With a slide of the setting switch, the Snowball transitions from directional, cardioid microphone which picks up sound directly in front of the unit, to a omnidirectional mic capable of catching roundtable conversations. '2' also records directional sound, but contains more ambient noise. One alternative can be found with the Snowball, Blue Microphone’s recording device. This setting is good for recording in the lab, which has some building noise. However looking in the mic's user manual it says: 'USING SNOWBALL iCE WITH PC (WINDOWS 7, 8.1. The switch has three settings: '1' records what is directly aimed at the mic, and reduces ambient noise.

Unfortunately the Blue Snowball Ice doesn't have a hardware gain control on it to reduce the level. Maybe look into lav mics? (That clip onto your shirt/top) For your type of videos it might be a better solution, the problem with condensers like the Snowball (and really any mic) when their that far away from the source (in this case you) you have to turn up the gain/volume and your voice begins to become less clear. Also some higher end condenser microphones would have an in built attenuator switch to reduce the level in the mic by 10dB for just this eventuality. The Snowball is a little overpriced for my liking for what you get, I guess you're paying for a ball really, the Yeti is no different imo, while the quality is decent out of the Yeti, it's price is.yeh. The microphone captures sound from the sides of the mic grill, not the top. I don't know the difference between the Ice and Standard one in Quality (I'm aware of the tripod difference and lack of polar pattern switch) but I had the normal Snowball for a while 2 years ago and tbh from your glasses video the quality isn't too far off my experience, but I had the advantage of doing gaming videos allowed me to bring the mic much closer to my mouth, I ended up selling mine went for a SC440 which was not only cheaper but I found to be much better in quality. The Blue Yeti’s 4 modes and adjusting the gain settings The optimal setting for your Blue Yeti Microphone to get better sound quality Everything you need to know to get clear audio for your Blue Yeti Microphone The Blue Yeti is a Side-Address Microphone.

Blue snowball mic switch settings