Blue Yeti Blackout & Yeti Pro - Unsurprisingly Excellent
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,753 words · ~8 min read
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so immediately following the publication of our video on the razor siren the
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comments were full of people asking why we didn't review microphone X Y or Z or
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other microphone that was their personal favorite and the answer was that we
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simply didn't have them but the good news is that the solution to that
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problem was simple go freak and get them so in today's video we'll be checking
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out two mics from Blue microphones the
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yeti blackout which is exactly like the yeti but
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well you get the point and the yeti Pro a premium yeti with better recording
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quality and XLR support oh and uh for
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those of you asking which appears to be literally everyone scrapyard Wars 1B is
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coming out Saturday night so get some popcorn and plant your butt on the edge
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of your seat cuz it's going to be a wild ride first this video though
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save on select Intel Core i7 processors and 730 series ssds with instant rebates
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during Valentine's week February 14th to 21st 2015 click now to learn
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more the physical tour of these microphones is one of the reasons I
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opted to do them both together as a single video they look almost like
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exactly the same thing with a different paint job so we'll focus on the blackout
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to start the stand base uses foam to reduce unwanted noise caused by
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vibration from desk movements and features a satisfyingly solid
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professional feeling metal construction with a cable management hole through the
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bottom and a shape that cups the top of the microphone if you rotate at 180° for
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travel the arms have plastic wish they were rubber spacers in between and thumb
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nuts that let you lock the microphone in at the desired angle at the bottom of
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the unit itself is a mini USB connector
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a standard threaded hole for use with third party microphone mounts and a
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headphone jack that allows a realtime audio monitoring something that is a
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musthave for podcasters game streamers
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or really anyone who wants to hear their own voice for the assurance that nothing
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is wrong with the recording but who can't stand the delay that comes along
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with software Solutions so pretty much everyone who does those things while
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we're down here the main physical difference between the pro and the
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non-pro is that the pro has this five pin socket down here that with the use
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of the included XLR left and right adapter can be used with external
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recording equipment so Pro users aren't changed to a PC Mac or Linux computer
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for audio capture on the front of the mic is a headphone volume knob and power
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indicator LED that doubles as a mute button so it flashes when it's muted
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then around the back is the gain knob for mic pickup and the pattern switch
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that allows for any of the four different pickup patterns to be selected
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so there's a tri capsule array of condenser modules inside the little mesh
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covered Dome at the top that enables that feature so mode number one
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stereo I hit the wrong dial there we go is for if you want the
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listener to be able to isolate the source of individual sounds in a
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recording omnidirectional is for conference calls
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or if you have some other reason why you'd want to compromise how nice the
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recording sounds for the sake of having a lot of background or ambient noise
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cardioid the mode I'd expect most users of a mic
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like this to use is for getting up close and personal with your mic for that
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deeply satisfying AM radio Sound for
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podcasts voiceovers or other vocal recordings and finally
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bidirectional is for if you had two sources on opposite sides of the
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mic like in an interview or something but you wanted to cut out some
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background noise from around the sides I mean I can think of a thousand better
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audio setups for an interview than this but guess it's hard to argue with it for
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the price and with the ease of use it's no wonder folks are so fond of their
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yetis the microphone is completely driverless just plug it in with the
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included cable select the appropriate audio device in your control panel and
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you are ready to rock unless you pick up
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the pro actually blue does have a driver for this one on their website but I
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guess that's because it supports up to92 khz 24bit recording something that might
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be useful for artists who want to get the best possible results although
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Blue's quick start guide which has a lot of excellent information in it for both
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mics by the way seriously one of the best manuals I've seen in all my years
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of doing this has some great tips about choosing the right sample rate for the
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final destination of your recording versus just choosing the highest one so
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like for example you want a multiple of 44 khz if you're audio is destined for
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CD but of course once again lonus gets over 4 minutes into microphone video
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without actually doing any fracking sound quality comparisons I hate that
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guy you're right and I'm a terrible person so here we go I'll begin with
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each microphone in its ideal configuration in cardioid mode right in
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front of me with a dual layer pop filter the razor siren will be my main point of
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comparison because its specs as someone on the internet mistakenly interpreted
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to mean it's a Rebrand are so similar to the yeti and its price is in between the
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two leaning a little closer to the pro next up is the Blue Yeti blackout
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compared to the siren I find from a reasonable distance it gives my voice a
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perhaps slightly less natural but more pleasing radio like quality and does a
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significantly better job of blocking out background noise of computer fans in the
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room and the sound of typing on a keyboard behind it the yeti pro picks up
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even less of the typing and less of the low hum in the room although the
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difference is less pronounced than what we saw between the siren and the regular
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Yeti but as impressive as that is the main thing that makes it stand apart
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from the other microphones today is the sound of my voice through it the best
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way I can describe it is that it delivers sort of the best of both of the
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other mics in this Roundup but then again I guess it should since it is the
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most expensive so for my next trick starting with the siren I'll run through
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each of the three microphones in a more convenient off to the side of my monitor
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recording location this is where I would expect anyone who isn't concerned with
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the most professional possible vocal recordings to position his or her
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microphones since it gets it out of the way switching to the yeti I hear a
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difference in the sound of my voice recording that makes it seem like even
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though all the microphones are still set to cardioid the siren handles the
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distance a little better in that respect at least that would be the case if its
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background hum wasn't so noticeable compared to the lower priced
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Yeti and finally switching to the yeti Pro we once again see why this mic is so
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well respected it doesn't sound like it's sitting in the Next Room over and
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still does a great job of managing background noise this thing is
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definitely worth a few bucks extra compared to the
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siren and I guess that's pretty much the conclusion of this video the siren from
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the conclusion of our review on it is still a very good microphone it's just a
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very good microphone with competitors that are also very good and priced quite
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a bit lower and with noticeably better recording quality and XLR support at
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only a slightly higher price point the yeti and especially the yeti Pro deserve
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all the love they get from their users both come highly recommended at this
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point by the way guys if you want to compare these mics against every other
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mic I've ever tested there's a SoundCloud Link in the video description
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speaking of links in the video description there's a link to our sponsor crunchy roll in the video
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description if you're a fan of anime and you haven't signed up for crunchy roll
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subtitled so if you head over to crunchyroll.com Linus you can sign up
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your premium membership to cruncher for only $6.95 per month so head over to
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crunchyroll.com Linus and check them out thanks to Crunchyroll for sponsoring
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this episode thanks to you guys for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked also
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I don't know microphones hello this microphone is
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calling to you okay that probably wasn't a great
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sales pitch my uh my seductive voice is not very
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seductive well I think we're done here don't forget to subscribe as always