If this thread needs to be moved, then please by all means let me know where ; u ;9
CAD vs the Blue Snowball
CAD vs the Blue Snowball
I’ve decided to make this page because of the overwhelming misinformation that goes around on not just this forum but other media places. This thread is not intended to call out users in particular, but if the shoe fits, I don’t want to hear it.
This thread will look at two usb microphones in particular that are constantly being compared and misrepresented.
For personal experience, I actually did my research on what mic would fit me best, and so I chose the Blue Snowball. This thread is not my way to tell you “GET THE SNOWBALL” it is here to provide actual facts that represent each mic in positive and negative ways. It is still your choice on what you think will work best for you, unlike others, I’m not going to shove either side in your face until you “think” it sounds good. Whether you choose a Blue or a CAD or neither, is up to you. But I for one am sick and tired of people basically being lied to.
I will put numerous comparisons up but before I do here are a few warnings.
1.)All information is based on common knowledge and research.
2.) USB mics are not good, and most if not all are not intended for vocal singing, or at least decent quality singing samples.
This thread will look at two usb microphones in particular that are constantly being compared and misrepresented.
For personal experience, I actually did my research on what mic would fit me best, and so I chose the Blue Snowball. This thread is not my way to tell you “GET THE SNOWBALL” it is here to provide actual facts that represent each mic in positive and negative ways. It is still your choice on what you think will work best for you, unlike others, I’m not going to shove either side in your face until you “think” it sounds good. Whether you choose a Blue or a CAD or neither, is up to you. But I for one am sick and tired of people basically being lied to.
I will put numerous comparisons up but before I do here are a few warnings.
1.)All information is based on common knowledge and research.
2.) USB mics are not good, and most if not all are not intended for vocal singing, or at least decent quality singing samples.
Let’s go into the build of the microphones:
CAD U37
CAD Pros:
~Stand is structured well
~Plug and Play
BLUE Pros:
~Great build, will not break and long lasting
~Plug and play
~Heavy USB cable
CAD Cons:
~Cheaply made, breaks easily
~Weak USB cable
BLUE Cons:
~Big, not convenient
~Very poor stand
Both Include
CAD U37
- Microphone Type: Condenser
- Polar Pattern: Cardioid
- Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
- Weight, Cable, Extra: Around 1.4lb, 10 ft cable, has pad
Blue Snowball
- Microphone Type: Condenser
- Polar Pattern: Cardioid or Omni-directional
- Frequency Response: 40Hz – 18kHz
- Weight, Cable, Extra: Around 460g, 10 ft cable, 3 options of Cardioid - -10db Cardioid - Omni-directional, has pad
CAD Pros:
~Stand is structured well
~Plug and Play
BLUE Pros:
~Great build, will not break and long lasting
~Plug and play
~Heavy USB cable
CAD Cons:
~Cheaply made, breaks easily
~Weak USB cable
BLUE Cons:
~Big, not convenient
~Very poor stand
Both Include
- Microphone Stand
- USB
- Are both plastic
Let’s talk about quality:
CAD U37
~Large diaphragm
~-10dB Overload-protection
~Bass-reduction
~16-bit resolution
Blue Snowball
~Medium diaphragm
~-10dB protection
~Pressure Gradient
~16-bit resolution
As you can see, both mics are built very similarly. However, just simple facts about the mic do not represent it’s quality. Which is why I have included reviews into this section as well.
CAD U37
~Large diaphragm
~-10dB Overload-protection
~Bass-reduction
~16-bit resolution
Blue Snowball
~Medium diaphragm
~-10dB protection
~Pressure Gradient
~16-bit resolution
As you can see, both mics are built very similarly. However, just simple facts about the mic do not represent it’s quality. Which is why I have included reviews into this section as well.
Overall Score from 10 sites:
CAD - from 3.6 to 4.2
Blue Snowball - from 3.9 to 4.6
Overall percentage of happy customers (based on hours on looking through reviews, threads, videos, comparisons, you name it)
Cad - 67% Happy
Blue - 75% Happy
Overall complaints with examples:
CAD U37:
- Latency Issues on both PC and Mac
- Noise reduction setting is not working/useless
- Lacks actual bass
- Clipping and distortion
- Overly sensitive
- Low dynamic threshold because of its large condenser and cheap build
- Buzzing, humming, echoing, clicking, static, high pitched errors
- Samples are hard to EQ
- Misleading “For vocals” when it clearly isnt
- Lacks crispness
“This microphone was so sensitive, it was unusable. It picked up other sounds in the room I was in more than my own voice. There is an adjustment on the microphone to fix it, but it almost does the opposite. But when I was in the rare circumstance of the room being dead silent, my vocals were muffled anyways. This was a horrible waste of money that I do not recommend for anyone”
“I purchased this product for podcasting, and given the number of 4 and 5 star reviews, and am very disappointed with the result. The first recording (about 30 minutes in length) turned out fine. The second recording, which was about an hour long, had a 2 minute long distortion during playback (voices sounded incredibly static, garbled, and robotic, and were almost impossible to understand). It rendered my entire recording useless. Now that I've viewed more of the 1 and 2 star reviews of this product, it's clear that other people have experienced the same issue. I'm not willing to take the risk of having to constantly re-do hour-long recordings, so I'm sending it back and getting a Blue Yeti, instead. I'm of the mind that you get what you pay for, and I probably didn't invest quite enough to guarantee a reliable microphone.”
Blue Snowball
“I purchased this product for podcasting, and given the number of 4 and 5 star reviews, and am very disappointed with the result. The first recording (about 30 minutes in length) turned out fine. The second recording, which was about an hour long, had a 2 minute long distortion during playback (voices sounded incredibly static, garbled, and robotic, and were almost impossible to understand). It rendered my entire recording useless. Now that I've viewed more of the 1 and 2 star reviews of this product, it's clear that other people have experienced the same issue. I'm not willing to take the risk of having to constantly re-do hour-long recordings, so I'm sending it back and getting a Blue Yeti, instead. I'm of the mind that you get what you pay for, and I probably didn't invest quite enough to guarantee a reliable microphone.”
Blue Snowball
- Low output level
- Limited features
- Proximity issues
- Very sensitive
- Microphone came broken
- Cheap mic
- Picks up static, buzzing and humming
- Not as good as Yeti
- Not good for singing
- Picks up low rumbles easily
“I've had it a month now and it doesn't work! When I'm recording a voiceover the playback is horrible. The volume goes up and down for some reason. Also the ball sowsnt stay up while im recording, it keeps sliding down. I can't even return this what a waste of money.”
“I bought this mic to stream because it had great reviews. It is not great. It is advertised as a gaming mic or for recording music but the USB plug given only works when plugged into a USB 2.0. If you try plugging it in to anything newer than that, meaning a USB 3.0, it does not work. This is a huge problem because most people who would use this for gaming or recording are going to have newer computers that aren't all equipped with USB 2.0. Blue's customer help simply states to turn the cord upside down but a quick glance at the cord and the spacial recognition of a 6 year old could tell you that the shape doesn't match upside down.”
“I bought this mic to stream because it had great reviews. It is not great. It is advertised as a gaming mic or for recording music but the USB plug given only works when plugged into a USB 2.0. If you try plugging it in to anything newer than that, meaning a USB 3.0, it does not work. This is a huge problem because most people who would use this for gaming or recording are going to have newer computers that aren't all equipped with USB 2.0. Blue's customer help simply states to turn the cord upside down but a quick glance at the cord and the spacial recognition of a 6 year old could tell you that the shape doesn't match upside down.”
Average Pricing for CAD:
$35-42
Average Pricing for Blue
$34-50
Both microphones can be found and sold for cheaper.
$35-42
Average Pricing for Blue
$34-50
Both microphones can be found and sold for cheaper.
Want personal experience from people on this forum?
Snowball:
I personally have worked with this mic, and it’s an OK mic. It’s good for podcasts and recording audio for videos in general. I record in a closet to minimize the amount of background noise this thing picks up, because it picks up a lot. Even in the closet I often capture white noise and cars from outside. It's not a good mic for those who want to do something more professionally, however it's great for UTAU. Most of my samples are of decent quality, a lot better than my old head set that I used. I did my research in getting this mic and I have no doubt for its price it’s a good match for me. I drop it constantly and it has yet to break. Like I’ve said before, the quality is okay, nothing great, but it’s what I paid for. It’s a cheap microphone, but it was better than others I compared to at the time.
With 50 dollars or so, I paid for the heafty build, omni and uni, -10db, stand, cord, and personalized color. To me it was worth the buy. But again is it no means a great mic. ~Alice
The blue mic is pretty bad. Even I know because I have it, and Usagi sounds like shit because the mic. Shes muffled and you can hear noises in her samples. I tried to be clear but the mic won't let it happen. If I be loud and clear, it'll be like high frequency feedback and clipped. Even if I lower input volume and stuff, it'll still pick up background noises no matter what. When I do noise removal, it literally removes %30 of my sample to point my samples don't exist anymore, yet the bg noise is somehow still there. I honestly do not recommend the mic because it isn't good imo. ~ Melobunii
I use a blue snowball and it's worked well for me. I record in a quiet room and I've never had any problems with background noise. I think it's pretty good for it's price. I payed 70 Canadian dollars for it ~ Lilyofthevalley
CAD:
My experience with cad mics was with the cad 7 piece drum kit and i found that they were cheaply made, and tended to fluctuate in their frequency response when drum hits came within a 3 inch diameter of the mic. I was extremely disappointed at their inability to handle audio inputs of over 90 db because it resulted in a bizarre saturation of the tone in the high frequencies that was a pain to try and remove during mixing. Also the snare mics had a very bizarre almost metallic ring that was almost impossible to remove without removing any form of snap from the recorded snare. I’ve also had experience with the CAD c195 and was disappointed because of how thin vocals came through. these kinda turned me off of CAD mics. I’ve never used some of their more expensive models but i’m not really wanting to at this point tbh. ~Blackbird
I have the CAD U37 and it's pretty loud and clear. I haven't used it much but a lot of the reviews that complain about the clipping issue are because of the AGC being turned on. It's in the mic settings and not easy to find and not mentioned. One thing I see in reviews that I'm pretty concerned with is that if you record for too long (say, longer than 30 minutes) the audio will start to get distorted but I haven't used the mic long enough to see that. If you record in parts anyway it's probably not an issue. It's probably a fault of the USB cord? I don't have any complaints about it aside from being concerned with what some reviews are saying about it and that's it. Bought it for like $44 ~Riptunes
I personally have worked with this mic, and it’s an OK mic. It’s good for podcasts and recording audio for videos in general. I record in a closet to minimize the amount of background noise this thing picks up, because it picks up a lot. Even in the closet I often capture white noise and cars from outside. It's not a good mic for those who want to do something more professionally, however it's great for UTAU. Most of my samples are of decent quality, a lot better than my old head set that I used. I did my research in getting this mic and I have no doubt for its price it’s a good match for me. I drop it constantly and it has yet to break. Like I’ve said before, the quality is okay, nothing great, but it’s what I paid for. It’s a cheap microphone, but it was better than others I compared to at the time.
With 50 dollars or so, I paid for the heafty build, omni and uni, -10db, stand, cord, and personalized color. To me it was worth the buy. But again is it no means a great mic. ~Alice
The blue mic is pretty bad. Even I know because I have it, and Usagi sounds like shit because the mic. Shes muffled and you can hear noises in her samples. I tried to be clear but the mic won't let it happen. If I be loud and clear, it'll be like high frequency feedback and clipped. Even if I lower input volume and stuff, it'll still pick up background noises no matter what. When I do noise removal, it literally removes %30 of my sample to point my samples don't exist anymore, yet the bg noise is somehow still there. I honestly do not recommend the mic because it isn't good imo. ~ Melobunii
I use a blue snowball and it's worked well for me. I record in a quiet room and I've never had any problems with background noise. I think it's pretty good for it's price. I payed 70 Canadian dollars for it ~ Lilyofthevalley
CAD:
My experience with cad mics was with the cad 7 piece drum kit and i found that they were cheaply made, and tended to fluctuate in their frequency response when drum hits came within a 3 inch diameter of the mic. I was extremely disappointed at their inability to handle audio inputs of over 90 db because it resulted in a bizarre saturation of the tone in the high frequencies that was a pain to try and remove during mixing. Also the snare mics had a very bizarre almost metallic ring that was almost impossible to remove without removing any form of snap from the recorded snare. I’ve also had experience with the CAD c195 and was disappointed because of how thin vocals came through. these kinda turned me off of CAD mics. I’ve never used some of their more expensive models but i’m not really wanting to at this point tbh. ~Blackbird
I have the CAD U37 and it's pretty loud and clear. I haven't used it much but a lot of the reviews that complain about the clipping issue are because of the AGC being turned on. It's in the mic settings and not easy to find and not mentioned. One thing I see in reviews that I'm pretty concerned with is that if you record for too long (say, longer than 30 minutes) the audio will start to get distorted but I haven't used the mic long enough to see that. If you record in parts anyway it's probably not an issue. It's probably a fault of the USB cord? I don't have any complaints about it aside from being concerned with what some reviews are saying about it and that's it. Bought it for like $44 ~Riptunes
In conclusion, both mics are pretty bad but workable. I still personally like the snowball better because rather than being cheaply made, I have something that will last longer.
If you have anything you'd want to add to this thread please let me know! Anything concerning the build, quality or reviews please leave a comment or pm me and I'll add it.
If you are still looking for more in depth comparisons, simply search CAD(type) vs Blue(type) or any other microphone.
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