so immediately following the publication of our video on the razor siren the
comments were full of people asking why we didn't review microphone X Y or Z or
other microphone that was their personal favorite and the answer was that we
simply didn't have them but the good news is that the solution to that
problem was simple go freak and get them so in today's video we'll be checking
out two mics from Blue microphones the
yeti blackout which is exactly like the yeti but
well you get the point and the yeti Pro a premium yeti with better recording
quality and XLR support oh and uh for
those of you asking which appears to be literally everyone scrapyard Wars 1B is
coming out Saturday night so get some popcorn and plant your butt on the edge
of your seat cuz it's going to be a wild ride first this video though
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more the physical tour of these microphones is one of the reasons I
opted to do them both together as a single video they look almost like
exactly the same thing with a different paint job so we'll focus on the blackout
to start the stand base uses foam to reduce unwanted noise caused by
vibration from desk movements and features a satisfyingly solid
professional feeling metal construction with a cable management hole through the
bottom and a shape that cups the top of the microphone if you rotate at 180° for
travel the arms have plastic wish they were rubber spacers in between and thumb
nuts that let you lock the microphone in at the desired angle at the bottom of
the unit itself is a mini USB connector
a standard threaded hole for use with third party microphone mounts and a
headphone jack that allows a realtime audio monitoring something that is a
musthave for podcasters game streamers
or really anyone who wants to hear their own voice for the assurance that nothing
is wrong with the recording but who can't stand the delay that comes along
with software Solutions so pretty much everyone who does those things while
we're down here the main physical difference between the pro and the
non-pro is that the pro has this five pin socket down here that with the use
of the included XLR left and right adapter can be used with external
recording equipment so Pro users aren't changed to a PC Mac or Linux computer
for audio capture on the front of the mic is a headphone volume knob and power
indicator LED that doubles as a mute button so it flashes when it's muted
then around the back is the gain knob for mic pickup and the pattern switch
that allows for any of the four different pickup patterns to be selected
so there's a tri capsule array of condenser modules inside the little mesh
covered Dome at the top that enables that feature so mode number one
stereo I hit the wrong dial there we go is for if you want the
listener to be able to isolate the source of individual sounds in a
recording omnidirectional is for conference calls
or if you have some other reason why you'd want to compromise how nice the
recording sounds for the sake of having a lot of background or ambient noise
cardioid the mode I'd expect most users of a mic
like this to use is for getting up close and personal with your mic for that
deeply satisfying AM radio Sound for
podcasts voiceovers or other vocal recordings and finally
bidirectional is for if you had two sources on opposite sides of the
mic like in an interview or something but you wanted to cut out some
background noise from around the sides I mean I can think of a thousand better
audio setups for an interview than this but guess it's hard to argue with it for
the price and with the ease of use it's no wonder folks are so fond of their
yetis the microphone is completely driverless just plug it in with the
included cable select the appropriate audio device in your control panel and
you are ready to rock unless you pick up
the pro actually blue does have a driver for this one on their website but I
guess that's because it supports up to92 khz 24bit recording something that might
be useful for artists who want to get the best possible results although
Blue's quick start guide which has a lot of excellent information in it for both
mics by the way seriously one of the best manuals I've seen in all my years
of doing this has some great tips about choosing the right sample rate for the
final destination of your recording versus just choosing the highest one so
like for example you want a multiple of 44 khz if you're audio is destined for
CD but of course once again lonus gets over 4 minutes into microphone video
without actually doing any fracking sound quality comparisons I hate that
guy you're right and I'm a terrible person so here we go I'll begin with
each microphone in its ideal configuration in cardioid mode right in
front of me with a dual layer pop filter the razor siren will be my main point of
comparison because its specs as someone on the internet mistakenly interpreted
to mean it's a Rebrand are so similar to the yeti and its price is in between the
two leaning a little closer to the pro next up is the Blue Yeti blackout
compared to the siren I find from a reasonable distance it gives my voice a
perhaps slightly less natural but more pleasing radio like quality and does a
significantly better job of blocking out background noise of computer fans in the
room and the sound of typing on a keyboard behind it the yeti pro picks up
even less of the typing and less of the low hum in the room although the
difference is less pronounced than what we saw between the siren and the regular
Yeti but as impressive as that is the main thing that makes it stand apart
from the other microphones today is the sound of my voice through it the best
way I can describe it is that it delivers sort of the best of both of the
other mics in this Roundup but then again I guess it should since it is the
most expensive so for my next trick starting with the siren I'll run through
each of the three microphones in a more convenient off to the side of my monitor
recording location this is where I would expect anyone who isn't concerned with
the most professional possible vocal recordings to position his or her
microphones since it gets it out of the way switching to the yeti I hear a
difference in the sound of my voice recording that makes it seem like even
though all the microphones are still set to cardioid the siren handles the
distance a little better in that respect at least that would be the case if its
background hum wasn't so noticeable compared to the lower priced
Yeti and finally switching to the yeti Pro we once again see why this mic is so
well respected it doesn't sound like it's sitting in the Next Room over and
still does a great job of managing background noise this thing is
definitely worth a few bucks extra compared to the
siren and I guess that's pretty much the conclusion of this video the siren from
the conclusion of our review on it is still a very good microphone it's just a
very good microphone with competitors that are also very good and priced quite
a bit lower and with noticeably better recording quality and XLR support at
only a slightly higher price point the yeti and especially the yeti Pro deserve
all the love they get from their users both come highly recommended at this
point by the way guys if you want to compare these mics against every other
mic I've ever tested there's a SoundCloud Link in the video description
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I don't know microphones hello this microphone is
calling to you okay that probably wasn't a great
sales pitch my uh my seductive voice is not very
seductive well I think we're done here don't forget to subscribe as always