Blue Microphones Icicle XLR to USB Converter Review and Audio Test vs. M-Audio Fast Track Pro

Get the Icicle for 42% off by shopping at the TSIG Amazon Store! http://trdd.us/store

iTunes Podcast - http://trdd.us/pod
iTunes HD Podcast - http://trdd.us/podhd
Become a Fan on Facebook - http://trdd.us/fb
Follow me on Twitter - http://trdd.us/twitter
Follow me on Ping - http://trdd.us/ping
Follow me on DailyBooth - http://trdd.us/db
Friend me on Game Center - Snazzy
Friend me on Xbox Live - Quinn One (friends list is full)

---

Closed Caption:

how's it going there YouTube this is
quinn that snazzy iPhone guy in this is
the video review of the blue microphones
icicle USB converter for those of you
that don't understand and in layman's
terms this essentially takes any
microphone and makes it a USB mic now
I'm careful to say any microphone
because it does need to be an XLR mic
but ninety-eight percent of microphones
out there are XLR so it's a pretty cool
little device and it's significantly
less than its competitors before we get
into that I'd like to let you know the
price of it it's 5999 US dollars and you
can pick it up for thirty-five dollars
on amazon and you can even save on tax
by shopping at the TSI gstore so if you
decide to pick this up
click the link below go to the TSI
gstore you save money you make me money
it's a good kamma now if you notice off
to the left here i use the m-audio fast
track pro until i got the Icicle this is
what i use to convert my regular
microphones into USB microphones I went
through this mixer and it has a preamp
in there and essentially allows you to
take these mics and make them USB mics
now the great thing about this is USB
mics are not really the best I mean I'm
careful to say that because there are
some good ones out there but
historically USB mics are pretty crappy
and until now there hasn't really been a
cheap way to convert an XLR mic to a USB
one this was pretty much the best value
when I got this about two years ago and
this was and still is two hundred
dollars so it isn't cheap
what this does is it takes the XLR mic
and it outputs it by USB to your
computer now there's a bunch of great
features that are on the m-audio fast
track pro that are not present in the
icicles so I'm careful to say that this
offers you know any less than this
because this does offer way less than
this does but a lot of this stuff is not
necessary on the user and spiff out RCA
out mono mixing it you really don't need
ninety percent of the stuff on there if
you're you know you're kind of average
typical consumer and so the Icicle is
serving that mark
it and it also serves the market of
compatibility and size if you can see
that little item off to the left is very
big very inefficient and it required
drivers for my Macintosh this is
plug-and-play no drivers necessary on
mac or pc you plug it in it shows up as
a mic and you are good to go
it's awesome now this is a little bit on
the cheapy feeling side it's made out of
plastic which isn't a big deal i usually
don't bash on plastic because it's light
it's pretty durable and it you know I
don't experience issues with it but this
one just feels cheap now I can't really
say that because durability has been
fine i haven't experienced any gold
quality issues but it is full plastic
construction which to me seems a little
bit sketchy and it doesn't feel as
high-quality as it should
granted for a sixty-dollar price tag and
because it's made out of plastic it's
very light and again doesn't even you
know there's nothing really in this
class that offers the same quality for
the same price so i'm going to show you
how its set up and then we'll do some
demonstrations here so you can sound how
good here how good it sounds rather you
take the Icicle you have your female XLR
port here you can take any microphone
the autozone five will take the audio
technica at2020 this is a condenser mic
and it's a 48 volt Mike it's a phantom
power which is great because this
actually offers phantom power so there's
no external power source that goes all
through USB and you can use any Mike
through the Icicle which is great
because I was fearing that it wouldn't
work with my heavier Duty microphones
that required more voltage but it does
and you're good to go
so we got this we got our Mike all you
gotta do is take it and plug it in and
we're setting ready to go so it doesn't
make it the best looking microphone but
it does offer functionality now right
here you'll be able to see that there is
a gain knob that's the only knob that's
really on the whole device and you know
that's why the m-audio fast track pro
still app does it in a couple areas
because this just doesn't offer all of
the versatility that the m-audio fast
track pro does but you have your gain
and volume knob one thing i'm sad to see
that the Icicle doesn't have is a line
out that would be awesome because it
wouldn't require USB to do everything
that's one thing i like about the
m-audio fast track pro
it's actually plugged into the wall and
i am using it to get the blue spark
which is a condenser microphone into my
camera which is excellent because if
there's a phantom power Mike you can't
do that so I wish the Icicle had a line
out because right now you have to go
through USB and without a computer this
little bad boys worthless but if you
take a peek on the bottom you'll see
that there is a mini-usb out all you
gotta do is take your mic stick the
Icicle in the middle and then you will
take your little USB cord and plug it in
here and it's plug-and-play you know
there's like I said there's no drivers
required no work no setup you just go
into your settings select this as the
active Mike and it will work and so
we're going to show you some
demonstrations and some tests of this
and it takes any microphone and changes
it into a USB mic before i leave you and
before we do the test this is an
excellent value it far surpasses the
quality excuse well rather the sound of
the more expensive items it's on to par
with my audio fast track pro which
amazed me I thought the audio quality
wouldn't even be close but it's
identical and really maximizes the power
of your microphone there is phantom
power which is excellent so you can use
pretty much any mike and i really cannot
recommend this much more highly the
build quality is a little bit cheap but
for 60 bucks nothing even parallels and
this is a beautiful elegant light
compact system so let's get into those
audio tests and yeah I would be safe
space taxi but I'm not leaving so let's
do it
here we go alright so this is the audio
test of the audio technica at2020 using
the Blue Microphones icicle and this is
the audio test of the audio technica
at2020 using the m-audio fast track pro
the sounds you can tell is about the
same
alright this is the test of the audix
om5 using the Blue Microphones icicle
and this is the audio test of the audix
on five using the m-audio fast track pro
so as you can tell they're about the
same once again
alright so this is the last audio test
with blue microphones own spark using
the blue microphone icicle and this is
the test using the blue microphones
mark with the m-audio fast track pro so
again the sound is about the same so
that'll do it for us folks thank you so
much for watching please subscribe rate
comment the blue icicle pretty dang good
product considering the price and as
always stays he see you later folks