Blue Yeti alternatives

[Yoola]

I have a decent facebook group of 73k people and I was thinking about getting back to streaming for the group. Since Cloud II's microphone ain't cutting it I started looking for a microphone upgrade. 

I really wanted the Blue Yeti as it's USB and I don't want to really go for audio interface and spend bajillion bucks on it if all I need is simple microphone upgrade that's somewhat decent. This whole streaming idea might not work out afterall so I don't want to invest too much. 

Since I'm a student, money's tight. After realising I'd have to get boom arm, shock mount and probably pop filter I'm starting to look for some good alternatives for Blue Yeti. Blue Snowball and Snowball iCE look like a good replacement but I'm not sure. That's why I'm here so you peepz could help me in a way. 

 

So the requrements are:

>have to be USB

>mountable

>cheaper than Yeti

[factorialandha]

whats your budget? thats the key factor here by the sounds of it.

[Yoola]

Just now, factorialandha said:

whats your budget? thats the key factor here by the sounds of it.

Well basically up to Blue Yeti. I saw some of them used going for 80€. 

[aaronhare]

I have a blue snowball ice. It is a great mic that sounds fine. It does not have the audio recording from all directions unlike the snowball but the snowball’s 360 audio recording is terrible. The normal speaking into the front sounds great and I cannot tell the difference between it and a yeti. Good luck!

[Halazar]

I have a Blue Yeti and as far as I understand it, the difference from the Snowball is essentially just the mounting and the additional features(volume wheel, the possibility of inserting a 3.5mm jack, the volume gain wheel, the "sound recognition pattern" wheel, etc.etc.) the engineering of the microphone itself should be the same, and so the overall sound quality(but again, you wont be able to use some of the features that contribute a little on the yeti for a better quality, like being able to choose a specific pattern, like focusing on hearing just audio coming from the front, or 2 sides, etc.).

I personally regret buying the blue yeti, for an XLR with an even budget interface is vastly superior, but the yeti appears to be the best usb. Just try to look out for sales maybe?

[MrMcMuffinJr]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836556007&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Microphone-_-N82E16836556007&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIroDdlcWC2gIV2rXACh2KjQorEAQYASABEgI2JvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Yoola said:

Well basically up to Blue Yeti. I saw some of them used going for 80€. 

What is the price of the blue snowball for you ?

[factorialandha]

i have 2 of the blue yetis at work, for our video conferencing use and for recording of some of our meetings, i would definitely recommend it. From my use of it so far, you would be able to get away without mounting it or without a pop filter, however those are cheap, understandably money being tight is the key factor, but if you can squeeze an additional 20 euros on top of the cost of the yeti itself then you can get the other couple of items you need.

[aaronhare]

1 minute ago, Halazar said:

I have a blue yeti and as far as I understand it, the difference from the snowballs is essentially just the mounting and the additional features(volume wheel, the possibility of inserting a 3.5mm jack, the gain, the "sound recognition pattern", etc.etc.; the engineering of the microphone itself should be the same, and so the sound quality(but again, you wont be able to use some of the features that contribute a little on the yeti for a better quality).

I personally regret buying the blue yeti, for an XLR with an even budget interface is vastly superior, but the yeti appears to be the best usb. Just try to look out for sales maybe?

You can just adjust the volume in any audio recording program like Audacity and OBS. Other than that it does have more features but the blue snowball ice is still a good budget mic.

[Halazar]

1 minute ago, AaronsDev said:

You can just adjust the volume in any audio recording program like Audacity and OBS. Other than that it does have more features but the blue snowball ice is still a good budget mic.

Yeah but sometimes its the accessability that matters; being able to instantly mute it with your fingers thanks to the mute button, or adjust the gain with the wheel, etc.

[Yoola]

7 minutes ago, AaronsDev said:

I have a blue snowball ice. It is a great mic that sounds fine. It does not have the audio recording from all directions unlike the snowball but the snowball’s 360 audio recording is terrible. The normal speaking into the front sounds great and I cannot tell the difference between it and a yeti. Good luck!

Yeah, I was gonna use any mic in cardioid pattern regardless of the modes it supports

 

6 minutes ago, Halazar said:

I have a blue yeti and as far as I understand it, the difference from the snowballs is essentially just the mounting and the additional features(volume wheel, the possibility of inserting a 3.5mm jack, the gain, the "sound recognition pattern", etc.etc.; the engineering of the microphone itself should be the same, and so the sound quality(but again, you wont be able to use some of the features that contribute a little on the yeti for a better quality).

I personally regret buying the blue yeti, for an XLR with an even budget interface is vastly superior, but the yeti appears to be the best usb. Just try to look out for sales maybe?

Imma use cardioid, so are those extra wheels worth it? Only thing bothering me is there's no mute button on Snowball if I'm not mistaken.

 

6 minutes ago, MrMcMuffinJr said:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836556007&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Microphone-_-N82E16836556007&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIroDdlcWC2gIV2rXACh2KjQorEAQYASABEgI2JvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

I couldn't have anything Razer. It'd kill me inside.

 

5 minutes ago, Some Random Member said:

What is the price of the blue snowball for you ?

70€ new, I can find used for 50€, I guess. 

[aaronhare]

1 minute ago, Yoola said:

Quote

Sounds good! Good luck!

[Halazar]

3 minutes ago, Yoola said:

Imma use cardioid, so are those extra wheels worth it. Only thing bothering me is there's no mute button on Snowball if I'm not mistaken.

Honestly? Depends on the price. If a Blue Yeti is priced at 150€ and a Snowball is 50€ then please, go Snowball.
But if you can find a Yeti for 100€ and the Snowball is 70€.. I would honestly go Yeti(like I in fact did).




But please, consider XLR. It's really worth it, and you might regret not doing it for just 40€ more later down the line.

[Yoola]

Just now, AaronsDev said:

Sounds good! Good luck!

There's no mute button on Snowball, right?

[aaronhare]

1 minute ago, Yoola said:

There's no mute button on Snowball, right?

There is no button on the microphone but you can mute yourself in OBS, Audacity, and basically any audio recording software.

[TVwazhere]

6 minutes ago, Yoola said:

imma use cardioid, so are those extra wheels worth it. Only thing bothering me is there's no mute button on Snowball if I'm not mistaken.

Yes and no

 

AS an owner of the Blue yeti, I like being able to adjust the gain on the unit, and I liked the loop back on the 3.5mm jack, and the mute button is convenient, but in reality, I use all of these features rarely, I've changed my main headphones to a DAC/AMP so I have to use earbuds for the loopback feature which I rarely do due to comfort issues, I never change the pickup pattern, The unit is heavy and near impossible to find a shock mount for (though I did find one last year) And after three years of owning it, I would probably change it out for something else. It sounds great dont get me wrong, but I just dont use all of it's features to justify it over something like the AT2020

[Halazar]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

Yes and no

 

AS an owner of the Blue yeti, I like being able to adjust the gain on the unit, and I liked the loop back on the 3.5mm jack, and the mute button is convenient, but in reality, I use all of these features rarely, I never change the pickup pattern, The unit is heavy and near impossible to find a shock mount for (though I did find one last year) And after three years of owning it, I would probably change it out for something else. It sounds great dont get me wrong, but I just dont use all of it's features to justify it over something like the AT2020

I agree(even if I actually use the mute button and adjust the gain quite frequently)

[Yoola]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

Yes and no

 

AS an owner of the Blue yeti, I like being able to adjust the gain on the unit, and I liked the loop back on the 3.5mm jack, and the mute button is convenient, but in reality, I use all of these features rarely, I never change the pickup pattern, The unit is heavy and near impossible to find a shock mount for (though I did find one last year) And after three years of owning it, I would probably change it out for something else. It sounds great dont get me wrong, but I just dont use all of it's features to justify it over something like the AT2020

So something like Snowball iCE (35€ used, 50€ new) should do me a better justice?

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, Yoola said:

So something like Snowball iCE (35€ used, 50€ new) should do me a better justice?

If you dont think you're going to use all the other features, probably. 

[Yoola]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

If you dont think you're going to use all the other features, probably. 

Still the mute button on the fly is pretty handy
Idk if I could make some sort of USB switch with cable going in the Snowball. 

[Yoola]

Something like this but with proper connection.

[Justin2Justin14]

1 hour ago, AaronsDev said:

I have a blue snowball ice. It is a great mic that sounds fine. It does not have the audio recording from all directions unlike the snowball but the snowball’s 360 audio recording is terrible. The normal speaking into the front sounds great and I cannot tell the difference between it and a yeti. Good luck!

there is so much better than blue there quite over priced.

[Justin2Justin14]

1 hour ago, Yoola said:

I have a decent facebook group of 73k people and I was thinking about getting back to streaming for the group. Since Cloud II's microphone ain't cutting it I started looking for a microphone upgrade. 

I really wanted the Blue Yeti as it's USB and I don't want to really go for audio interface and spend bajillion bucks on it if all I need is simple microphone upgrade that's somewhat decent. This whole streaming idea might not work out afterall so I don't want to invest too much. 

Since I'm a student, money's tight. After realising I'd have to get boom arm, shock mount and probably pop filter I'm starting to look for some good alternatives for Blue Yeti. Blue Snowball and Snowball iCE look like a good replacement but I'm not sure. That's why I'm here so you peepz could help me in a way. 

 

So the requrements are:

>have to be USB

>mountable

>cheaper than Yeti

personally dont buy a blue snowball or yeti there way to sensitive go for a used at2020 or somthing like that there are cheaper xlr mics that do tons better.

[Yoola]

9 minutes ago, Justin2Justin14 said:

personally dont buy a blue snowball or yeti there way to sensitive go for a used at2020 or somthing like that there are cheaper xlr mics that do tons better.

XLR interface and whole setup would cost way too much. 

[Justin2Justin14]

On 3/23/2018 at 10:43 AM, Yoola said:

XLR interface and whole setup would cost way too much. 

well not really for what your getting just get a cheap xlr not a whole mixer and i decent mic 

Mic-https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-Ultravoice-Dynamic-Microphone-Cardioid/dp/B0002KZAKS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521928929&sr=8-2&keywords=behringer+microphone

 

Xlr interface-https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UM2-BEHRINGER-U-PHORIA/dp/B00EK1OTZC/ref=sr_1_3?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1521928951&sr=1-3&keywords=xlr+interface

(if your cheap do this one -https://www.amazon.com/InnoGear-Condenser-Microphone-Recording-Equipment/dp/B00KAPGLQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1521928962&sr=1-1&keywords=xlr+interface)

 

If your not convinced go do sound test its much better especially when you can adjust it with programs like voicemeter miles better I really recommend this over a snowball and it costs about the same and sounds 2x as good and looks cooler.