Which is better? The Blue Snowball Ice or the Modmic 5?

[RPG WOLF]

Hey. Recently I've been looking into microphones and I can't decide on which is better, the Blue Snowball Ice or the Modmic 5? Some have been saying that the Modmic 5 is better but I would also like to hear other opinions. I will be using my microphone for mostly game chat/skype/discord, maybe occasional recording, maybe streaming.

P.S. IF I go for the Blue Snowball, would I need another stand for it? The stand it comes with is pretty small and I've heard that you have to sort of lean towards it in order for it to pick up your voice clearly.

Thanks!

 

[the nerd 389]

If you want a chat/skype/discord mic, your best bet is a headset. Having the mic closer to your face improves the signal to noise ratio drastically. The specific mic doesn't make a huge difference in that use case.

I can't say I'm familiar with Antlion, but it looks like the ModMic is pretty poor in some very important respects, namely SNR. You usually want the signal to noise ratio of the mic to fall in the 70+ dB range if you want the mic to be useful in anything other than speech/communication applications.

Recording is another matter entirely. That's an application that every piece of the mic can make a difference, and it's very rarely as cut and dry as "Mic A is better than Mic B". A mic that's good for vocals is normally pretty bad with instruments (depending on the instrument). That said, you don't have to spend a ton of money to get a solid recording setup.

What do you plan to record?

 

[RPG WOLF]

If you want a chat/skype/discord mic, your best bet is a headset. Having the mic closer to your face improves the signal to noise ratio drastically. The specific mic doesn't make a huge difference in that use case.

I can't say I'm familiar with Antlion, but it looks like the ModMic is pretty poor in some very important respects, namely SNR. You usually want the signal to noise ratio of the mic to fall in the 70+ dB range if you want the mic to be useful in anything other than speech/communication applications.

Recording is another matter entirely. That's an application that every piece of the mic can make a difference, and it's very rarely as cut and dry as "Mic A is better than Mic B". A mic that's good for vocals is normally pretty bad with instruments (depending on the instrument). That said, you don't have to spend a ton of money to get a solid recording setup.

What do you plan to record?

Oh if I record, it will just be for gaming. Also, I have heard some mic tests and the ModMic seems of very high quality. Maybe thats just me.

 

[the nerd 389]

I didn't mean to imply that it's poor quality. It seems like a solid design for a headset. All I meant was that it wasn't intended or designed for recording applications. For use as a headset, it's quite a good choice.

If you're just recording normal talking, it's a decent choice. If you want to do any significant editing of the files, you'll run into SNR problems pretty quickly, though.

 

[RPG WOLF]

I didn't mean to imply that it's poor quality. It seems like a solid design for a headset. All I meant was that it wasn't intended or designed for recording applications. For use as a headset, it's quite a good choice.

If you're just recording normal talking, it's a decent choice. If you want to do any significant editing of the files, you'll run into SNR problems pretty quickly, though.

So then would you recommend the snowball instead? In my opinion, the Snowball's unidirectional mode is better, but the ModMic's omnidirectional mode is better.

Another thing, if I get the snowball, I may need a stand.

 

[the nerd 389]

No, you want a headset for gaming. I'm sorry about how convoluted this can get.

Go with the headset. When you need to record, you can get by recording your voice with the headset, so long as you are careful to set levels properly. For recording things other than your own voice, you would be better off with different mics entirely.

If you want something that works better for recording your voice than the modmic, there are much better options in this price range, such as the Behringer C-1 or the MXL 770. Regardless, these won't work well in games. You want a headset for that, and you'd get these separately if you want the better recording quality.