One of the favourite microphones for podcasting is the microphone from Blue called a Snowball. It’s got a retro sort of look about it and it has a small tripod so you can put it on to a desk, and it just works quite nicely. With the tripod it is adjustable so that you can move it to a position where the sound is close so that you get a better sound quality in your recording. The same as with other microphones you should have the Snowball microphone close to the mouth or other sound source and that helps to eliminate echo and get a deeper richer sounding voice that sounds professional. If you use the microphone in this way you will get a good clear  sound without it being tinny and also without sacrificing on the low end of the range so it will not sound to boomy or hollow. This good microphone is affordable and very good for voice-over projects and podcasting and connected to your laptop you can do quick and easy live recordings.

Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone (White)

The top of the microphone where the actual internals of a microphone are, is actually spherical and if you buy the white one it looks like a snowball. You can also buy the same microphone in brushed aluminium and in black version. It is a good looking microphone and the metal grill in the white frame of the globe of the top of microphone has a look of the old  time retro microphones.

Because it is a USB microphone and comes with its own USB cable it is very easy to calibrate the microphone so that it will work with your operating system whether that is Windows or Mac or maybe also Linux. You can plug it into your USB port and it will simply just work.

The microphone has three different pattern modes which allow you to record in different situations. The cardioid mode is well suited to podcasts, sung vocals and it suits the sound sources that are directly in front of the microphone. The sound it produces is a rich full-blooded sound. It will make you sound good, even sexy.

Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone (White)

There is a second cardioid mode with a -10 decibel padding which is the same as the other mode but this allows you to capture sounds which are louder but the same higher fidelity. There there is an omnidirectional mode to allow you to capture the ambience of a live recording of a rock band, perhaps you are at a concert of some sort and it picks up the sound equally in all directions. This will be good for meetings too.

When you plug in the Blue Snowball microphone you don’t have to do any settings, it will work straight away out of the box, without you having to fiddle with any drivers or other messing about. A blue snowball microphone should cost you in the region of around $60 so it is very good value for such a good quality microphone. Blue mics are good microphones for sure.