USB microphones

[Robert J]

I was at our local music store and was getting some microphone ideas. I saw the Snowball mic from Blue Microphones, but didn't get a chance to audition one. They look cool and apparantly record well. Interested in using it for my upright piano. I like the idea of a direct connection to my laptop w/o any electrical distortion. Anyone know about this?

http://www.bluemic.com/modules.php?op=modl...ndex&prod_id=18

[Claude]

I have only used a USB headset so far. The idea of these USB devices is to bypass the soundchip of laptops, which are often of low quality (hiss, distortion). An analog/digital converter is built into the USB device and the digitized sound transmitted via the USB port to the laptop.

Compared to a regular microphone connected to the MIC IN plug of the laptop, the sound quality of a USB microphone is better if the A/D converter of the microphone has a higher quality than the A/D converter of the soundcard.

But I don't think this product is as revolutionary as the FAQ claim. In fact it looks more like a lifestyle product than a serious device for recording music. How much does it cost?

[Robert J]

I have only used a USB headset so far. The idea of these USB devices is to bypass the soundchip of laptops,

But I don't think this product is as revolutionary as the FAQ claim. In fact it looks more like a lifestyle product than a serious device for recording music. How much does it cost?

They are aound $170 Canadian, $150 US. True, this model looks like it it being marketed to the Podcasting community. But I've seen sites where musicians are using them for recording. Since the initial post, I've looked up some other brands that have more 'normal' mike appearances. ie - http://www.samsontech.com/products/product...cfm?prodID=1810

I guess the negatives of USB miking is no mixer or controllled gain.

[7/4]

I guess the negatives of USB miking is no mixer or controllled gain.

Or a nice pre-amp, although I guess you could tweek it with the Antaries mike or pre-amp modeler plug-in.

I like that sig Robert J, I saw it as soon as you started using it. I got a big kick out of that.

[Robert J]

Thanks David - a little humour around here is a good thing.

Rethinking the whole UBS mic thing. Maybe I got too excited at the prospects. Perhaps this is the better solution with a couple of mikes. You can control gain and monitor and there's a variety of outs.

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productde...04&ParentId=114

[Jim Alfredson]

For recording an acoustic piano, I'd get a good preamp and some nice mics. I really like the MXL condensors, specifically the 603s and the 604s (the 604s is nice because it has interchangeable capsules for both cardiod and omni polar patterns... depending on your room, one or the other might work better).

I use the 603s as drum overheads, spot mic'ing, Leslie mics, etc. and I think they do a fantastic job. They are very similair to the Neumann KM84s, but about 1/10 the price.

For an interface, that Edirol looks nice. I've been very happy with my Presonus Firepod which is a little more than you need. Presonus also makes a Firebox, which has two mic inputs and two line inputs and comes with Cubase LE software for recording. The preamps on the Presonus stuff are very clean with a lot of gain.

Check out our myspace page for examples of the trio recorded with the 603s (as the main mics, in a stereo pair, picking up the whole band!) going through the Presonus in Cubase LE on my laptop. Granted, they are compressed into mp3s so the sound isn't spectacular, but if you'd like I could post some uncompressed examples.

myspace/organissimo