Podagogy

I just purchased the Blue Microphones Snowball mic last month (for myself), and find it to be a remarkable value for the price ($99 street price). The Snowball is a dual capsule design with 3 available patterns (switchable from the back of the mic) cardioid, cardioid with -10dB pad and omnidirectional. The Snowball is a USB mic that requires no additional software to run on the Mac, although I’ve read of some Windows Vista users having to wait for a Vista compatible driver.

The mic comes with its own hefty little chrome tripod stand and a shielded USB cable. Once attached to the stand, the mic head can be tilted up or down. I really like the mike stand, it is solid and heavy, which is important as the Snowball itself is almost the size of a softball! Even so, on the stand the mic is wonderfully stable, and the stand itself contains an extension that will allow you to increase the height of the stand about 4 inches. The mic looks very cool and generates a lot of interest from those who see it.

I have recorded a number of projects using the Snowball, and I think I am still learning about the mic. The 3-position switch on the back of the microphone allows you to select 1 of 3 patterns. In position 1, the mic has a standard cardiod pattern (more unidirectional), in position 2 a pad is activated that provides a -10dB reduction (for recording very loud instruments or sounds), and in position 3 both capsules are activated making the Snowball omnidirectional.

While recording my latest project I experienced some anomalies that are puzzling. I was recording a number of short clips to be used in an Articulate flash-based learning object. I used Audio Hijack Pro (Rogue Amoeba) route the mic input through a VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plug-in called monomizer (to improve overall sound), and the actual recording was made using QuickTime Pro 7.4.5. The first few clips recorded with no problem. On or about clip 5 I noticed the recording was badly distorted and contained other weird artifacts. I trashed the clip, re-recorded it with no problem. However, a couple of clips later I experienced the same problem. By the end of the recording session I had to re-record 4 or 5 of the clips due to the weird distortion problem.

I have had the same problem using the Alesis iMultiMix8 USB mix with M-Audio Nova mics, and after a lot of trolling of the Alesis support forums found numerous indicators that some esoteric changes made to Apple’s core audio system can result in sampling rate problems that produce the problem I experienced. According to the majority wisdom on the support forums, the sampling rate for the device needs to be increased from 44,100 Hz to 48,000 Hz. While this seems to have helped the Alesis mixer (so far), I had already raised the sampling rate for the Snowball, so I’m still stumped. I honestly don’t believe the problem is with the mic (yet), as I’ve had the same problem with other mics connected via USB devices. So, the mystery continues – I’ll continue to investigate this problem, and I will continue to use the Snowball.

The link below will connect you to the Articulate learning-object I created using the Snowball. I think you will find the audio is quite good. 5 Minutes About Podcasting