Blue Microphones - Snowball USB Condenser Microphone

U can start with any usb condenser mic. The phone will power it. I’ve used a Blue Snowball on a iPhone before

When I first started looking for a good mic, I made the mistake of getting a Blue Yeti because everyone hyped it up. But man, that thing picked up everything—keyboard clicks, my chair squeaking, even my neighbor’s dog barking two houses down. Then I tried the Snowball, hoping for something simpler, but it just sounded hollow and lifeless. That’s when I found the GTZ87, and honestly, it was a game-changer. The audio is crisp, background noise is minimal, and I don’t have to spend hours tweaking my settings just to get a clean sound. Whether I’m recording vocals, streaming, or just chatting, it delivers every time. If you’re tired of dealing with mics that overpromise and underdeliver, this one’s definitely worth checking out.

Personally I use a Blue Yeti blackout and enjoy the upgrade from the Blue snowball. But I just wrote a comparison of similar mics here if youre interested in the read : https://thegamingglitch.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/best-budget-microphones-for-twitch-2025-edition/ 

I used to use a Snowball when I was streaming. That sounded okay

Fifine mics are great for budget mics. Also, Blue Snowball mics are just as good & around the same price range. As for the capture card. I've heard mix reports about the one you have selected, so maybe youtube it. Personally, I would say try and stretch your budget early on if you can and get something like the Elgato hd60x or the 4K X. Audio can be tweaked to sound better, whereas actual footage is not so much straightforward to make it visually better.

It all depends on your phone, if it's a modern android or iphone, then any usb microphone can work IF you connect the mic to a powered hub first, then connect the hub to the phone. A blue snowball would be my recommendation if you can find the right hub, super cheap, sounds great, leagues up from your current mic and leaves you room in the budget. If you're down to try the creative approach of playing the beat on your phone through headphones, recording your voice on a different mic, and importing that audio - then get a Zoom H1, they sound amazing, super adjustable audio sensitivity, and you can use them to record basically anything at super high quality with just two AAA's. The mic records to an SD card, and I've plugged an SD card into my phone with the usbc charging port which worked perfectly on a Pixel and was nearly instant to copy a recording to a project - your mileage may vary ofc If you want a wireless one, you're gonna have bad audio unless you break the budget, **avoid** bluetooth especially. THE EXCEPTION to this is the DJI mic lineup - the Mic 2 is amazing, the Mic Mini is a dual channel that can connect to any phone with usbc, and they use proprietary stuff to make it clean

Those are fine. Blue Snowball is good too. I lost mine in storage and have been using a cheap $20 mic on Amazon, and only one of my friends noticed a slight difference. Chat, and everyone else hasn't mentioned anything.

I have had good luck with a Blue Snowball mic. I highly doubt it’s the best thing out there and my experience is super limited, but it was a good price for something that gives me decent sound quality. You can do a lot with the environment you record in to make a difference in the quality of your recording too like making sure you have no ambient noise, reverb dampening etc. It was a great mic for me to start to learn how to listen to and use and affect my voice differently.

choose any USB or XLR **condenser** mic that’s in your budget. common ones are the HyperX Quadcast (S, 2, 2S, …), Elgato Wave:3, Logitech Blue Yeti, Logitech Blue Snowball, Audio Technica AT2020, … condenser mics are much more sensitive to background noise and just noise in general when compared to dynamic mics, such as the SHURE MV6. a dynamic mic is what singers use on live stage performances and what a lot of podcasts use because when you’re talking in a room with a lot of noise or across from someone else who is also speaking, you don’t want to pick up these external sounds. however the tradeoff with a dynamic mic is that the clarity can be lower compared to condenser mics, and a condenser mic that’s been adjusted for the acoustic environment can sound absolutely phenomenal. if you’re setup with multiple people on a couch, and the microphone is placed relatively centered so everyone’s voice can reach the mic, you’ll want it to be a condenser because that extra sensitivity will make all of your voices clearer even when the decibel level is low. some condenser mics like the Blue Snowball have multiple pickup patterns like *Cardioid* and *Omnidirectional*. Cardioid is the standard pickup pattern which picks up directly in front of the microphone. It sounds the best and offers the best clarity. Omnidirectional on the Blue Snowball activates multiple pickup zones around the microphone so that audio can be heard from multiple angles. This is typically used for live studio recordings or circumstances such as yours where multiple people need to be heard in a room. due to the sensitivity of condenser mics, if you don’t have an *acoustically tuned* room with proper isolation and foam padding, you may want to experiment with **noise gates, limiters, and compressors** to reduce the amount of unwanted background noise. if you use OBS, it has a built in tool for all of them.

Blue Yeti is probably the best option for exactly $100 in the U.S. especially now with the acquisition by Logitech. Blue Snowball is an older smaller unit for around $50 that still sounds quite good. If you can stretch to $150, the Elgato Wave:3 is considered one of the best USB condenser mics for streamers due to its great sound and well-made software that comes with it. Audio Technica AT2020 is an old but gold legend. still sounds great for around $100 in 2025 (21 years later), however it may not have the software support that the HyperX QuadCast, Logitech Blue mics, or Elgato do, and I believe it only has a Cardioid polar configuration. HyperX QuadCast (original model, not the 2 or S) is $80 and comes with a cool red light effect and a very intuitive tap-to-mute placement.