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Published on 07/14/11 at 05:35The Blue Icicle is Blue's entry into the world of stick interfaces, combining a preamp and the analog to digital converters in a small space. Blue advertises the Icicle has a preamp with 40 dB of gain and 48V of phantom power. In use, I have found that it has enough most microphones, although with dynamics, the little knob often has to be turned all the way to the max, introducing a considerable amount of noise. It's not terrible, but it's noticeable.
The Icicle itself is gorgeous. It is white with the word ICICLE written across the length of the stick that lights up blue when it is plugged into the USB port. There is nothing but that gain knob, so there's no headphone monitoring, and the phantom power seems to be on all the time, since there's not a single indication on how to turn it on and off. So don't plug your ribbons in the Icicle, folks. Not that you'd ever attempt to plug a ribbon into a preamp with only 40 dB of gain anyway. The build quality does scare me a bit though. It's very light, and obviously hollow. I'd be afraid to ever put it on the floor across a space lest someone step on it.
However, this "cheapness" does make it more secure when plugged right into a microphone, and you're not afraid to hang it anywhere. The other companies' entries into this market are much heavier and I would hesitate to plug them right into a microphone on a stand.
OVERALL OPINION
The Blue Icicle is THE fantastically economical entry into home recording. It does look a little hokey if you're pairing it with any non-Blue microphone, but hey, you work in SOUND.
I enjoyed using it, although I settled on spending $50 more on a Shure X2U. The headphone monitoring was too important to me, and the X2U also performs just marginally better. Is the $50 more worth it? That's up to you. Go find some audio samples, but know that you aren't a fool if you pick an Icicle anyway!
The Icicle itself is gorgeous. It is white with the word ICICLE written across the length of the stick that lights up blue when it is plugged into the USB port. There is nothing but that gain knob, so there's no headphone monitoring, and the phantom power seems to be on all the time, since there's not a single indication on how to turn it on and off. So don't plug your ribbons in the Icicle, folks. Not that you'd ever attempt to plug a ribbon into a preamp with only 40 dB of gain anyway. The build quality does scare me a bit though. It's very light, and obviously hollow. I'd be afraid to ever put it on the floor across a space lest someone step on it.
However, this "cheapness" does make it more secure when plugged right into a microphone, and you're not afraid to hang it anywhere. The other companies' entries into this market are much heavier and I would hesitate to plug them right into a microphone on a stand.
OVERALL OPINION
The Blue Icicle is THE fantastically economical entry into home recording. It does look a little hokey if you're pairing it with any non-Blue microphone, but hey, you work in SOUND.
I enjoyed using it, although I settled on spending $50 more on a Shure X2U. The headphone monitoring was too important to me, and the X2U also performs just marginally better. Is the $50 more worth it? That's up to you. Go find some audio samples, but know that you aren't a fool if you pick an Icicle anyway!