It interferes with iSight and other USB and Firewire devices and vice versa. According to comments on the Blue Mic website, others are having similar problems. They report that Garageband is the only software that works with the mic. I have been able to get it to work with other audio software, but the intermittent garble that it produces may be what they are talking about. Their complaints indicate that the only way to use it with other software is generate a USB filter using Core Audio (whatever that is - Apple doesn't not have much documentation on how this works - I suspect if youa are a programmer you could figure this out). I do know that when you use open up another program that uses audio, it will shut down and you get garble. Too bad. This device isn't ready for primetime on the Mac and probably not on a PC either.