I’ve been using the Blue Yeti USB microphone as my first podcasting microphone and after having used it for several months, I have a few bits of wisdom to pass on.
Before we jump in to these tips, if you’d like to hear the difference between a podcast I recorded with and without the Blue Yeti, you can first listen to this one (with the microphone) and then this one (my mac’s built-in microphone). Keep in mind that I’m still working on beefing up my audio editing skills, so this also is responsible for some of the differences.
1) There sometimes is a noticeable hum when recording
After I plugged the microphone into my laptop’s USB port and recorded my first podcast, I noticed this distinct hum during silences throughout the recording. I did some research and came to the conclusion that the hum was caused by my computer and the need for a powered usb cable.
Although I haven’t yet bought a powered usb cord, I managed to pretty much eliminate the sound with Audacity using this technique.
2) Don’t use the mute button on the mic
I’ve made the mistake when recording a podcast with a guest to hit the “mute” button on the microphone and for whatever reason, I didn’t click it hard enough to turn off the sound on my end and there was this awkward plastic button noise when I replayed back the recording.
Rather than muting your end of a recording with the mute button on the mic, I recommend sticking to using the software button on Skype to accomplish that.
3) Experiment before recording
I’m one of those people that like to ready fire aim when it comes to producing content. When I was recording a youtube video, I could hear myself fine in the mic playback, but throughout the video I sometimes changed the position of my chair a little bit and moved backwards and forewords towards and away from the camera.
Obviously, this movement changed the sound recording quality throughout the video. If you’re going to record a long podcast or youtube video, it’s best to try to maintain in the same position throughout the recording or to experiment ahead of time to make sure that the microphone picks up all of the sounds.
4) Understanding all the knobs.
The first image below is of the front of the Blue Yeti. As you can see, there is the mute button, which I referenced earlier, and a headphone volume knob. The volume knob will control the sound that comes out of the microphone to your headphones, which you might be using to monitor how you sound.
The second image is of the back of the Blue Yeti. The back contains the gain knob and the pattern knob. The gain knob controls the sensitivity of the microphone and how it will pick up noises in the surrounding environment.
“When recording in USB mode, begin recording with this knob centered. If you are experiencing digital distortion with a very loud sound source, simply decrease the gain counterclockwise. If you desire higher sensitivity, simply increase the gain by turning clockwise.
When recording using the analog outputs, we recommend the microphone gain on the Yeti Pro to be turned to zero, or all the way counterclockwise. If more gain is desired you can rotate the knob clockwise to increase the microphone’s 4 sensitivity. However, in analog mode, Blue recommends making gain adjustments in your preamplifier or interface equipment to minimize the chance of distortion.” – Source.
The patter knob also controls how the microphone picks up sound, but in a different way. The various icons show whether sound will be taken in from the front and sides (vocals/instruments), all around (conference calls/events/field recordings), from the front only (podcasts/voiceover/vocals), or from the front and the back (interviews/instruments).
Finally, the bottom of the Blue Yetti contains the USB port and the headphone jack. Like most podcasters, a usb microphone was a must for me because I knew I’d be using it for online interviews and recordings.
Would I buy it again?
I am in no way a technical expert when it comes to microphones. Thus far, I’ve had a pretty good experience with the Blue Yeti and the built in gain and pattern knobs have helped my understanding of recording in general. I’m still working on producing the best sound quality, but I think that this comes with time and trial and error.
The only other microphone I was considering buying was the Blue Snowball USB Microphone, which is about half of the Blue Yeti in price. One thing I did that made the choice much easier was spend an hour watching youtube videos of different people demoing the various microphones and providing their thoughts. Thank you, internet.
I’m curious – what microphone do you use? Let me know in a comment below!
