Blue Snowball Ice Microphone Echo

SwiiftYz

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Dec 27, 2010
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I received my Blue Snowball iCE this morning and plugged it in for everything to work first time or so I thought. Upon joining Teamspeak or even Skype I've been informed that the microphone sounds to be echoing when placed away from me, by that I mean roughly a foot or less.

Whenever the microphone is close to me, which means right on top of me pretty much It's as clear as anything

Close: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102374271/Close.wav
1ft: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/102374271/1ft.wav

Can anyone suggest what may be causing this? I was hoping to do some recording for YouTube but with that echo It's going to make it extremely difficult.
 
Solution


I bought a wind filter and an opposable boom arm for mine, it helps keep it closer for quality sound.

Ibechief

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Jul 2, 2014
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I've recently bought the Yeti myself after reviewing the Snowball and ICE along side it. Is there a gain adjustment that can be made? Maybe use software to adjust your equalizer?

I know the Standard Snowball features an omnidirectional feature that you may never use. Though it does feature an "extended distance" cardioid setting with -10db pad. So you could turn the gain up and the 10 db pad will help keep the background noise down that might be attributing to your "echo".

Honestly it sounds like the difference is just the farther your mic is from your mouth the more you hear the room.
 

SwiiftYz

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The standard Snowball is the iCE, the next one up has the omnidirectional function but there isn't any adjustment etc that I can make. My levels are at 100 and there's no way I can have it any closer to me than It already is. I'm also sat in a virtually silent room, I have my PC going but even that is far away enough that you can barely hear it.
 

Ibechief

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I'd advocate getting some software then. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Audacity is great. Also consider treating your room for reverberations. Sound absorbing things like pictures/furniture help a lot. Drapes and or blankets on the walls help. In a worst case scenario get a sound screen to put behind you. One of the pro audio members here even advised me to use one of these.

foambox.jpg


and the Snowball is the standard the ICE is the "lite" version.
 

SwiiftYz

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Audacity is what I used to record those clips above, I'm not entirely sure If there's anything I can do to improve It using that program but I'll give it a shot.

I may try switching to the Standard or the Yeti or even investing in a mount so that I'm able to have the microphone in front of me where It's needed rather than off to the right slightly.
 

Ibechief

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Jul 2, 2014
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I bought a wind filter and an opposable boom arm for mine, it helps keep it closer for quality sound.
 
Solution

Ibechief

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Jul 2, 2014
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Most of the time you can google the size of the thread pattern and male/female type and then buy an adapter. My Yeti was 5/8 internal Female (us standard), but the boom arm was 3/8 (European standard) Male. So I got a 2 pack of "On Stage MA300 5/8-Inch Male to 3/8-Inch Female Knurled 2 Piece Mic Adapter" online. The build quality for the adapter was junk but it worked well enough and only cost $1.

Word of advice. Do yourself a favor and get a quality boom arm. If you ever plan on moving it or adjusting on the fly the cheap ones are worthless. I'm almost ready to augment mine to become more user friendly and I've only had it a few days!
 

SwiiftYz

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What would you say to either:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Adjustable-Microphone-Mounting-Broadcasting/dp/B00GLJDMPO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1408017944&sr=8-4&keywords=Rode+PSA1

or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/R%C3%98DE-Swivel-Mount-Studio-Microphone/dp/B001D7UYBO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408017944&sr=8-1&keywords=Rode+PSA1

I'm a little hard up for money after purchasing a few other things so would either of these be suitable? If not, would you be able to suggest something between those 2 prices?

& will I need a shock mount & pop filter?