Review: Blue Snowflake Portable USB Microphone

I know this isn’t really iPhone related, as this mic does not connect to your iPhone in anyway. However, Blue, the company that makes the Snowflake Portable USB Microphone, is a sponsor of The iPhone Podcast, that is brought to you by iPhoneinCanada.ca. That’s how the review ends up here. 🙂

In Blue’s words, here’s what the Snowflake Portable USB Microphone is all about:

Whether you’re recording your newest podcast, talking business on the web, or just narrating your latest great family movie, the Snowflake can capture it with amazing clarity and depth that’s head and shoulders above any comparable portable USB on the market!

The Snowflake works on both Mac and PC with no complicated drivers to install: just connect it to your computer’s USB port, follow the prompts and you’ll have high-fidelity sound in no time. It’s perfect for podcasting, voice recognition software, iChat, and VoIP software such as Skype and Vonage. Or use it for dictation, field recording, lecture recording, and narration for slideshows and PowerPoint presentations. The sky’s the limit. It’s even great for recording music via GarageBand and other multitrack recording software.

System Requirements
Windows: Vista or XP; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB RAM (minimum)
Macintosh: Mac OSX; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB RAM (minimum)

When you take this out of the box you really get a sense of how portable this is going to be for you. It folds up and holds the USB cable inside itself. You slide off the plastic casing and the mic folds out, and the USB connects to the back of it. It can sit on a flat surface, like a desk or table, or it can rest on the monitor of your laptop. It boasts a very sturdy design and construction, so it doesn’t feel fragile.

It connects very easily. It doesn’t come with a disc with drivers to install, and there’s nothing to download (on a Mac anyway). It is really plug-and -play. You just plug it in and it works. I had no trouble using it with Garageband, Skype, Screenflow, or any other audio recording program.

The sound quality, the most important thing, is superb. If you’ve listened to The iPhone Podcast, you know the sound quality is really professional sounding. Even with some background noise, I found quality of a vocal recording to be excellent. I used this to record iEvolution.ca’s segment episode 7 of The iPhone Podcast, which should be in iTunes any time now. I will definitely be using it from now on.

Blue makes a full line of professional quality microphones, from iPod all the way to professional studio. To find where to buy a Blue mic near you, you can use their dealer locator.

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