In a further search to improve my hardware, and the possibility of a new hobby consisting of podcasting and commentating, I searched for one thing that would vastly improve the quality of the content I will eventually be creating. Recording gameplay video is no big deal, however, when it comes to the audio portion, my little Zalman clip on microphone just wasn't cutting it any more. A few quick peeks around some electronics retailers netted me the Yeti for about $130 after tax, and so far, I'm happy with the purchase.
The Yeti weighs in at about 1.5 kilos, and stands approximately a foot tall when extended in the stand. As you can imagine, this thing is built to last. The entire construction, minus the knobs and buttons, is metal, with retro chrome accents. Moving it around is a bit of a pain, but it's hard to topple. The device feels like it's worth what I paid for, which I believe is really important. The base is padded with a bit of foam to reduce vibration, and also acts as cable management. I find the foam doesn't deaden my typing or my mouse movements, so I may see about moving the Yeti to an arm or a stand.
On the front of the Yeti is a button for mute, and a knob for volume control. The mute button is a bit confusing at first, when the light is blinking, the microphone is muted, when it's solid, it's live. It makes sense now, however, I think I would have liked a simple on/off for the light. Off if it's live, on if it's muted. The volume control is for the built in headphone amplifier, which allows you to monitor without having to run more cables. I think this might be nice if the computer you're plugged into is located away from the microphone, and you're dealing with a shorter set of headphones, but I haven't used it as of yet as the Yeti is just on my desk, and the cable for my HD555s is rather long.
On the back of the Yeti are two more knobs, the top one controlling gain, which I don't believe has to be played with all that much in my setting, and the bottom one controlling the pattern. The Yeti uses a tri capsule array, which consists of three condenser microphone capsules. This allows the Yeti to record in many different situations, by differing the recording power of different microphones in the array. The four recording modes are:
- Stereo: Great for vocals, choir, and instruments. Records mainly from the left and right of the mic.
- Cardioid: Great for vocals, podcasts, instruments, and voice overs. Records from the front of the mic.
- Omnidirectional: Best used for conference calls, field recordings, or large events where you want to capture everything. Records all sides equally.
- Bidirectional: Great for interviews, instruments, and vocal duets. Records from the front and the back of the mic.
The mode most often used by myself is Cardioid, as I find it gives the best sound quality in the scenarios I use it in.
The bottom of the Yeti houses the Mini USB port, the 3.5mm headphone jack, and a threaded port for a microphone stand. All power for the Yeti is provided strictly through the USB connection, making it compatible with a wide range of devices. Operating system support is great, with plug and play working fine with Windows Vista and 7, along with Mac OSX. The headphone jack should power any consumer headphone fine, with an output impedance of 16 ohms, and an output power rating of 130mw. The threaded port for the microphone stand is standard size, so it should fit just about any stand on the market.
Overall, really pleased with the purchase, and hoping the Yeti will be able to follow me into the future, and help me create some awesome content. This mic comes highly recommended, with my only complaint being that it picks up noises through vibrations on my desk. Whether it be used for just online gaming, or content creation, anyone looking to step things up in the audio recording department should look at the Blue Yeti.
I hope to update this in the near future with a few audio samples.
UPDATE: Audio sample
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