The Blue Yeti Mic is a professional-grade condenser mic designed specifically to record vocals and instruments. It delivers clear and rich sound which makes them the primary option for many pro streamers and gamers. If you’ve recently purchased one or looking up to. You should at least know what that knob with weird symbols in the front has to do with the mic. If you ever asked yourself what the blue yeti polar patterns are! Then the answer is within that knob setting. Let’s dive in.
Blue Yeti Pattern Modes – The Quick Answer
The blue yeti microphone supports 4 different types of modes or polar patterns:
- Cardioid Mode
- Omnidirectional Mode
- Stereo Mode
- Bidirectional Mode
Each polar pattern is ideal for a specific use, each one identifies how and where the sound is picked from, which significantly affects the sensitivity and sound quality in a good or a bad manner depending on the user’s position.
How do you change the Blue Yeti mode?
To check and change the polar pattern mode of your blue yeti mic, you’ll have to look at the rear of your mic, you’ll notice two knobs, one is marked with “Gain” it’s related to the pickup sensitivity, you should skip that one for the moment! the second knob is marked with “Pattern”, which is what you’re looking for!
You’ll notice that the pattern selector knob is indicated with the 4 blue yeti modes. We numbered them from 1 to 4 to make things easier for you (you can also compare each symbol with the pattern guide below to understand each symbol what refers to). Then switch the bottom to the pattern you want to select, you may find that the pattern selection knob is rigid to turn. This is normal, Just give it a little extra push and you’re good to go.
- Bidirectional Mode
- Cardioid Mode
- Omnidirectional mode
- Stereo Mode
Make sure to refer to the guide below, it’s a quick and simple table that we made it look easy to understand which pattern you should use for a certain application, and from which direction the Yeti will pick up the sound. Feel free to play around with the polar settings and experience how each mode works.
Blue Yeti microphone polar pattern modes explained
What is Polar Pattern
You may ask yourself what those modes refer to, And what are their best practice. So, let’s have a quick overview of polar patterns. A microphone’s mode or polar pattern indicates how sensitive the mic is to sounds arriving at different angles about its central axis. It’s basically. how well the microphone receives sound relative to the angle or direction of where the sound comes from.
Read more about polar patter and condenser microphones in this article: Everything To Know About Condenser Microphones –
Cardioid Mode
| Overview | Best Practice |
|---|---|
| Cardioid mode is the first supported mode by the blue yeti microphone, Yet the most commonly used because it picks the sound directly in the front of the microphone and delivers a rich and robust sound. | Twitch, streaming, Gaming, Voice Overs |
Omnidirectional mode
| Overview | Best Practice |
|---|---|
| Omnidirectional mode as the symbol indicates, picks up the voice equally from all directions – in 360 degrees radius. | live performance,multi-person podcast, conference calls. |
Stereo Mode
| Overview | Best Practice |
|---|---|
| Uses both the left and right direction to capture a wide, realistic sound equally in an opposite way. | ASMR videos, audio production |
Bidirectional Mode
| Overview | Best Practice |
|---|---|
| Records from both the front and rear of the microphone equally | dual meetings, interview |
Blue Yeti microphone Overview
The Blue Yeti is a multi-pattern USB microphone. It delivers four different microphone polar patterns or modes using three microphone capsules. Blue Yeti Mic is the first choice for millions of Gamers and streamers, it’s probably the best-selling Condenser microphone for YouTube, Twitch, podcasting, and more applications. As a matter of fact, I myself own the Blue yeti blackout edition, and I’m happy with it. Blue Yeti delivers crystal-clear audio that’s light-years ahead of your built-in computer mic. It’s suitable for everyone. Whether you’re a newbie or a pro gamer, this mic will boost your gaming experience.
SPECIFICATIONS
| Power Consumption | 5V 150mA |
| Capsules | 3 Blue-proprietary 14mm condenser capsules |
| Polar Patterns | Cardioid, Bidirectional, Omnidirectional, Stereo |
| Frequency Response | 20Hz – 20kHz |
| Signal to Noise | 100dB |
| Operating system | Windows 10 or higher/macOS 10.14 or later |
Blue Yeti Pattern Modes – FAQs
The answer is quite easy. The cardioid mode is the best pattern for streaming, gaming, and making voiceovers. This mode picks the sound coming directly in front of the streamer and delivers a crisp, rich and clear voice quality.
1. Get close to the mic
2. Speak directly into the sensitive side of the Blue Yeti mic.
3. avoid surrounding noises
4. use a pop filter or foam
5. invest in acoustic treatment
6. use software and filters like Audacity, OBS, and Voicemeeter to improve this voice quality
The short answer is yes, it works fine with mono and stereo. The blue mic supports the stereo mode, it’s one of its four polar patterns, which allows picking the sound from opposite directions, this results in an output of the Left/Right channels. While using another mode won’t necessarily mean stereo, you can notice slight output deference from the left and right channels especially if the sensitivity is high enough.
Conclusion
We Hope this straight-to-the-point guide helped you find your answer regarding the blue yeti mic modes. Those modes are universal, so you will find them with every microphone guide. It’s important to learn and know what those symbols mean to use your microphone the right way. Fortunately, in our blog, we covered everything related to microphones for gamers and streamers. Condenser microphones are a must-have. Feel free to browse around the blog and read about mics and what they do. There is nothing better than having a base knowledge of the technicalities and how things work.
Check how to use the background noise for the blue yeti microphone the proper way Here
