The “vocal” Digital Signal Processor (DSP) preset created a noticeably more clear reading, without any editing, than flat/neutral, while neutral would allow editing software more leeway in improving your voice. If you’re recording something live, like a podcast, it’s also far easier to dial down a physical gain dial on the mic just a tad than it is to figure out which software slider you need to click and drag to reduce background noise or prevent.Ī physical mute button is easy to reach on the back of the mic, as are a headphone jack and slightly recessed volume knob. This is helpful if you are switching from a boisterous speaker to a soft-spoken one or from a lullaby to an aria. This enables you to have more control over the volume of what is coming out of the microphone and into your computer. The other feature, a must-have, is in-mic gain control. Some of our first batch of competitors lacked direct headphone monitoring all but one of our 20 testing models featured headphone jacks. When you plug your headphones into your computer, there is a slight delay (due to the processing used by the analog-to-digital converter as it encodes your voice) that can be really infuriating if you are trying to match a beat or narrate over a video. Second, if you want to sing or speak over another track, you want to hear yourself in the mix without any delay. First, a zero-latency headphone monitoring jack nothing is quite as frustrating as thinking you got a fantastic take, only to find out your p’s were popping the entire time. There are two features included on the Yeti that we believe are necessary for any mic used for podcasting or recording vocals. It’s a sensible USB mic at a reasonable price. The Yeti is less likely to hiss, boom, or enhance male/female voice disparities than other microphones. Compare this with a supposed “professional quality” microphone that cost $100 more, which judges found in 2015 to have a “tinny, compressed sound” that sounded like it had a “mild version of a T-Pain-type AutoTune effect.” Most other mics, whether more expensive or far cheaper, pick up far more mouth noise and sounds (“plosives” and “sibilance”) or significantly alter your voice at certain frequencies to round out the sound (or try to correct shortcomings). In 2015, it won over three of our four expert panelists, producing what one called “the most personal connection to the speaker out of all the mics.” In 2016, one expert said the Yeti’s bass response was “perfectly balanced with mids and treble,” with a very slight frequency peak that “makes (the) voice clearer while retaining most of the natural character.” A Wirecutter staffer said the Yeti was “fuller sounding, with rich bass tones.” The Yeti is one of the easiest mics to get plugged in and sounding decent without much knob-twiddling or software-slider-sliding. Our panel called the Yeti’s sound “rich” and “rounded” with “decent presence” in our 2013 tests.