Podcast 14 was the first one where I used the Snowball microphone from Blue. This USB condenser microphone sells for about $70-80 and it’s a big step up from the other two. I covered some of the details in podcast 14, but it has three audio patterns, comes with a cool metal stand (it has an optional spider mount), and it looks like a plastic softball. It’s a bit bulky, but the sound is greatly improved from the other options and the audio patterns are much less peaky. When used in the cardioid pattern almost no ambient noise was picked up. I actually misjudged how close you can get to this microphone without overwhelming it, so my levels were a bit low expect to see that fixed for the next podcast.
So what’s the verdict? Basically, sometimes you just need the right equipment. This isn’t to say that the other two solutions weren’t OK or that we couldn’t have hacked together something, but the ease-of-use and the performance of the Snowball microphone make it the clear pick here. With some optimization of our setup and a bit more experience with editing, the podcast should be sounding better than ever in no time.
And, of course, good recording is just about podcasting. It also improves Skype chatting, videos, conference calls, multiplayer gaming, and so on.
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