Podcasters On New TV Show Using Yeti Mic Wrong

In the recent Fox show, Proven Innocent, they frequently show a podcaster speaking into her microphone. That mic is a Blue Yeti.

The Yeti is a good quality USB microphone. So it’s popular with podcasters and other people recording voiceover audio who don’t have a large budget for gear. USB mics don’t require separate interface units like standard large diaphragm condenser mics. So the price is quite low for the quality you get.

The Yeti is also a large diaphragm condenser (LDC) mic. And that type of microphone almost always means you speak into the SIDE of the mic, not the end of it. See the picture below with a standard large diaphragm condenser.

The Yeti Is Not A Standard Shape

I’m confident that the reason for the people on the TV show using the mic wrong is that the Yeti looks a bit different from your typical LDC. As in the picture above, there is at least usually an obvious front and back. that makes it confusing enough. See our video “A VERY Common Voice Recording Mistake – Are You Doing This?“

But the top of the Yeti has an almost spherical shape, so it’s even more confusing. You really need to know already that the Yeti is a “side-address” microphone and NOT an end-address mic to begin with. Once you know that, you can use the fact that the company logo is on one side of the mic and the control knobs are on the other “side.” So yeah, it’s pretty confusing already.

But if you DON’T already know you’re supposed to speak into the side, rather than the end of the Yeti, it would be totally understandable for someone to think the end of the mic was where the sound is supposed to go in. The problem is that is incorrect.

See the pic below from the TV show.

The Blue Yeti website even has a graphic of a Yeti (what else?) with a right and wrong way to talk into this mic. Check that out here: https://www.bluedesigns.com/yeti-support/

What Should It Look Like?

The picture below shows how you are supposed to talk into a Yeti mic

So if you plan on using a Yeti microphone, or plan to start, make sure you speak into the SIDE of it and not the end.