Blue Microphones Snowflake USB Microphone
Featuring Blue Microphones’ renowned circuitry, the Snowflake is a professional quality portable mic that combines a USB bus powered capsule with a class compliant design to make the Snowflake truly plug and play on both Mac and PC. Not just an eye-catching design, the Snowflake is highly functional. The mic folds into a single compact case which also houses a USB cable for easy transport in a laptop bag or even a pocket. Unfolded, the case serves as a desktop stand or a laptop clip, making the Snowflake a natural for everything from podcasting, calling over the web, narrating a home video, or sketching out a song idea on the go.
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Where Do You Put It?
The Snowflake’s unique design allows you to place it on a desk or flat surface near your computer, or mounted to the screen of most laptops. Gently grasp the top and bottom halves of the Snowflake mounting box and slide them away from each other (figure 1, on the right). You’ll find the USB cable snugly fit inside. The top half of the mount can then be positioned on any flat surface (figure 2), or hung over the back of most laptops (figure 3). The Snowflake capsule also pivots back and forth and rotates side-to-side for optimal positioning.
When not in use, just disconnect the USB cable and store it in the mounting box, sliding both haves together to close. When traveling with the Snowflake, gently swivel the active side of the round capsule head (with the metal grille) so that it faces down and into the box (figure 4). This will help protect the precision capsule from damage.
Technical Specs
- Transducer Type: Condenser, Pressure Gradient w/USB Digital Output
- Polar Pattern: Cardioid
- Sample/Word Rate: 44.1 kHz/16 bit
- Frequency Response: 35Hz – 20kHz
System Requirements
- Macintosh: Mac OSX; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB RAM (minimum)
- Windows: Vista or XP; USB 1.0 or 2.0; 64MB RAM (minimum)
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Very pleased
Perfect for my application, recording music demo’s using my Macbook Pro in my recliner. Easy to use, plug and play. Well designed, matches the Mac in form and function.
1 Star Doesn’t work with Vista
I have two Vista machines, one rom Dell and one from HP. I cannot get this microphone with either of them. It never shows up in the control panel. I wrote to Blue and asked for a fix. A week later I stil not heard from them. Want one? I will be selling mine on eBay. Useless to me.
2 Stars Low output
I hung the microphone on the top of a notebook PC screen. I had the record volume turned up to maximum. My head was at a normal distance from the screen. The output from this microphone was so low that it was useless.
5 Stars Great Microphone!
I have pretty simple recording needs–I use my Snowflake microphone to record podcast material both in quiet spaces and in public spaces like coffee shops and cafes. So far the microphone has picked up the sound clearly, is portable, plugs and plays perfectly with my MacBook, and works seamlessly with my software. I took a look at more expensive microphones, but settled on the Snowflake, and I’m extremely satisfied with this product.
4 Stars Blue’s SnowFlake USB Microphone
The packaging calls it a “Portable professional USB mic. When I think of a pro mic, I think mesh grill, great sound quality, extraordinary sound pickup – things like that. Low noise, hi-gain. It’s pretty much just that – though the gain could be better, the sound quality is far superior to most of the portable microphones you’re likely to encounter. I like the fact that I can use the Snowflake hooked over my flat screen monitor, or setting on a shelf or desk. There’s a spot on the back (white plastic) shell to plug in a standard USB cable (included). The case acts as storage for the USB cable, but also doubles as a stand for those times when it’s not hooked over something. To mount on a flat screen, simply slide the two halves apart to reveal the smooth loop.
The head of the microphone swivels 360 degrees – made possible by that USB port in the back. A very versatile recording device! To be fair, I didn’t expect such clarity nor the gain levels I’m experiencing. As a former SnowBall Mic owner, I loved the cool design, but was always disappointed by the low recording gain levels. Even the patches provided by Blue failed to improve it. The Snowflake doesn’t seem to have any of those problems!
This microphone, despite it’s size (the head of the mic is about the size of a golf ball), peforms very well for me. Even siting back in the chair with the device sitting back on my desk, pickup quality was excellent.
CONS: Only one con, which is why I gave this 4 stars (it should be 4.5 if the option were available) – is the slight echo exhibited under full gain settings.
It’s a great microphone and I highly recommend it.
