Blue Microphones Icicle

Daniel
September 23, 2009

Rating: 8/10

The Icicle is a great little product that does a great job of upgrading XLR Mics for direct PC interfacing using USB. I use a Shure SM58 and an Audio-Technica AT2035 to record any and every sound I can find. Performance on both Dynamic and Condenser mic\\\'s is great but I have found some unwanted background noise while using a dynamic mic. Nothing some filtering won\\\'t cure and it\\\'s really not that bad. The Icicle is primarily designed for Phantom Powered mics, but this wasn\\\'t clear when I bought it. Sampling is at 44.1Khz and for most applications should be good enough. If you want the full 48Khz try the Shure X2u, but it is twice the price. My recording style is lo-fi samples and vocals and actually rough audio can be desirable, sometimes. I have two Icicles and have many times recorded guitar using both mics and a line 6 guitar port at the same time, talk about colour but the mix can be very full and open to some great alternative setups in a final mix.

The Icicle is a must for any Home studio or Mobile recording setup. It\\\'s simple to use and interfacing with recording software is a breeze. If you have several mics and want a versatile device that can be used with all your recording hardware, Blue\\\'s Icicle covers all bases but a sample rate 48Khz would be nice. Icicle Pro anyone?

Happy Audio

Tim Ryerson
July 31, 2009

Rating: 9/10

Just want I needed for connecting my Rode NT2A to my laptop via USB. It works like a treat, just plug and play. Very happy and the customer service at Dolphin is excellent.

Ben Ludgate
March 18, 2009

Rating: 6/10

This is a handy piece of equipment which is why I bought it. I have wanted a USB microphone for a while so I could quickly and easily record rough ideas but with this you get to choose which type of mike it is which helps and with t being 16bit a lot of that would be put down as demo can be used for the final piece. The only problems I have found is getting cubase to recognise this as an input and seems to have a high frequency in the background when the gain is turned up a lot. But this could be my proble to be honest.