Logitech Blue Snowball USB Microphone - Professional Condenser Mic for PC, Gaming, Podcasting, Streaming & Studio Recording (Brushed Aluminum) - Perfect for Twitch, YouTube & Home Office Setup

This isn't a high-end, super expensive piece of equipment. If you're a professional recording technician, you already know you want something else. But if you know what you're doing, this can deliver professional results at a fraction of the price. I've used it to record acapella singing, instrumental music, and storytelling (it'd be great for podcasts). I first bought one in 2010 and used it for about eight years before it was stolen. After missing it for several years, I finally bought another one in 2022. There's a reason this mic is still in production.works great and shiping show up right on time i like it and love it thinks for help and great shiping i did not had to wait long for itLarger than I was expecting. Worked very well for dictating into MS WORD. Seems to be of good quality. Included instructions are in tiny, tiny print and are scanty.I bought this in June of 2015, and still use it every day. For simplicity sake, I'm going to break down this review into 4 parts. The look, the setup, the physical quality, and the audio quality.The look:I bought the white version of this, only because at the time it was the cheapest option available. 65$, the same price it is now. The ball itself is a thick plastic with a rough finish. The finish means that it basically doesn't reflect any light as a mirror would, so its not very shiny. The grill covering the internals is made of metal and is probably the exact same as you would find on any other studio/stage microphone. The base is also made out of some kind of metal, possibly hollow but it has some weight to it, so I doubt it. There is a sticker banded around the vertical axis of the ball that says 'THE SNOWBALL' repeatedly. If you wanted to, you could probably peel it off. The base also has the blue 'Blue' logo. There is a indicator light above the grill that turns red when it is plugged in. There is another Blue logo cover that goes over the grill, which you could remove if you really wanted to. The back has sections of it taken out for surround pickup, as well as the switch for different microphone setups. The cable is a near transparent plastic cable, which is neat since it lets you see the internal wires.The setup:The setup should only take you about 3 minutes after you open the box. You screw the microphone onto the stand (or attach it to another mount if you have one), plug one end of the cable into the microphone, and the other end into your PC. The light will turn on, meaning it is working. There is no manual downloads for it, which is great if you are the kind of person who switches between multiple computers.Physical quality: From the bottom up, the legs have small rubber balls at the end. If you pull at them very hard they will come off, but unless it was intentional it should never come off. The rubber on them is very good at keeping the microphone in place, and the width of the stand when you fully open it means that it should be difficult to tip it over accidentally. The rest of the stand is made out of metal with a reflective finish. The microphone is made out of a rough, white painted plastic. I found it impossible to scratch the paint off with anything less than a knife edge, so I would assume its dyed, not painted. The grill is made out of metal, and bends slightly if you put a lot of pressure on it. The cable is a very strong plastic coating, that has taken no damage from being coiled repeatedly and bent over the years.Audio Quality:Lets face it, its a 65$ microphone. Is it a lot better than your phone or your computer/webcams internal microphone? Absolutely. Is it better than a studio quality microphone that can go for a thousand dollars? No. If you're looking for a step up from your computers internal microphone, or the one built into your headphones/earbuds, then this is absolutely worth it. If you want to record music for YouTube, then maybe look into something with more range. I have talked into this thing For almost 3 years, and I have never once had someone complain about the quality. I have recorded YouTube videos, audio for class projects, Skype calls, Discord, in game voice chat and everything in between with not a single issue.--TL:DRThe Blue Snowball is a perfect microphone for its price. If you are looking for something for daily use, this is it. It will last you forever and is on my list of top Buy It For Life technology out there.I have experimented with it for guided for guided meditations and audiobook voice work. My SM7b is much better for that because for voice recordings I want to hear more of depth and texture of my voice. However, I like the way the Snowball records my guitar and ukulele. I bought it for it’s portability and I’m happy with it’s sound recording quality.i use this mic for gaming and discord and it sounds greatI bought this mainly for a St. Louis Blues hockey podcast, along with a pop filter. I've used it for a half dozen shows so far, and it's an excellent microphone! I couldn't be happier with it.We bought two other Blue Snowballs for the other guys on the podcast, and our Lets Go Blues Radio show sounds great... umm...shameless plug: [...]Pros:- The stand is metal, high build quality- Rubber feet so it doesn't slip- 3 audio settings, two for speaking directly into the front (one of which reduces the DB a bit if you feel it is picking up too much and is too loud), and 1 setting to pick up sound from everyone in the room, 360 degrees (the sound quality is much better if you speak directly into the front about six inches or so away using settings 1 or 2)- Audio quality is outstanding for this price range mic. Perfect for high quality podcasting. You can spend a LOT more $$ on a more expensive mic setup, but the audio quality isn't going to be that much better to warrant the massive price jump.- USB cord is long and of high quality- Easy plug and play. You plug it into a PC or Mac, and it's good to go right away.- Has a retro-like logo and an overall cool design. I chose the black snowball...it looks slick.Cons:- The USB cord doesn't fit as snug as it probably should. Seems loose in the port on the mic, it can slip out with a slight tug. We have this issue on all three of our snowball mics, so it's not just my mic.- It would be nice if the mic had an On/Off switch and then the red light on top would only be on when the mic was on. But not a huge deal as you can simply unplug the USB. I just leave mine plugged in all of the time.- This is just purely cosmetic, but for the black snowball mic, the usb cord should be black, not clear/silver. It would just look a little better design wise. Not really a con though...just a nitpick on my part.CAUTION FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO USE MULTIPLE USB MICS ON THE SAME COMPUTER...If you plan on hooking multiple USB mics (like the Blue Snowball) to the same computer, it is a real pain to get it to work properly...even in Garage Band where the OS settings seem to allow for multiple USB mics. You will get feedback, echos, horrible delays, crackling audio, horrible sound, mics picking up other voices and on a delay, etc. It was a mess. Multiple USB mics are not meant to be used on the same computer. I'm surprised nobody has created a mixer for USB mics so you could use two or three USB mics on the same computer. We had some audio issues during our first couple shows because we tried to record in the same room on the same computer and it just wasn't working. We did tons of research and apparently this is an issue with USB mics in general, and nobody has a good solution, other than a Virtual Audio Cable (which doesn't work that well either).We solved the issue by everyone being on their own computer with their own Snowball mics in their own homes and then recording the show over a Google Hangout. We download the saved mp4 from Youtube when done. Then we import it into Audition or Audacity for post production editing, and then upload the podcast to our podcast server. It works great, the audio is great quality, and we sound like we are in the same room talking. And with Google Hangout, you can see everyone as well...as long as they have a webcam, and all laptops nowadays do, so it isn't an issue for us. Plus it's more convenient for everyone...no driving and easier to schedule.Bought this to use on Skype calls instead of my laptop mic. This has made a massive difference to the quality of the call. I would say that there are two versions of this mic though. This one has 3 different modes, basically makes it useful for conference calls.... and there is a cheaper model with only 1 mode... In theory just for one person singing / speaking into it.I have the 3 mode version and it's great... but I only use one mode.Despite previous reviews to the contrary, the model I bought (Snowball) worked perfectly with my Windows 10 laptop, so I can only assume that there have been updates and improvements since reviews <2021.I bought this specifically to replace the built-in microphone on the laptop for tabletop gaming where players were both present in the room or online via Discord. The microphone picked up all the voices of players present in the room, and there were no complaints from those playing through Discord. There were no reports of feedback from the speakers to the microphone, though we didn’t have it on the wider conference room type setting.Although there will be better, more professional microphones out there for the streaming gamer, this worked perfectly for our needs and would thoroughly recommend for the price and quality.Not as good as the original - I owned this microphone before, and it's good for its price, but it's not as good as the original, There are two versions v1 and v2 - v1 is the one with the printer cable with v2 its MINI USB the actually components inside are also different the quality of the two are highly different while it might seem tiny from the outside, Inside its very different V2 has a lot of gain and when choosing cardioid as one of the settings it gets too high with a lot of room noise and there's no way to stop that regardless of what setting you have it on - With v1 it's the same, but the Noise wasn't as prevalent and wasn't there I used both of these for reviews so when listening to the audio gains v2 is far worse- if you have the option I recommend buying a different microphone like the Blue Yeti or the G-Track Pro - or get the 1st model of the snowball if you can, i also recommend not buying the Blue ICE SnowballI got this for recording audio for online courses. What I didn't realise was that in use this is pretty much the same as a hand held mike...you have to have it very near your mouth to get decent sound levels. This is something you need to be aware of if this is what you want it for.As I am also recording a video (headshot), it's practical to not have a huge mike in front of your face, so that renders it useless for that purpose. I figured I could use it for audio whilst doing screen capture (not talking head)...also not ideal as if you are using your mouse or keyboard, you still have to have your head down by the mike to get good audio, which is also not ideal. I have ordered a couple of cheap lapel mikes now, and I will be upset if they are great, as they are £5 and this is, well, quite a lot more.If you are using it purely for narration, the sound quality is awesome, but sadly not much use for anything else.Update:Okay, looked at all the youtube reviews of this, and folks were getting great sound out of it, so I splashed out £10 on a boom arm...much much better. I can now position it quite close to my mouth, but still keep it out of shot. I still have to up the gain in Camtasia studio, but the results are good. I just need to learn how to polish the audio with audacity now.I am using this for on-line church services, providing musical items on violin and tin whistle. It works fine with the violin but with the tin whistle, there is pitching and fading in and out at the recipient's end. The strange thing is, if I use my tablet for this purpose with the tin whistle, it's fine. I am fairly certain this is due to the conferencing app. which is designed for speech and not the microphone but it is somewhat disappointing. Well made and ideal for most without spending silly money. I have since found by disabling the auto gain in the app.the music quality is much better and the fading issue has gone.