Is the Blue Yeti Right for Your Podcast?

Let me start by saying the Blue Yeti USB mic is an excellent mic for a lot of purposes. I use it myself for game streaming. It got much better once I figured out how to use it.

For starters, the Blue Yeti is a condenser mic, which means it’s very sensitive to room noise. If you have an acoustically modified room or studio, it will be great. If you don’t, or you have a half-assed modification to your home office like I do, you’ll have to do a lot of post audio work.

Second thing to know, is you have to be very close to the Blue Yeti for it to get the best sound. I was about a foot away, but that’s too far. We’re talking one to two inches. On the plus side, when you’re this close it has a nice conversational side.

But the majority of podcasts, especially new ones, are on a shoestring budget. In that case, you can get more bang for your buck by using a $60 dynamic mic. A dynamic mic is more forgiving of room and background noise, and still gives a very nice, rich sound. Although there are several USB dynamic mics out there, you can get an even better sound by using an audio interface.

And once you make enough from your podcast to add sound dampening to your walls, you can decide if you want to stick with your dynamic mic or go in a different direction.

Originally published at https://www.grimginger.com on November 10, 2020.