Blue Yeti Microphone
I have before me the Blue Yeti microphone, which for years has been referred to as the best USB microphone, and you might have noticed it on various YouTube/vlog channels. Most who start out generally get themselves a USB mic and mostly a Blue Yeti, that is until they upgrade to a more professional rig, which is on a completely different level, which include multiple hardware like interface and preamps. But not wanting to invest too much, and also improve on the sound quality, i picked one up myself.
Just look at it, it looks fantastic in all angles, giving your setup a very professional look. The metal finish, the clickiness of the buttons, and the stand, which is nice and heavy all look really premium.
I found the Mic on Amazon at almost Rs 3000 off, so snapped it up. There are various color options, some that bring’s down the cost, maybe because not many want the odd colour, so scout around. The link to the version i have purchased is in the description, so you can check out the product yourselves.
Out of the box you will notice, the Blue yeti is not small in any which way. It stands around a foot in height, and weighs 1.5 kilos. I purchased the silver colored version, which looks really shiny and solid. It comes with a USB cable, which works with both a Mac and PC. On connecting the mic to a free USB port, windows instantly identifies the mic and installs the required driver.
The mic can be folded down, to help with storage or packing, but mostly this mic is going to be sitting on my desk. A this price point the Blue yeti is the best you can get, and if you want something better, you will have to shell out more than 2-3 times the price.
The Blue Yeti has an internal preamp and a ADC or Analog to Digital converter, that converts the sounds it hears into a digital signal, before it is sent to the computer. Being USB, it doesn’t need any other hardware to being recording, just plug and play.
On the front of the mic we have the Blue logo, under that the mic on/off toggle, and below that we have the volume control for using an external headphone, this doesn’t control the main volume. The mic toggle, stays continuous red, when the mic is active, and blinks when muted.
Under the mic we have the headphone jack for latency free monitoring of the audio being recorded,i use this to attach to my DSLR, so i get pure mic audio directly. The Mic needs to be powered, so the USB cable is attached to a laptop, via the USB port below the mic. There is also a thread mount below, which can be used to mount the mic onto a mic stand. You need to remove the yeti off its stand to mount it. The bottom of the mic stand , has rubber pads which keeps the mic in place, and not slip.
Within the mic are three condenser mics, which gives the yeti it’s semi-pro features or modes.
On the back of the microphone, we have the gain knob, which allows us to increase/ decrease the sensitivity of the mic. Below that we have the pattern knob, which allows us to select the mode the mic should operate in. It is robust and gives out a satisfying click when changing modes.Demo of modes are shown in the video.
So if you are looking for a microphone, for recording voiceovers, vlogs,livestreams, video chats like skype, google hangouts, and anything that needs high quality audio, the Blue Yeti would fit the bill. It manages to pick up your voice the excellently, including all the pitches and how your voice sounds in real life. I kind of liked the clarity it provides, so what do you think, does the audio sound better, of did you like how it used to sound earlier. Make sure to comment below.
