A question about Blue Snowball USB mic at DVinfo.net

Terry Wall · April 7th, 2019, 04:53 PM

Hi everyone! Haven't posted in quite some time...things are rockin' and rollin' pretty well these days. But I've got this darn Blue Snowball mic that I barely used, so I rescued it from "closet purgatory" to use for some narration on a project. When connected to my computer, I noticed a disconcerting echo in the play back. I also noticed it in my headphones. Is there something in the mic causing the latency that may be contributing to the echo? It's a USB 2.0 and plugged into the correct port, so that shouldn't be the issue. I have a fast i7 computer with 16GB of ram and a GPU, so I certainly have enough "horsepower." So what might the issue be?

Thanks in advance!
~TW

Don Palomaki · April 8th, 2019, 05:56 PM

A first question is did you have headphones on when you made the recording, and might they have been the source of the echo?

Was it is a highly reverberant venue?

Battle Vaughan · April 9th, 2019, 09:43 AM

If you are in Win10, open Sound, open microphone device properties, make sure "listen to this device" box is unchecked, it can pick up the sound and feed it back in a loop. Maybe helpful, maybe not....

Steven Digges · April 9th, 2019, 06:46 PM

The latency problems with some USB mics is in the mic. The codec is in the mic and you are stuck with it's level of efficiency no matter what. The analog to digital conversion happens in the mic so it can deliver USB digital audio to the PC. No PC can correct a delayed signal. This is usually a delay issue, not an echo issue, but i'm not sure what you have.

Kind Regards,

Steve

Richard Crowley · April 23rd, 2019, 11:43 AM

Latency during recording is one thing. And as others have observed, it is much more likely to be something (hardware and/or software) external to the microphone.

However "echo" during playback has nothing to do with latency.
The first question would be whether you are actually hearing:
1) acoustic echo/reverberation in your recording space,
or
2) some secondary copy of the audio signal that accidentally got recorded along with the primary signal.

The solution to (1) has nothing to do with the computer, and not much to do with the microphone either. It has everything to do with treating your recording space properly to reduce/eliminate near reflections, etc.

The solution to (2) is to examine the settings of the operating system, device drivers, and recording software.

Greg Miller · April 27th, 2019, 06:05 AM

Assuming you're wearing headphones while recording, I can easily imagine that some sound from the headphones is bleeding into the mic. *If* there's enough latency, that might cause something that sounds like echo. But unless the latency is really terrible, I would think the successive "echoes" would be spaced very close together (a few mSec) and would not really sound like distinct echoes.

What is the time between successive "echoes" in your case? Easily measured by duplicating your original setup, then record a few finger snaps just in front of your mouth. That will give you a nice sharp waveform. You can then look at the waveform in your software and measure time between "echoes." That information might help figure out what's going on.

April 7th, 2019, 04:53 PM	#1
Terry Wall Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 164	A question about Blue Snowball USB mic Hi everyone! Haven't posted in quite some time...things are rockin' and rollin' pretty well these days. But I've got this darn Blue Snowball mic that I barely used, so I rescued it from "closet purgatory" to use for some narration on a project. When connected to my computer, I noticed a disconcerting echo in the play back. I also noticed it in my headphones. Is there something in the mic causing the latency that may be contributing to the echo? It's a USB 2.0 and plugged into the correct port, so that shouldn't be the issue. I have a fast i7 computer with 16GB of ram and a GPU, so I certainly have enough "horsepower." So what might the issue be? Thanks in advance! ~TW __________________ Rule #1: Don't sweat the small stuff. Rule #2: It's ALL small stuff!

April 8th, 2019, 05:56 PM	#2
Don Palomaki Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Northern VA Posts: 4,487	Re: A question about Blue Snowball USB mic A first question is did you have headphones on when you made the recording, and might they have been the source of the echo? Was it is a highly reverberant venue? __________________ dpalomaki@dspalomaki.com

April 9th, 2019, 09:43 AM	#3
Battle Vaughan Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami, FL USA Posts: 1,505	Re: A question about Blue Snowball USB mic If you are in Win10, open Sound, open microphone device properties, make sure "listen to this device" box is unchecked, it can pick up the sound and feed it back in a loop. Maybe helpful, maybe not....

April 9th, 2019, 06:46 PM	#4
Steven Digges Trustee Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 1,828	Re: A question about Blue Snowball USB mic The latency problems with some USB mics is in the mic. The codec is in the mic and you are stuck with it's level of efficiency no matter what. The analog to digital conversion happens in the mic so it can deliver USB digital audio to the PC. No PC can correct a delayed signal. This is usually a delay issue, not an echo issue, but i'm not sure what you have. Kind Regards, Steve __________________ www.CorporateShow.com Been at this so long I'm rounding my years of experience down...not up!

April 23rd, 2019, 11:43 AM	#5
Richard Crowley Trustee Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 1,238	Re: A question about Blue Snowball USB mic Latency during recording is one thing. And as others have observed, it is much more likely to be something (hardware and/or software) external to the microphone. However "echo" during playback has nothing to do with latency. The first question would be whether you are actually hearing: 1) acoustic echo/reverberation in your recording space, or 2) some secondary copy of the audio signal that accidentally got recorded along with the primary signal. The solution to (1) has nothing to do with the computer, and not much to do with the microphone either. It has everything to do with treating your recording space properly to reduce/eliminate near reflections, etc. The solution to (2) is to examine the settings of the operating system, device drivers, and recording software.

April 27th, 2019, 06:05 AM	#6
Greg Miller Trustee Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 1,786	Re: A question about Blue Snowball USB mic Assuming you're wearing headphones while recording, I can easily imagine that some sound from the headphones is bleeding into the mic. If there's enough latency, that might cause something that sounds like echo. But unless the latency is really terrible, I would think the successive "echoes" would be spaced very close together (a few mSec) and would not really sound like distinct echoes. What is the time between successive "echoes" in your case? Easily measured by duplicating your original setup, then record a few finger snaps just in front of your mouth. That will give you a nice sharp waveform. You can then look at the waveform in your software and measure time between "echoes." That information might help figure out what's going on.