Logitech G Blue Yeti Premium USB Gaming Microphone
Logitech G Blue Yeti Premium USB Gaming Microphone for Streaming, Blue VO!CE Software, PC, Podcast, Studio, Computer Mic, Exclusive Streamlabs Themes, Special Edition Finish – White
SPECIAL EDITION WHITE
The perfect companion to your Logitech G Aurora Collection headset, mouse and keyboard, Yeti’s new dazzling finish gives your stream a beautiful aesthetic.
INTERNAL SHOCKMOUNT
Yeti’s groundbreaking three-capsule array is isolated by an internal shockmount to help ensure clean, articulate sound.
ONBOARD AUDIO CONTROLS
Headphone volume, pattern selection, mute, and mic gain controls put you in charge of your streaming vocal sound.
EXCLUSIVE STREAMLABS AURORA COLLECTION THEMES
Exclusive downloadable Streamlabs themes let you match the look of your overlays with your Yeti mic and Aurora Collection gear for an extraordinary game streaming experience.
PLAYSTATION COMPATIBLE
Connect Yeti to your PS4 or PS5 for an instant audio upgrade.
BLUE VO!CE EFFECTS
Improve your sound and add flavor to your stream with fun vocal effects, HD samples, and studio tools like EQ, limiter and Noise Removal, powered by NVIDIA Broadcast.*
ADVANCED VOICE MODULATION
From Electrobeast to Helium Chipmunk, you can alter, morph and transform your voice to excite and entertain your stream audience.
HD AUDIO SAMPLES
Accentuate your content, set an ambient vibe and make your audience laugh with the included treasure trove of HD audio samples, or create your own.
Internal Shockmount ” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />Mic Gain ” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />Streamlabs Themes ” data-position=”triggerHorizontal” />COMPLEMENT YOUR COLLECTION
Yeti in special edition White Mist is a perfect companion for your Logitech G Aurora Collection gear.
PLAY WITH YOUR LOOK
Cool. Dreamy. Customisable. Make G735 yours with ear cups and mic booms in multiple colourways including Pink Dawn and Green Flash. Additional accessories sold separately.
G715 WIRELESS GAMING KEYBOARD
Let the low-key vibes and high-key performance get you into the game as you play the day away with no wires in the way.
G705 WIRELESS GAMING MOUSE
Dreamy new design shaped for smaller hands, contoured for comfort, and fully equipped for your best play experience yet.
MADE FOR STREAMERS
Logitech G, Blue and Streamlabs have joined forces to deliver high performance gaming solutions for the ultimate streaming experience.
| Weight: | 900 g |
| Dimensions: | 12 x 12.5 x 29.5 cm; 900 Grams |
| Model: | 988-000533 |
| Colour: | Blanc |
| Dimensions: | 12 x 12.5 x 29.5 cm; 900 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
Alles super, genau wie es sein soll. Das Mikro macht Spa. Einen Punkt oder eine Kritik htte ich aber doch. Das Mikro wurde in einer durchsichtigen Verpackung versendet find ich nicht so toll, dass man dann sieht was drin ist. Frdert leider auch Diebstahl.
Rien redire sur la qualit du micro, l’enregistrement est nickel !
Cependant, j’enlve une toile car ce n’est pas de l’USB standard, ce qui est vraiment contraignant quand on veut remplacer le cble (dans mon cas, pour une couleur rose, plus esthtique).
The Logitech Blue Yeti USB Microphone is an absolute game-changer! Whether you’re a gamer, podcaster, streamer, or musician, this microphone has got you covered. With its sleek black design and plug-and-play functionality, it’s a breeze to set up and start recording.
The Blue Yeti offers an impressive array of features, including four pickup patterns, allowing you to customize your recording experience. The clarity and quality of the audio it captures are exceptional, making it perfect for professional recordings, streaming sessions, and even casual conversations.
One standout feature is the Blue VO!CE effects. It adds depth and richness to your voice, elevating the overall sound quality. With just a few clicks, you can fine-tune your voice to achieve a professional studio-like experience.
Compatibility is not an issue either, as the Blue Yeti works seamlessly with both PC and Mac systems. Its versatility and reliability make it a must-have for anyone in need of high-quality audio.
In conclusion, the Logitech Blue Yeti USB Microphone is a top-notch choice for all your recording, streaming, and podcasting needs. Its easy setup, exceptional sound quality, and customizable features make it a standout performer. Whether you’re a professional or just starting out, this microphone is sure to impress.
First standalone mic I’ve bought, and will probably be the last because it is so high quality!
My old yeti unfortunately decided to die on me after years of use. I was really surprised how clear and responsive this mic is compared to my yeti mic. Would highly recommend. It’s so nice to have a mic that actually works again.
its a very good high quality product for the price and its also clear and good for starters (gaming or asmr)
The first thing I noticed when I received the delivery of the microphone was its weight. Just over 3lbs, it is not overly heavy; I was pleased with its sturdy metal body and stand which measured around 12 inches in height. I was equally satisfied with the enclosed USB cable which was 6ft in length!
No software or drivers are required for this device. I simply plugged it into my computer where it was automatically detected. Within a couple of minutes, it was ready to use! The purpose for buying this microphone was primarily to use it along with Speech Recognition software. Once the application started, it immediately recognised the microphone and I was ready to begin my dictation. There are four different recording modes on the device. I used the ‘cardioid’ mode which picks up sound that is directly in front of the microphone. My speech was accurately processed into a written format even while I was whispering!
The Blue Yeti microphone is generally recognised for its professional studio sound quality. In the future, I intend to use it for video voiceovers and podcasts. My experience with this microphone has been very positive and I believe that it does live up to its excellent reputation.
However, when I first received it the USB port was faulty and slightly loose making the microphone disconnect from my computer. Although I was able to get a replacement very easily, I still believe that they could design the USB port a bit better as it feels quite vulnerable where it could easily be knocked and break the port.
But overall, it is very good quality and have no regrets from my purchase. Very useful for any vocal recording etc.
A clear voice recording mic which simply ignores the surrounding noise. I have been using this for all my online lecture, recording, meeting etc and I am very happy with it.
Really pretty microphone, I bought it before reading reviews of professionals, the recording is pretty okay and easy to use, but if you are looking for something really professional (singer, radio) this is not the microphone for you, good for streaming and to record some audio. I’d recommend to buy a better one for similar price, like Rde microphones for example.
One of the best things about the Blue Yeti is its superior sound quality. The microphone is designed with three different condenser capsules that allow you to choose from four different pickup patterns – cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional, and stereo. This means you can easily adjust the microphone to suit your needs, whether you’re recording a solo podcast, interviewing a guest, or recording a musical performance.
The Blue Yeti is also very easy to set up and use. Simply plug it into your PC’s USB port, and you’re ready to go. The microphone is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and works seamlessly with popular recording and streaming software like Audacity, OBS, and XSplit.
Another great feature of the Blue Yeti is its built-in headphone jack, which allows you to monitor your recording in real time. This is particularly useful for podcasters and streamers who need to make sure their audio quality is top-notch.
One potential drawback of the Blue Yeti is its size. The microphone is quite large, which means it may not be the best option for people who need a more portable microphone for on-the-go recording.
Overall, I would highly recommend the Logitech Blue Yeti USB Microphone for PC to anyone who needs a powerful and versatile microphone for their computer. Its superior sound quality, ease of use, and compatibility with all major operating systems make it an excellent choice for podcasters, streamers, and musicians alike.
Additionally, the Blue Yeti is a versatile microphone that can be used for a variety of applications, including podcasting, streaming, recording music and voiceovers, and even video conferencing. The microphone stand is also adjustable, allowing you to position it at the perfect angle for your needs.
Overall, I highly recommend the Blue Yeti USB Microphone for anyone looking for a high-quality, versatile microphone that is easy to use and delivers excellent sound quality. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
I think saying it works well out the box isnt true as I personally have had to tweak it to work for my voice as Im quiet. I will continue to use this mic and i think its good for a lot of people but not great for me- I do recommend it thought. Everyone i know with a Yeti likes their purchase and it works for them.
If you have a keyboard that’s mechanical its worth investing into a shock mount to reduce keyboard clicking going through the mic.
I am very pleased with the product, it seems very well built. Mic quality is great and the angles of the arm are perfect for standard desks. The only issue I have is that I struggled to get the shock mount attached to the arm without cross threading the screw. Fifth attempt and I had it sorted, but it takes patience!
Solid and brilliant quality, matches my full Logitech setup perfectly
This is a GREAT bit of kit. I’ve got a rode podcaster and rode lavalier, but this is way better. Very close it sounds epic, very “BBC”, and if you want to film with it out of shot, or if you are interviewing 1 or 2 the people so it has to be a metre away, the sound is still really good. It also has modes for narrow, wide, or even double spread (picking up 2 people) and these really work. AND you can plug it into an iPhone (with the iPhone ‘camera’ adaptor) so your iPhone videos come out sounding really pro. I love it!
Very happy with the sound quality in recording the piano and guitar. Easy to set up and great features.
After my Rode TB USB broke due to its design, I purchased this and wish I got this sooner. The quality is amazing, it looks stylish and I’m really happy with it.
This mic allows a real time feedback loop which makes it perfect for live streaming and conversations.
Very sad to say that after a few months working with this mic it’s sound is not living up to expectations. I didn’t notice it fully until I started recording more podcasts and could hear the difference between my audio and others. I’ve tried every setting and bought a pop filter. Nothing makes it sound better apart from some software I bought to improve the quality.
This is a great easy to use microphone with great sound quality and loads of easy to use features. I would recommend to anyone wanting to seriously get into content creation.
old but an amazing staple mic for anyone wanting to step up their audio quality. easy too use controls just make sure you have it the right way round XD
Beautiful mic, super steady bad and HUGE amount of recording control with its Condenser Control dial.
I’m absolutely inlove with this mic. I did cheap out and get an open box deal expecting a few blemishes but it was absolutely prestine on arrival, not a single blemish thanks to its build quality. It it’s made of a very strong metal and its condenser mesh cover is extremely strong. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
Only downside is the lack of turning off the mute LED but other than that, it is the perfect mic for me.
This mic is such good quality and for the cost it’s incredible. I have had such great use of this mic and there are a good few settings to play with. If you are unsure about purchasing you won’t be disappointed!
Extra pointers
If you want to use your phone get a USB to lightning converter, I would suggest getting one with an extra lightning port to charge your phone while using it to provide enough power.
You will also require an aux cord if you want to connect to a camera for filming as you need to connect it to both laptop/computer and camera for this.
I like the fact that this is an easy go-to microphone. No complicated instructions. Just plugin and play. I am not a fan of the black filter pop that we have, and I wish there was a more comfortable one developed.
In my discord, it clearly helps with people being able to hear me. This works on gaming laptops quite well, and for PC I haven’t tried yet, but it does a great job. The packaging is very nice as well so it’s easy to pack back into whenever you don’t need it. I will try voice recording on it, but the voice recording seems to be the same, nothing new – it does record your voice well.
I like it.
My hearing is not the best and I need superior audio sound, not just clarity but volume as well AND I need to be heard clearly at the other end without sounding like I am either in a box and echo or sound quiet and 10 feet away.
The other criteria of any mic I have is that I MUST be able to mute the mic quickly – working from home has some disadvantages of being interrupted suddenly.
I can use a decent expensive headset with a boom mic, and that is great apart from the max volume is not enough for me and wearing a headset for most of the day gives me sweaty ears (errrrgh).
I have tried some USB desk mics at around 20, but none of them performed unless I have my mouth right next to the mic… sort of negates the purpose of the desk mic – and so have always resorted back to my headset with boom mic.
I then took the plunge and forked out 85 for this Yeti Professional USB Microphone – having no experience of this sort of mic, I had no expectations other than hoping it would be better than the desk mics I had previously tried.
What can I say – FANTASTIC – I was totally blown away by this mic – gain control on the mic pickup, so that I have the mic about 2ft in front of me and the people at the other of my calls haven’t spotted the difference to when I use a boom mic.
As for the headphone volume – ARE YOU KIDDING ME – UNBELIEVEABLE THE VOLUME AND CLARITY I can get now – at last I can hear at the volume I need. Even the softness speaking people on calls I can hear – I just turn up the volume – there is no way I could ever go to max volume on this.
And of course … my favourite button… the mute button – it works a treat.
Yes, 85 for a mic sounds a lot and I was skeptical paying that much not knowing if it would give me what I needed – but this for me is a GAME CHANGER for my work – I cannot recommend this enough for home working.
A definite 5 for me – if it were a rating out of 100, then I would rate it 100 with no hesitation.
Best Streaming mic available without going to the mega-expensive ones. I had one of these a few years ago but gave up PCs but now I am back into PC’s I had no problem or worry buying the Yeti, The build quality is 2nd to none I also run my Headphones through it and it is very heavy so no problem with falling over and as for the sound it is brilliant.
A great mix, perfect for recording audio for YouTube. Has a nice warm, crystal clear sound.
Amazon’s packaging leaves a lot to be desired however! Arrived with the sticker on the box! An expensive item like this should never be sent without packaging! Had 3 other things from Amazon sent the same way. Needs sorting out!
I’d like to say fir of course that this is a brilliant product don’t don’t ke wrong, fits well on the desk, has settings acceptable to my playability and is brilliant sounding quality, tou could even use it for job conferences, College online… it’s not only just acceptable for gaming. I will however admit that fir what it is it is slightly too pricey in my opinion and the USB is bit too flimsy…. it could be easily broken by anyone. Other than that it’s a 4 star from me.
My use case is a lot of online meetings, and it serves that purpose really well. Can’t comment on suitability for content creators or sound recording.
My biggest issue with it is the mute button LED which is acting as a a power indicator as well. It’s confusing! Solid red – power is on, flashing red – muted. It would be better if it changed colour instead (green – power is on, red – muted).
I got this for my girlfriend. She’s using it with the FiiO – E10K amp/dac and the MINTHETM Blue Yeti Mic Cover. Everyone she talks to online instantly noticed the difference. There is no distortion and it can even pick up whispers really clearly. The volume is also much louder than her previous mic. The only downside would be if you are in a shared space as unlike a headset mic, this picks up sound from all directions. She had a few software issues and ended up plugging her headphones directly into the mic to make them work properly.
I’d made the mistake previously of buying a cheap microphone thinking I’d be able to use it for high quality video conferencing or recordings. I was mistaken!
The problem with cheaper microphones seems to be that Windows doesn’t like them much, and it’s very difficult to get a decent volume out of them. With the Blue Yeti, it was literally plug-and-play and the sound quality was instantly better.
It’s an expensive piece of kit, but I’ve put this down to an example of “buy cheap, buy twice”. I can’t see me needing to replace this for a long time!
The desk stand was a nice inclusion, but I’ve since moved to a boom arm so I can move it around a little more freely.
I’ve heard about Blue Yeti for years, so thought I’d get one and try it out. It’s everything they say it is. Great sound quality, and I love the direction feature which allows you to switch between solo speaker, interview, field work or full table. Extremely easy to use – plug and play, no phantom power required. Incredibly sensitive, though. It really can pick up everything, so get to grips with noise suppression and sound gates. It’s also very heavy, so worth considering that if you’re planning to travel with it. I get what all the hype is about.
This is just wonderful I have been using a Yeti Microphone for a long time and wanted to get a newer item. The silver one is classy, it has a very good appearance. The build quality is great, the sound quality is 100% and because of its different settings you can use it in different ways. The headphones socket underneath is a bonus and I doubt I’ll ever use that. I bought a aftermarket hard case to store it of which I’d encourage one to buy seeing as I was always in and out my box, the box was not gonna last long so I bought a aftermarket case of which I bought from Amazon. This Mic is worth having, this is the second one of these I’ve had and I’ll never sell this but keep using it until I again need to renew or upgrade to a newer version.
This product does what it says on the box. Works perfectly with no need for any driver install. The ability to hear your own voice mixed with a remote output means it can easily be use d with remote streaming software live. This works fine on both Mac and PC Windows.
It works best on Windows because you can independently adjust the volume of your voice to a level that is high enough to work well. On a Mac I haven’t found a way to do this. If it were possible to do this I would give the product 5 stars.
I bought this to Zoom our chorus rehearsals to those who cannot be there in person yet. We are about 20 singers in a church hall with very little sound absorption.
A previous attempt with my laptop mic gave terrible sound (it’s fine for zooms from my house though).
The Yeti is perfect – all the zoomers can hear our sound well enough to join in at home. They also hear most speech providing there is only one person speaking.
I leave a pair of earphones plugged into the yeti so that anyone can talk to the zoomers.
Its a great product once you get to grips with the available settings via G Hub software but update the software after downloading it from the website. The item was sold at a small discount as a damaged box but It was clearly a returned unit and had been repacked poorly picking up a couple of minor marks which is disappointing.
After changing jobs to a remote first role, someone mentioned to me that they were hearing odd noises when I was on calls that they’d not experienced before I joined the business. It turned out the noise was vibrations through the table the microphone was on as I typed notes of the meeting.
So, I looked at buying a boom for my existing mic. but nothing seemed like it would be a good fit.
When I came across this package as an all in one I remembered that some previous colleagues and a couple of my podcasting friends used Yeti mics. so I pulled the trigger on replacing my mic. entirely.
The feedback from my new colleagues is that the odd rumbling noises are gone and my voice is clearer so it’s doing what I wanted it to do.
Assembly of the boom was straightforward and the ability to move the mic. around for best pick up makes life easy. I also get a large chunk of desk space back so that’s a major win too.
I’m giving the old mic. to my parents as it’s perfectly serviceable and will be a major improvement on their laptop’s internal mic. so everybody wins!
I’m also using the Yeti on both my Win10 laptop and the Macbook Pro (Intel silicon) that work provides. The Yeti works without fuss on both machines and is hot swappable.
Overall, it’s a great all in one solution for a good audio experience when on video calls etc. The feedback I’ve got from everyone I’ve had calls with has been that there was a marked improvement in the audio quality of my voice.
We upgraded from the Blue Snowball and various headsets to the Blue Yeti. The first thing you will notice is straight out of the box it is heavy. This is mostly down to the weighted base which sturdy. We bought it with a mic arm and once we removed the base of the Yeti (with ease) it was a lot lighter but still had some weight to it. We decided on the USB version and the wire is long enough to place the Mic anywhere on the desk. It was plug and play, so absolutely no hassle to set up and worked for gaming and the stream with out the need for separate software.
Having used the Snowball and headsets previously the improved sound quality was immediately noticeable and after some tweeks in OBS I sounded like a pro recording and broadcast artist.
This is well made, easy to set up and great value for money. If you want a budget to mid level mic this is where you should start.
How it works with background noise
I assumed that microphones like this automatically filter out most/all background noise as my cheap headsets always have that typical annoying background fuzzy noise even when the room is quiet. That’s NOT QUITE how it works per se but this microphone does handle it a lot better – it is very sensitive so it can pick up noises, so you may need to use software such as audacity to filter out such noise if it is an issue. The microphone has a “gain” control, so by turning the gain down to a reasonable level, the microphone picks up my voice loud and clear but it does not pick up my computer’s fan or the noise outside my house (so long as the window is closed), so by having the gain set to the right amount I don’t need to tweak the audio of my recordings. Obviously it is still sensitive to noises on the desk such as moving your keyboard and mouse, so to get around this you would have to use a mounting arm rather than the included stand (or just be careful with your hands). Turning the gain up considerably does make my voice much louder but it then picks up computer fan noises and such, but it is not necessary for the gain to be this high for vlogging in front of a computer screen.
The microphone plugs in via USB, on Windows 10 it should be plug and play and the computer should recognise it quite clearly. The included headphone port will automatically feedback your own voice through the connected headphones and it is immediate so you don’t hear yourself being repeated, and you can tell if the mute button is on/off by the headphones as well as the LED. You can change your computer’s speaker settings to use this headphone port for all other computer sounds if you wish to do so (essentially using it as a headphone jack extension for the entire computer). The volume knob on the front is for the headphones, not for the microphone which is instead volume adjusted by the gain knob at the back.
It’s good. Very sensitive. Sometimes too sensitive. I can hear neighbour’s cat 2 doors away on my recordings, when I didn’t even realise was there at the time. The sound quality is very usable. However, side-by-side comparisons with a cheap BM-800 mic (20) shows that it is not 5 times better. I guess you are paying for brand, the perceived build quality, and the way it looks, if you like that sort of thing. Also bear in mind, this thing is *big*. If you put it in front of your monitor, you are going to block a lot of it out. So it has to stay to the side of the monitor, which is not the optimal position for voice capture. Nevertheless, it is a keeper.
I wish I had bought a Yeti from the start rather than buying a cheaper mic several times.
I LOVE that this is white, and that there was a colour choice as my husband and I both use Yeti mics, so it means we can never get them mixed up.
It’s so easy to use – all you do is plug in and play! For Mac users like me – you will need an external cable to plug the USB into your Macbook. I find that as there is no condenser part that the sound has to travel through, it’s just one USB, less computer processing speed is required when live streaming or recording.
This was a problem for me with less expensive mics, and meant that my computer or internet often crashed mid-stream.
The sound quality is great, and my livestream audio has never been better. I did find it a bit frustrating with my computer settings switching between using Zoom and Microsoft Teams – something to be aware of and tweak as you need to.
Great for sounding professional in work meetings too!
I bought this microphone to record instrument on my iPhone. The good that is you just need a camera adapter to plug in onto the phone and off you go. People say it drains the phone battery. Yes it does feed off the iPhone power but it is not too bad. I did about 3 hours recording and I still have 50% power left on the iPhone. The reason why I knock off a star is because the Blue yeti is too sensitive. I turned ‘Gain’ down to zero on the back of the microphone and it still record cracking sound when I played mezzo forte or louder. It feels that the base is much louder even though I am playing Pianissimo. I tried all sort of positions to get the best sound out of it. There isn’t a set rule how far the microphone should be placed. It all really depends on the room set and the instrument itself. I found the closer the mic is to the instrument the less white noise it is going to pick up from a non-treated room. But you don’t want to put it right up to the instrument. It is tricky. It’s all about try and error. In the end, I managed to eliminate the cracking sound and I am happy with the results. Blue yeti is value for money. If you are on low budget and don’t want to go through the trouble of sound editing. This is a good option.
The Radius mounting arm I am less keen to recommend.
The GOOD: The anti vibration mount to hold the microphone is very good and works well while being easy to use and allows for over or under mounting which is excellent.
The less good: the top swivel mount (nearest microphone) can be easily adjusted to a wide range of angle allowing the mic to be positioned at just about any angle the user could want, BUT the locking system to stop rotation and hold the mic mount in place only locks in one direction which shouldn’t be a problem except if you should have issues with the boom arm and have to fiddle with it this can result in the mount rotating quickly in the not locked direction and smash the mounted mic in to the boom arm or other object at quite a pace. wouldn’t be a problem except. . .
The BAD: The boom arm itself likes to be at a fully straight position. I mean it really likes it and will often straighten itself out by itself. with a microphone attached its mostly a slow creep from perfect angle to fully outstretched over the course of several minutes, or at least to a position other than where you placed it. Without a microphone attached to weigh the arm down a bit it could be used as a catapult or some form of offensive weapon. It is possible to wrangle the arm in to a usable position but fully straight is its go to and it will go to pretty much without fail.
fortunately for me I found a mounting position for the arm where fully outstretched is perfect. A shelf to my left side and slightly behind me (almost a meter away in fact), probably not where most people would be expecting to mount there microphone but very good for my odd set up.
TLDR: Microphone great, Microphone mount very good, boom arm usable as a catapult but not very good at being in any position other than fully outstretched. I may in the future replace the boom arm for one that works in a more traditional way (read: well) and make some videos of this one as a catapult I reckon it can get some serious range on it with practice!
If you’re a musician singing on-line with your Zoom settings on maximum sound quality then without dragging out your digital interface and mics it’s not always easy to get acceptable sound. This mic seems to fit the bill. Sure – it’s only one mic and ‘how-do-you-balance-more-than-voice-instrument’ objections will ensue but there are a number of settings that offer a wide variety of capture options and I have to say that with careful distancing and tilt angle this is a pretty impressive little device. Is it as good as a decent analogue to digital conversion set up? No. But it is a fraction of the price, a cinch to set up (just plug into a USB port – no other equipment needed) and a headphone port to monitor what you’re doing. Great for quick on line set ups and, as you’d expect, a notable improvement on the built-in mic.
Podcasters will love this mic – it’s great for that – you can even set the mic to pick up from both sides so you can do across the table interviews with just this mic.
There is a slightly more expensive version with an XLR port for those of you on a budget that might want to use this in the recording studio too.
The Blue Compass mount is decent but awkward to adjust the tension on the arms at points. It’s not bad but can be frustrating. Moves easily and silently once adjusted correctly.
Adjusting the sensitivity, gain and minimising background noise of the mic might take a while so shut windows, close doors, etc.
The audio is amazing however and I have been using this for well over a year now for work and pleasure. No one has ever had an issue other than background noise (I live in London).
In other words, this 110 mic that I had used sparingly since the previous November, maybe thrice a month, became nothing but a very expensive paper weight. This is apparently a known issue and there are various resources for solutions and whatnot that involve opening up the microphone and doing several things that I’m not qualified for and shouldn’t need to do given what I payed for it.
I’m looking into some way of returning it so I can get it fixed but as of now I definitely would not recommend this product and I’m a bit soured on it. Comparatively my Blue Snowball lasted several years and moving across continents and I took significantly worse care of it.
Otherwise if you don’t really care about it breaking on you it’s a good microphone. The sound quality is good, the different settings are useful and it looks good. It wasn’t ideal for my recording conditions but it did the job it was supposed to well enough. I just wish it did it for longer.
edit (from 2 to 4 stars): got a replacement and the process was fairly painless even given covid. still not really with the hardness of the mic but they remedied the situation satisfactorily.
I’ve been looking forward to receiving this product and when I’ve received it, I plugged it in and tried out all the modes, I found that on the stereo mode, no sound was coming through the right side. None at all, no matter how much gain there was or how loud my headphone volume was. I was saddened and disappointed so I contacted Blue support. In the end, it turned out that I received a faulty product. So they recommended me I make Amazon replace or refund the product as they would be quicker to do so. I’ve done it, I’ve posted it back and the next day, I got a replacement. That one works perfectly but it’s just upsetting that I paid so much and I had to go through all of this. I’ve been saving money for so long and then this whole hassle has to come and disappoint me… anyway the mic I have now is great!! I recommend it but just be warned you might have to deal with this as well.
CARDIOID MODE – This mode records sound sources that are directly in front of the microphone.
STEREO MODE – Uses both the left and right channels to capture more realistic sound range.
OMNIDIRECTIONAL MODE – Picks up sound equally from all around the mic (best for live recordings around a table etc)
BIDIRECTIONAL – Records from both the front and rear of the microphone—good for recording a duet or a two-person interview.
I use this mic attached to a AKORD Professional Adjustable Microphone Fold and pop filter.
This does offer a high quality sound recording but if you wanted to take things to the next level you’d probably want invest in a mic with an XLR connection and mixer combo. However if you want something easy to setup/use with a high level of recording quality then Blue Yeti is highly recommended. As a side note I’ve been using this for 3 years now and its still going strong!
This microphone is aesthetic and provides high quality audio with impressive gain possibilities. For a USB microphone at such a reasonable price, this microphone is perfect for aspiring live streamers and musicians alike. The only issues I would have to point out about this microphone is that the USB cable/port could be designed better and is somewhat flimsy, where having it knocked slightly during use can have the cable come out very easily or even worse distorting audio with the cable seemingly still secure in the microphone. Also, the microphone handbook that comes with the microphone makes a mistake in assuming that the user is familiar with professional microphones and does not really explain how to use it properly (a lot of people, including myself at first, tilted the microphone so that I would be speaking into the top rather than the side, affecting audio quality and reducing pick up). However these two issues are minor and honestly if you want to avoid these issues you just need to spend more money on a high end XLR microphone, so for the price, I can not really complain.
For just 25 pounds over the boom arm and the shock-mount bought separately, you get also a Yeti mic. I was initially wary of getting a second one, as I read that they do not work well together as they all have the same serial, but was positively surprised to find that the new mic does not have the same REV8 serial as all the previous ones I have seen, but has a unique one with the date of manufacturing, so they work together well with or without an aggregate device setup.
So I would recommend getting the bundle (although still overpriced compared to US prices) and you can always resell the yeti or make a present of it if you don’t need it (just keep in mind it does not come with a table stand).
This was the first and only microphone I’ve ever purchased and why it continues to be the only one is because of how GOOD it is. The durability of this thing is nothing short of spectacular. I went through a few years of university with it being thrown around and there has been no noticeable damage to the build whatsoever. It is built to last and it can serve as your main microphone for anything, from taking voice calls to making quality audio for YouTube, livestreaming, whatever you want that requires the recording of sound.
Now, I didn’t truly appreciate this beauty until I started livestreaming games. I had bought it for the intention of making YouTube videos, but it’s just as good for livestreaming. It’s extremely easy to setup, a true plug and play experience. It starts to load the drivers to run this bad boy as soon as you plug it in, and that’s it!
I’m not the world expert on audio, but it produces a crisp sound that is close as it gets to the real thing. This mic is a bang for buck product and a great starter for a novice (like I was all those years ago)
Short review:
Really good product, build and sound quality is good. Gain and environment setting are very useful. Note that the microphone is technically a headset as there is a 3.5mm jack on the bottom which sound (and your own voice) is/can be outputted through. (FOR ANYONE TRYING TO USE WITH AN ASTRO MIXAMP OR SIMILAR DEVICE SEE FULL REVIEW BELOW)
Long review:
I previously owned a Blue Microphones Snowball Ice, and I loved it. I actually sold it to a friend in order to buy a Yeti, as he was wanting to get a new microphone, and I was wanting to upgrade. At full price, you really need to be using your mic on a very regular basis, and with need for the extra features a Blue Yeti provides to make it a worthwhile investment, in my opinion. However, I managed to pick one up on sale during black friday, which is what swayed me to buy one.
The build quality is very good, as you would expect from a Blue Microphones product. The sound quality (or so I’m assured by my friends) is very good as well (also as expected from Blue). The stand that comes with the microphone is actually surprisingly heavy, and would no doubt keep the microphone still and secure. However I have a boom arm from my previous setup with the Snowball, and so immediately out of the box removed the stand and setup the mic on that. The dial on the front of the mic just adjusts the volume of sound outputted through the 3.5mm jack on the bottom, which was something I had not really realized was built in. Also situated on the front is a simple toggle mute button with LED indicator. On the back of the device are two dials. The top is a simple gain dial, allowing the user to raise or lower the volume of their voice to be broadcast. Generally I have mine set about halfway, when using the mic around 6-12 inches away from me. The lower dial on the back is the environment settings. This allows the user to run the mic in different modes, depending upon the application they are using it for. I keep mine in stereo mode, which picks up audio from all around, but outputs through both left and right channels. There are 3 other modes; cardioid to pick up sound from in front of the mic. Omnidirectional to pick up sound from all around but output it so that you can tell where it was recorded from. Bidirectional to pick up sound from the front and back which is useful if two people are using the mic. There is a handy picture guide in the book which explains what each mode does and what applications it is useful for.
For anyone trying to use the Blue Yeti with an Astro Mixamp on a PS4: I didn’t realize when i bought the mic, that technically it counts as a headset. This means that when trying to use it on the PS4, chat audio must be outputted through the mic (the 3.5mm jack on the bottom). This caused an issue as I wanted my Yeti to be the mic in, but the chat audio to be outputted to the Mixamp so that i could balance it against game audio. The workaround I found, was to use the Yeti as the input and output on the PS4, then plug one end of a 3.5mm audio cable into the bottom of the Yeti, the other end into the 2.5mm socket on the bottom of the mixamp (this requires an adapter). This will then allow you to balance chat volume on the front of the yeti, and game audio on the mixamp.
Now, out of all of the things that I have reviewed so far, none of them has been as prominent and as ‘ancient’ as the Blue Yeti. Yet again and again, it is praised as one of the best microphones for around 100.
EXPERIENCE
The microphone has 4 recording modes: Stereo, Cardioid, Bidirectional, and omnidirectional microphone for recording. Stereo records audio from every direction, which is good for picking up audio from all around the room, and with that, picks up unwanted audio. Cardioid is good for for podcasts and voiceovers since it picks up audio only in front of the microphone. Bidirectional records audio from in front and behind the microphone. Suitable for interviews. Now, I’m sure you know of the Blue Yeti, but is it still worth buying as a starter microphone to YouTube for example? Simple answer, yes. The reason to this is because it is an established brand. Meaning that it will stay that way for time to come. At 99, this microphone still produces crisp audio even for today’s standards.
The microphone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can monitor your sound straight from the microphone with zero lag. At the front of the microphone there is a mute switch, and volume control for the monitors. Next to the headphone jack, you will find a mini USB port for powering the Blue yeti. The microphone is very well built, and is predominantly made of premium materials like aluminium.
However, purchasing a pop filter of any sort will help the microphone pick up less background noise, so it is highly suggested that you purchase that too with the microphone.
SOUND
Now, the sound it records is fantastic for the price. As said before, it produces crisp, clear audio, and when paired with something like Audacity, you will get some fantastic results. Out of the box, however, the microphone does pick up slightly too much background noise for my liking. Although, why you may have never seen many complain about that is because that can easily be edited out in a program like audacity very easily.
The four recording modes and customisation I found to be very useful. I liked being able to easily switch recording modes depending on the situation. I found myself mostly using Cardioid, but obviously your preferences vary.
PROS AND CONS
Pros
Amazing sound for the price
Well built
Good customisation of sound
Cons
Too much background sound
FINAL VERDICT
In the end, I’ve found the Blue Yeti to be an excellent USB microphone for those who are serious about recording quality audio from their PC or Mac computer. The build quality, features, and performance are exceptional for the sub-100 price tag and provide great value on the . If you’re looking to capture higher audio resolutions or want to use an XLR output then you’ll need to spend the extra money on Blue’s Yeti Pro, but for most consumers the standard Yeti model will be more than enough. I am satisfied with my purchase of the Blue Yeti and I would recommend it to any potential buyers as it is likely the best candidate at this price-point.
As a YouTuber & Livestreamer on Twitch i’m always looking to improve the quality of my recordings & videos as best as I can but also be on a budget.
For me the next step was to find a decent mic to help with my audio & the Blue Yeti has met all of my needs perfectly.
I had tried other mics in the past before my Yeti but this mic exceeds all of them & for not a lot of money either.
The mic itself is great & the build quality is of a really high standard, its pretty much ready to go straight out the box.
One thing I really liked is that you have a few settings on the mic itself so it can capture sound from different directions or help block surrounding sounds by the twist of a switch on the back.
The settings are…
STEREO. Front/360 sound capture. best for vocals, choirs & instruments.
CARDIOID. Forward only sound, this is what I use. best for podcasts, voiceovers, solo vocals & solo instruments. also helps block surrounding noise that isn’t coming directly from the front of the mic
OMNIDIRECTIONAL. Full 360 sound capture. best for conference calls, field recording & live events.
BIDIRECTIONAL. front & back sound capture, best for interviews, duel podcasts & vocal duets.
The mic also comes with a very strong & sturdy desktop stand but for me personally I decided to go with a actual mic stand so I can adjust height & move it around.
Its really easy to swap over if you want to do the same, you just need to undo the two screws on the side, then the mic just screws on to the stand or boom arm in the thread that’s on the bottom of the Yeti, also the stand I bought was just a normal generic mic stand from a music shop, so no special size threads or anything stupid like that.
I bought my Yeti mic at the end of 2014 so as of now I’ve been using it for nearly two years & in that time I’ve made around 50+ videos with voiceovers for my YouTube channel & done over 1000+ hours of livestreaming with the Yeti to my Twitch channel, most of my live shows can last for anything up to 12hours each so I really put my Yeti to the test every weekend so i know its good quality & will last you a long time.
Even now almost two years after my purchase it shows no signs of wear or lost any performance in sound quality.
Very happy with my purchase, would buy again & recommend to others.
Anyway, I took the internet’s advice and bought the Blue Yeti microphone due to amazing reviews and popularity – and I wasn’t wrong!
This microphone is so powerful, and picks up every detail around it. Don’t make the mistake of dropping something on the floor, or having noisy relatives live in your house, it will pick all that up too! Of course, this can be resolved by reducing the gain option on the back, and talking closer to the mic. This option is used to eliminate and reduce the noises captured from further away. Sort of like a volume option for your voice.
The microphone also has 4 audio capturing options:
– Stereo
– Cardioid
– Omnidirectional
– Bidirectional
STEREO –
This option captures audio using two capsules. When you play the audio you recorded back, the sounds may sound slighly different in the left and right ears. This adds more depth, and more of a 3 dimensional environment for your recordings. This is apparently useful for sound capturing that adds more immersion to the listening experience, such as a listening to a choir.
CARDIOID –
My personal favourite. This captures only what’s in front of the mocrophone. Useful for speaking to my friends online and recording YouTube commentaries. It’s great, because all the other sounds behind and next to the mic are more ignored prioritising your voice over your computer fans.
OMNIDIRECTIONAL –
Captures 360 degrees of audio. Nothing is ignored and all sounds surrounding the mic is captured.
BIDIRECTIONAL –
This option isn’t very useful for me, but it is for employees… I guess! This allows the microphone to capture only what is in front, and the back and ignored what is to the left and right. Great for interviews.
This card, when plugged in is also recognised as a sound card. It works literally out of the box. No driver installations or lack of support on older Operating Systems. It works on MAC, Windows and Linux. This also means that the mic can utilise a headphone jack located under the microphone so you can hear both your computer and your voice at the same time. This gives me a great idea of what my voice sounds like for other people and stops me screaming over the muffled noises of my headset.
CONS OF THE MIC:
– Due to it’s extreme sensitivity, it picks up lots of background noise. I resolved this by further purchasing a virtual audio cable and live reducing the noise in Adobe Audition. It also picks up unnecessary thumping noises when you type or lighly tap your desk, and it captured the humming of my computer running on the desk.
How do I resolve this? Well, you can solve these issues by purchasing a boom arm (I have ordered the Rode PSA1) and a shock mount (preferrably, Blue’s official Radius II) and filtering background noise in Adobe Audition if you dont have room with good acoustics. This in total, paired with the mic costs well over 250, and it may be quetioned by others for if it is worth investing this amount of money into a microphone. The boom arm gives me more space, and prevents sounds from the stand (that comes with the mic) from picking up any noises from my desk. The shock mount suspends the mic within a ring surrounded by elastic that absorbs all sounds trevelling from the boom arm to the mic and reduces the humming sound if you have your boom arm attached to your desk with a computer. This keeps the recording as true as possible.
– The front facing buttons (volume and mute) feel a tad cheap and plasticky, which doesn’t feel right as the rest of the mic seems to be made of what feels like highly durable and thick metal. This is only a minor, but still a con in itself.
Overall, the first con for me shines on the mics power, while also being a bad thing. It has fantastic audio, when handled correctly and put in the right place. It is great for all sorts of people. I recommend this microphone, it’s a fantastic device!
Overall the Blue Yeti has an excellent build quality; the entire thing is heavy a lot of the weight built into the stand at the base which serves to stop the microphone from being knocked over and it gives solid footing. The base has rubber / foam pads at the bottom so it grips well onto most desk surfaces. The microphone housing itself feels solid being made from good materials, although I feel let down with the fact that the buttons and dials are plastic rather than metal unlike the ones on the pro. The dials and button then feel like they are prone to breaking and also have some play in them which is not reassuring.
The microphone is powered by a single micro-usb to usb cable which will plug into your PC or Mac which will serve to power the microphone and also send data between the microphone and the computer. It also features a 3.5mm standard audio jack port which allows you to plug in earphones to get real time monitoring for the microphone which can be incredibly useful for checking the sound. As a bonus if you plug this into a Windows PC you can actually set the microphone within sound settings to be used as your default sound output so you can monitor yourself, but also hear system sounds from your PC although I wouldn’t recommend this.
There is also a mount which can be used to attach it to mounts which will allow you to raise it up off the desk, I would recommend getting a mount if you intend to have this microphone in front of you, as it will isolate the microphone from most shaking or knocking noises from the desk and also to get around its size. If you have this on the desk in front of you, it can obscure the keyboard and monitor from you if you have it at the front.
On the front there is a volume knob dial which is used to control the output for the audio jack on the bottom. On the back side there are 2 dials, one for gain, and the other for pickup patterns, the options being cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional and stereo, so this mic has versatility in uses.
The sound quality is almost faultless, there is no interference noise and sound comes in completely clear. The microphone is completely driverless, simply plug and play, Windows and Mac will just detect it as a microphone and it can all be controlled from the buttons and the dials on the microphone.
This microphone is excellent for the money, great sound, versatile with its controls. I would highly recommend this if you do podcasts or game streams, record music. You can use this mic for almost anything and it perform with little to no problem. My only let down with this is that the build quality is stifled by the knobs and buttons being plastic which doesn’t meet the standard of the rest of the mic. A final point is that it does no feature a XLR output which means you are restricted to use of USB only, although if you want XLR you can get the Pro version. Personally I do not thing the XLR is required anyway but it does add versatility. But overall, brilliant microphone for the money.
The microphone comes in a nice box and is protected by rigid polystyrene moulded to its shape. this was reassuring as audio equipment in particular is susceptible to damage. The microphone itself if solidly built mainly from metal and comes with a mostly aesthetic stand. (mostly aesthetic as it absorbs very little vibration).
When plugged into both mac and windows 7 machines the microphone is immediately recognised and does not require driver installation.
Recording is quick and easy and sound can be monitored through headphones in real time via the 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom of the microphone. This jack can feel a little loose at times, however the sound does not fade or distort, so it serves its purpose.
The recording modes can be easily switched using the knob on the back of the microphone, it is rather stiff however this is beneficial as it avoids any accidental switching when handling the microphone ensuring all changes are intentional.
The microphone is rather sensitive and picks up sounds very well, for this reason when recording vocals, voiceovers and instruments, when it is not essential to pick up reverb (or a feel for where the music/sound was recorded), the microphone performs best and most clear when the gain is set to roughly 20%, using the knob on the back of the unit.
A variety of recording modes offer the best quality for instruments, vocals, voiceovers, interviews and stereo audio capture. A handy instructions booklet tells you what modes are best for what situation and this can significantly reduce the time you spend fiddling with your audio after recording to get the best quality sound.
The microphone is USB bus powered, meaning it is powered by the USB controller itself. It will also gain enough power from a 4 port non powered USB hub and still function fully. However the mic is unable to take power from either a 1A or 2.1A USB charger. (like the ones that come with iOS devices)
The mic loses a star for its shaky headphone port and its hit or miss mute function, as well as a few compromising plastic fixtures and controls which spoil the classic metal feel of the device.
In conclusion this microphone provides exceptional sound quality for a reasonable price. Built in modes aid in recording reducing audio editing times and the built in headphone monitoring is a handy feature.
After a lot of searching around I settled on the Blue Yeti USB microphone due to good reviews and the interesting design that meant I didn’t need to buy an additional stand.
The Yeti hasn’t disappointed, it looks fantastic and has given me the ability to add much better audio to the videos I produce. I’m only using it in one mode, cardioid, but there are 4 modes in total available:
– Stereo
– Cardioid
– Omnidirectional
– Bidirectional
Setup was really easy, just plug it into your PC/laptop and depending on your setup you might need to select it as the microphone to use. The Yeti has a headphone socket on the bottom which has introduced me to the world of instant feedback, it’s really useful being able to hear what the Yeti is picking up so you can easily tell if it’s too noise, or if you’re too far away etc. Note that this might also need setting up to ensure sound isn’t played out of your speakers instead of your headphones.
Aside from videos I’ve also used this as the microphone for Skype and Steam, with the other people commenting that I sounded much better than I had via a webcam mic. Again, setup is very easy, you just need to ensure the Yeti is selected as the microphone in whatever application you’re using.
Very pleased with the microphone so far, I think it’s an excellent purchase if you’re looking to improve the quality of sounds you record. I’m still getting the hang of how best to use this (e.g. how close to the mic I should be, gain level etc) but you should be able to hear the huge improvement over my camcorder microphone in the video I’ve done, no hissing background noise for a start!
Looks great, sounds great, an investment I’m very pleased with and highly recommend.
An excellent Microphone and extremely well built for the price.
Good weight means it cannot be easily knocked over and the guide book has all the information you need to set it up.
The best features of this microphone is its multiple settings to choose how to mic responds to you based on where it is positioned. The optional screw fitting on the bottom make it compatible with any microphone stand which was not something i expected being a full unit. The headphone pass through also is a convenient feature as it prees up space and wires from behind me PC and puts it in an easily accessible area.
Some things i did not like are the cable. Although long and sturdy being placed at the bottom limits the swivel function of them mic unless you remove it and replace it. The dial to switch to the different mic modes is extremely stiff and required quite a bit of force to change the settings, to do this in mid recording would generate a huge amount of noise the microphone would pick up an and disturb any recording so i would call it a fixed mode with optional settings. I would hope that a microphone of this quality came with some easy to use Audio software to control most of its features on screen rather then with dials and switches but i was a little disappointed to find out it came with no such thing.
Overall 4/5 stars.
To summarize i was happy with the purchase but a few things could be tweaked to make it that much better without adding additional cost.
What can i say, the Yeti is a very good microphone although out the packaging i had to fiddle with some settings. Here some tips:
If you are wanting to sit far back from the Yeti put the gain on it about half way and that will boost the volume up although it may cause some background noise if you have a computer running, any higher than half way you will hear a fuzzing noise (from my experience).
Best way i found was in Windows volume panel have it set too 50% and have the yet at about 1/4-1/8 gain and sit kinda close but not kissing the microphone 😀 and you should be clear sounding and no background noise.
The microphones quality is amazing i recorded 2 hours of gameplay footage hoping it was going to sound good quality and indeed it sounded amazing, aswell as livestreaming viewers asked me if i had a new microphone, what it was, how much it cost and all sorts.
Quality wise it is amazing and is made of metal mesh for the top and aluminium body, when it was delivered it was kinda cold and the yeti was freezing, this shows good quality to the product as well. Buttons and knobs on the other hand are good quality although they are wobbly all the time but if you are gentle handling it will definately not break.
All in all good quality microphone, sounds amazingly clear, but some buttons quality is a lil durability issue. This does not decrease my rating of 5 stars to 4 because a microphone is all about the voice.
p.s it is one heavy and massive product, have the space to use it…
I still don’t know! But I chose the Yeti over the Meteor because of the gain dial. When I was going through my PC’s 3.5mm mic jack, Windows 7 controlled the gain of the mic through its ridiculous “microphone boost” feature. You get a bright hiss in the background that has to be removed using software, leaving a tinny voice behind after stripping it. The whole point of buying a USB mic was to cut out the middle man and have a pure, digital sound capture fed directly to my hard disk. For me, the gain control on the back is a huge part of that. I can choose exactly how sensitive it is and decide how close I want to sit, all from the mic itself. I am so happy I have this ability, it makes the mic for me.
Make no mistake, though, the Blue Yeti is HUGE and very heavy, so if portability is a big factor for you, the Samson Meteor might be a better compromise. But if you’re after a rock solid, desk-mounted, crystal clear USB mic, that has built-in gain control and directional pickup, I recommend the Yeti. The headphone jack is also recognized by Windows as a pair of USB speakers (I didn’t know such a thing existed) and you can feed all your PC’s audio through the mic, if you like, giving you a handy desk-mounted headphone jack and volume control.
Oh, and I didn’t buy a pop filter, but if you’re going to be closer than 10cm to the mic, you need one. It depends on how loud your voice is and how far away you’re sitting, but for that extra lush, deep bass-sound to your voice, you’ll have to get in close and unless you’re happy speaking off to one side, you’re going to need the filter.
So my Yeti arrived, and I’ve been using it for a couple of days to record my voice (in Audacity) for my Youtube videos. At first I couldn’t hear much difference over the Samson, but then I followed the recommendation of a Youtube reviewer and recorded my room, no voice or other sounds, for about 20 seconds. The difference was massive. The Samson was giving me a constant background noise, which I had to manually edit out in Audacity. The Yeti is producing almost zero background noise, and what little there is isn’t worth worrying about. The noise from the Yeti is around a constant -48dB, where the Samson was up around -36dB. I’m not a sound engineer, and those numbers don’t seem a million miles apart, but when you hear them both the difference is huge.
Another couple of tips I picked up, which may be obvious to others but they weren’t to me. Plug the mic into an external, powered USB hub. Don’t plug it into the PC directly. Apparently it’ll pickup all sorts of electrical and physical interference – fans, electrical etc. And use a floor standing mic stand. Both the Yeti and the Samson picked up too much of my PC’s vibrations, fans, keyboard and mouse noise when they were in their own desk based stands.
I bought a cheap mic stand, and it’s positioned so the mic is slightly under my mouth level, horizontal and pointing slight back over my right shoulder. I find that in that position it can’t ‘hear’ my keyboard and mouse as much. The mic’s gain control is at the “10 o’clock” position, the PC’s software gain control is at 100%, and I speak about 6 inches from the mic. I don’t speak directly into the front of the mic – I speak ‘past’ the mic – I find that I get less pops and hisses that way.
I am going to get a pop-filter for it though, as it’s easy to get it popping if you’re not careful!
One slight downer on my mic though, which I’ll soon forget about. The stand has a bit of a poor finish around the bevelled part – a bit of a manufacturing error, but it’s not major. Oh, and be careful when you remove the mic from its stand. The silver paint chips very easily.
Overall, I would 100% recommend spending the extra on this mic if you’re choosing between the 53 Samson Meteor and this 93 mic. Do it!!
I’m still getting family and friends saying the mic looks like a particular female sex toy, but It’s remained on my desk ever since It’s arrived. The Mic itself is actually rather large and but easy to store away safely. It is able to be removed from the suppled stand and be mounted to a standard mic’ arm –Though be careful as the Yeti is substantially heavy for a mic.
But looks and size apart, this thing is amazing! With the gain even a quarter of the way up it picks up everything in my medium sized room. I sit with the mic being around 1-2 ft away and with the gain usually just under half way. It’s crystal clear in picking up my voice and everything else for that matter. However, I believe turning the gain down and putting the mic closer to you would stop it picking up everything; personal preference I guess. The mic does record some pretty clear audio though!
But what I love about this particular mic is the added features. The non-latency I(fancy word for no delay) headphone jack allows you to hear your own voice as the mic pics it up, but not only that, but it can also be used as an external sound card! Yes, you are able to use the headphone jack to listen to music, here people on skype chats and any other pc audio in addition to monitoring your voice –Although your voice does come back very faint.
So, nit-picking around here… There’s one or two things I dont like. The LED to show it’s recording is a solid red light, whilst muted it’s a blinking red light… To any computer person this is actually back-wards. AND The mic has a tendancey to power off when only being used as a sound card (Mic muted and listen to music through headphone jack.) And it can have some rare errors during skype calls. But nothing too annoying. Just unplug and plug back in and the problems are always solved.
I highly recommend this mic to anyone for just about any purpose! I use it as a mic for online gaming and voice overs.
My Yeti was bought for a static placement with podcasting / voice over / audible books type use in mind. It was chosen after a great deal of research and deliberation, both on and off the internet. During these investigations the price dropped dramatically and my choice became a very easy one – I am now the owner of my very own Yeti.
So, am I happy with my decision now that I have used it for real? Absolutely – it’s a great piece of audio equipment. It is not just really solid, and physically heavy, it captures sound with wonderful clarity – the most important function.
The working bit of the Yeti is attached by two screws to the heavy, solid, stylish stand which has a neoprene type mat affixed the the bottom. Although it can be tilted on the stand, since it is a side-faced mic (i.e. the mics are designed to pick up best from the sides), there is no real advantage to this except it does make is easier to insert the USB & headphone connections. The ‘Blue Thepop Filter’, bought separately, fixes nicely to the back of the stand (with a small bit of rubber backed carpet or mouse mat – see my review of Thepop filter) allowing the metal pop filter to swing round gracefully from the back to a functional position in front of the mic.
The stand itself, in spite of the mat, will easily pick up and transmit sound from any surface it is placed on – as such mics do. For this reason mine is placed on a separate wheeled chest of drawers next to my desk. It is isolated from my working desk top and it works well from there. Other people use anglepoise type arms and isolation cradles to solve this problem but my unit works for me and uses what I already have.
Apart from the sound quality (though if this was not very good to start with the rest would not be valid) the multiple pick up patterns are a positive advantage. Cardioid for front of mic sources, bidirectional for face to face across the mic, stereo for left / right placement of sources, omnidirectional for round table meetings etc. Just select the pattern required using the knob at the back and ‘go’ – they all work well.
The sensitivity of the mic(s) is adjustable via the gain control knob on the rear of the mic. This is something you’ll need to test properly before serious use. Too much gain and it’ll pick up everything – even things you cannot ‘hear’ at the time. Too little gain and you have the reverse. There is no shortcut, you have to adjust this for/in real life situations – unfortunately the Yeti cannot predict which level of sound you require and for what purpose.
One element understated in the literature is the quality of the headphone playback output from the Yeti. Headphones sound great through the Yeti … even good ones sound better.
An excellent piece of equipment well suited to its purpose.
I did a lot of research and it was the Yeti that stood tall – quite literally. I must admit that I wasn’t prepared for its substantial weight and height. It’s a veritable miniature R2-D2 that more resembles something out of a trophy cabinet.
However, none of that matters when you hear its remarkable sound reproduction. The Yeti’s sturdy construction includes a soft base that absorbs vibration, despite the microphone’s sensitivity. It features a mini-USB port for connection to the regular-sized one on your PC/Mac (a two-metre cable is included) and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the front are both a mute button and headphone volume control, while the back has a recording level dial and a selector for four modes: stereo, omnidirectional, figure-8 and cardioid. For my purposes, the latter will be the most used – neatly cutting input to all areas around the microphone save the front.
Set-up was simplicity itself: a quick alteration to the sound input/output preferences on the Mac, load up GarageBand and it’s there. It took a while to find the ‘sweet spot’ that offered a good balance of bass and treble but once that setting had been saved, it was just a matter of plug and play. Headphone monitoring is in real-time with no delay.
To be on the safe side, I wanted a pop filter and The Pop , also made by Blue, is recommended. Many have had trouble fitting it but there is a very straightforward solution. Check out my review of it for more details: if you follow those instructions it mounts with the minimum of fuss. You could probably get by without it if you keep your distance but despite being sat a foot away, I found that any ‘p’ sounds left a soft thud on my recording as the air hit the microphone grille.
After now having put the Yeti through its paces and exported the files as MP3s, I’m extremely impressed with the fidelity and life-like resonance it gives to my recordings. It really does make them sound as though they are professionally-produced.
I live in an old fashioned farm house with thick stone walls, which can block out the sound of anything in the next room or down stairs, this microphone manages to pick up my dogs which are down stairs and any sort of movement, even cars passing on the road which is about 120 feet away from my house.
The quality of the audio is absolutely brilliant, it’s just that it picks up EVERYTHING, the gain doesn’t seem to even affect it either. If I move a wire, move my foot, the chair creeks, anything and the microphone will pick it up. I found the sound to be rich and extremely high detailed!
Something that people will over look is the fact that this does all the work; You don’t need a good sound card to record and it even boosts the quality of sound coming from my PC, like listening to music or gaming, because you can plug your headphones into it. Which is brilliant for me, since my PC is nearly 9 years old.
It simply plugged in and worked. To dampen the sound I used the box it was delivered in and lined it with foam, it’s a mini sound booth.
I use this microphone to record gameplay commentary, so it might be wise to invest in a good gaming headset, because this thing will pick up your TV too, even if it’s facing away. I bought this and a pair of Turtle Beach X12s and it’s the perfect gaming combo!
You can find examples of what I recorded at:[…]
I hope this review helped someone out!!