Blue Microphone presents the Icicle XLR to USB audio interface
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 7th 2008 11:12AM
posted November 7th 2008 11:12AM
To be honest, we were a little skeptical when we first saw Blue Microphone's Icicle. Isn't the USB audio adapter a little played out? But after a quick look at the specs our inner audiophiles came away quite interested. This XLR-to-USB audio interface offers 48V phantom power, an analog preamp with gain control and it should work with any of your favorite XLR mics. At 16-bit / 44.1kHz sound quality this device isn't going to replace any of your serious studio gear, but if you ever find yourself looking for a quick and easy way to grab audio with a condenser mic (and who hasn't?) this should do the trick nicely. Available sometime in December for a suggested retail price of $60.
My computer mic is a total piece nowadays, so I may have to keep an eye out for this come December.
The problem is: How are you going to do stereo? If you get two of these, will most recording apps accept input from two devices at once?
$60 for a microphone seems a little exaggerated, don't you think?
It's not $60 for a microphone. It's $60 for the ability to plug a microphone into a USB port.
Poke around, and you will find that a good quality mic can go for thousands. This isn't for your crappy desktop mic.
Prices of some of the mics I have for my hobby studio
(not professional)
Elctrovoice RE20 $400
Sennheiser 421MDII $380
Shure BETA 87A $250
Shure SM-81C $350
AKG perception 200 $160
Like someone else mentioned microphones can go into thousands, and that $60 device isn't even a mic. ^_^;;
Year ago, I worked at the recording studio at the Eastman School of Music. They had a world-class collectionof microphones (When RCA would come in to record, they would use our stuff - It was better than theirs!).
The Neumann U87 was one of the standard ones we used -- I think they currently go for around $4K to $5K right now.
Hi Gabe,
The following is a replica of a classic Neumann studio microphone, the U47. Take a gander at the price. :)
http://www.telefunkenusa.com/products/show_product.php?item=20&cat=mics
Anyway, $60 for a podcast-grade preamp and audio interface is pretty darned reasonable. I wouldn't disparage the 16/44.1 sampling, though; remember, you're ultimately going to turn that audio you recorded into a CD or MP3 anyway, so your 24/96 audio is getting cut down one way or the other (until you get into your own DVD-Audio authoring).
Where this device would fall short in the sound quality department is not due to its sample rate/bit depth, but rather the grade of componentry in its preamp, and in its ADC. But hell, for podcasting I'm sure this will be a fantastic tool; hooked to a good quality, professional mic, this will likely get you better results than any of the USB-connected mics currently on the market.
Andy, great start to your mic locker. Take a listen to the Audio Technica 4033 ($400) and 4047 ($550)!
$60 is definitely cheap for a product like this. I'm thinking this will perform pretty darn well given that Blue already makes some of the best microphones out there - their Bottle Microphone is like $5K!
@Adam: Not to mention that 16/44.1 is overkill for voice.
You'd have reasons to worry if you were to record instruments with this, but voice is much much easier on the bits...
This would be incredibly useful for me... it's a lot easier than connecting my mixer to my computer and plugging the mic into that, when I just want to record a quick voiceover for a joke movie.
MXL already made this product (they call it the Mic Mate), but theirs is sort of low rent -- it does what it advertises, but it lacks the gain control that the Icicle offers (which is really nice to have if you're using an SM-58 type vocal mike).
Also, Musician's Friend has the Icicle for preorder and claims it will be available 11.7.08 -- hey, that's today! As a podcaster, I've been waiting for someone to do this right, so I'll be picking one up for sure.
would this also work with a high impedance mic like my old shure 55C? ive been looking for something like this
Centrance makes a 24/96 USB microphone interface with audio out for monitoring. It goes for about $150.
http://www.centrance.com/products/mp/
that looks more like a white microphone with blue details
Icicle works?
I think a lot of you guys/gals are not getting it here, one guy says $60 is a lot for a mic, lol. No, that is cheap, the norm for a stage or home studio mic is $150-$300 and this is not a mic, it is an interface to plug analog mics into a digital port.
I run a digital recording studio and have tons of extremely expensive equipment, i would love to add a few of these to my collection.
Wooo! Just pre-ordered two of them from musiciansfriend, thanks for that info isoSasquatch
XLR to Bluetooth would really be nice.
What'd be the point of using a mike good enough to be XLR then?
BT audio sucks
@DarkLight : Bluetooth is just a wireless protocol, nothing wrong with wanting a cordless XLR to audio interface... Whether Bluetooth has the bandwidth to transmit the full uncompressed audio is another question... I would doubt that it has, but don't quote me!
Well the thing here is that bt-audio doesn't have the bandwidth necessary to transmit high quality audio in real time. I read it somewhere that bluetooth headphones use a buffer to transmit higher quality music to your ears, surprisingly this doesn't work for live speech ;D. If you want to go wireless with a proper microphone, you have to buy a wireless microphone + receiver set. After that you can plug in the receiver using whatever method you feel comfortable with, be it a professional soundcard with trs-jack or xlr inputs or the blue usb-audio interface. Wireless microphones and receivers come in all shapes, sizes and prices, beginning from crappy 100$ gear and going all the way up to thousands of dollars. A good mic + receiver kit suitable for live performance costs about 800-900 bucks. The most expensive ones I've heard about are tailor made for theaters with a hefty price tag including at least five numbers (unconfirmed though, surprisingly no price data in teh interwebs).
So, my point is: there are many other ways to go wireless than bluetooth. Bluetooth is a consumer technology so if you want better results go pro.
Would it be possible to use this to interface a Canon EOS 5D Mk II with an XLR mic? Only big thing missing then would be SMPTE. I wonder if that could be added via a firmware upgrade.
16bit 44khz is fine - higher specs don't necessarily mean anything. If anything 24bit is better and allows for more flexibility.
The Blue Icicle is nicely designed but has no headphone out, so how can you monitor yourself and/or playback material as you record? My recommendation: check out MicPort Pro from CEntrance: http://www.micport.com. MicPort offers zero latency monitoring and 24-bit/96kHz audio quality. They tell me this is why BBC field reporters all over the world use it as well as Oprah for conferencing in guests to the show via Skype.