Gadgetory

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 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 because it's going to be a wild ride first this video though save on select intel core i7 processors and 730 series SSDs with instant rebates during Valentine's week February 14th to 21st 2015 click now to learn 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 vibrations 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 rotated 180 degrees 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 B USB connector a standard threaded hole for use with third-party microphone mounts and a headphone jack that allows a real-time audio monitoring something that is a must-have for podcasters games dreamers are 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 5 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 try capsule array of condenser modules inside the little mesh cover 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 jewelle 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 bi-directional 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 I 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 to 192 kilohertz 24-bit recording something that might be useful for artists who want to get the best possible results although blues QuickStart 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 kilohertz if your audio is destined for CD but of course once again Linus gets over four minutes into a microphone video without actually doing any frakking 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 it specs as someone on the internet mistakenly interpreted to mean it's a rebrand are so similar to the Yeti and it's price is in between the two leaning a little closer to the pro next up is the blue Getty blackout compared to the siren I find from a reasonable distance it gives my voice a perhaps slightly less natural but more pleasing radio light 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 and 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 microphone 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 it's 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 we've noticeably better recording quality and XLR supported 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 sound link in the video description speaking of links in the video description there's a link to our sponsor crunchyroll in the video description if you're a fan of anime and you haven't signed up for crunchyroll premium yet you should definitely check them out they offer the most current episodes of new show straight from Japan like parasite the Maxon and Fairy Tail as well as a large collection of the most popular anime series like one piece and Trinity 7 and all of the content on their site is professionally subtitled so if you head over to crunchyroll.com / - you can sign up for a 30-day free trial of crunchyroll premium which gives you a whole month a free anime completely ad free and if you enjoy them any benefits of premium like 1080p streaming getting new episodes of shows straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere and being able to stream anywhere anytime from a variety of devices like your phone tablet or heck even your Wii U you can continue your premium membership to crunchyroll for only 695 per month so head over to crunchyroll.com slash Linus and check them out thanks for crunchyroll for sponsoring this episode thanks to you guys for watching like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it sucked also check out the other link in the video description where you can support us you can give us monthly contribution buy a cool t-shirt like this one or change your amazon bookmark to one of our affiliate code so we get a small kickback whenever you buy things like oh I don't know microphones hello this microphone is calling to you okay that probably wasn't a great sales pitch my my seductive voice is not very seductive well I think we're done here don't forget to subscribe as always