Gear Review: The Blue Yeti

01/04/10 23:05

The Yeti
USB microphone
Blue Microphones
$149.95
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4.5 out of 5 (We couldn’t figure out how to type a half-@.)

PROS: Great design. Four pickup patterns. Good balanced sound.
CONS: USB audio just shy of pro quality. Control knobs a tad jiggly.

Blue has become famous for its striking microphone designs, and the retro-modern USB Yeti is a worthy addition to the company’s product lineup.

The first thing you'll notice is what a beautiful, well-designed object this is. The Yeti has a solid custom desk stand that provides built-in cable management for headphone and USB cords. Despite its outdoorsy name, this Yeti is not the ideal choice for recording in the wild -- it’s really big and really heavy. But the swivel-stand arrangement allows you to rotate the body of the mic upside down into the base if you do need portability.

On the front: a mic mute button and headphone volume dial. On the rear, mic level control and a pickup pattern selector. The dials strike us as just a tad jiggly and plasticky for such an otherwise elegant design. On the bottom are the zero-latency headphone jack and mini-USB connector. The swiveling body makes accessing the USB and headphone ports a snap. Another thoughtful addition is a 5/8 inch threaded hole that allows you to remove the base and mount the Yeti on a standard microphone floor stand.

The Yeti houses a trio of mic elements to offer stereo, omni, cardioid, and figure-eight pickup patterns. The selections give the mic a versatile bag of sound tricks, whether you're recording a solo podcast, taping an interview or meeting, or laying down some vocals in GarageBand. The headphone amp doesn't exactly go to 11, but the mic delivers a pretty respectable output level. We're talking 16-bit USB audio, so the Yeti doesn't have quite the full warmth and sonic detail of a "real" large-diaphragm condenser like Blue's pro studio models. But the sound is surprisingly good for a USB mic, with much less noise than similarly-featured competitors like the Samson G-Track.

No drivers needed -- just plug in the included USB cable. On a Mac, select "Yeti Stereo Microphone" for both input and output in the Sound control panel of System Preferences. Configuring audio in/out in GarageBand's Audio preferences is a snap, too.

The Yeti displays minimal “boominess” on the low end when worked close, what audio pros call “the proximity effect.” To avoid P-pops and breath sounds, you might want to invest in a pop screen of some kind, though it seems a shame to put a big foam hat on top of such a beautiful head.

Did we mention how cool The Yeti looks sitting on your desk? The streamlined aluminum styling matches the finish of Apple's current product lineup quite well.

The Yeti's sound quality and multiple pickup patterns raise the bar a bit for USB mics, and leave even Blue's much-beloved Snowball playing catch-up. For the price, a product that looks and sounds this good is going to be pretty hard to beat. Highly recommended.

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