NAMM Update: Podcasting Mics Galore

Blue Microphones was showing their white Snowball USB mic.

The Snowball mic has been shipping for several months. It features plug & play USB compatibility to make recording into a laptop or DAW easy. The Snowball retails for $155 MSRP.

MXL was showing their Desktop Recording Microphone Kit. This lists for $149, but is available online for about $100. It comes with a stand, clip, mic cables, adapters, battery, and recording primer.

SE microphones had a prototype mic that they let us check out. The prototype had D101 on it, but they said that the name wasn't final yet.

The mic is designed to be a pro-quality mic, with both a standard mic connection and a digital connection. On-board, it will have a analog to digital converter that captures CD-quality sound. This lets it be used portably with a computer for most purposes. For users that need higher-quality results, it also has an analog out that can be run into a mixer or high-end analog to digital converter.

SE also had an interesting sound isolation device on display. Sound quality in home studios is often limited by the acoustics and noise levels of the room. SE's sound isolation screen is designed to separate the room sound from the sound coming directly to the mic.

The screen clamps onto a mic stand so that it surrounds the backside of the microphone, isolating the mic from unwanted sounds and reflections.

This is just a sampling of the mic gear that was available this year that is designed to meet the needs of podcasters and other small/home studio computer studio users. We'll try to have details on the new gear as it becomes available.