Blue Yeti Pickup Patterns Explained!

What the heck do all the knobs do!? In this video I show you the Blue Yeti pickup patterns that your microphone can be set to in order to achieve the ideal recording setup for your podcast.

There are four different pickup patterns on the Blue Yeti mic. Stereo, Omni-Directional, Cardioid, and Bi-Directional. Each pickup pattern has a different function and works better in different scenarios.

Here are the Blue Yeti Pickup Patterns:

• Stereo: Best for recording instruments or atmospherics
• Omni-Directional: Best for recording multiple people in a room (leaves a lot of background noise though)
• Cardioid: Best for recording yourself for solo shows or virtual interviews
• Bi-Directional: Best for recording in person guests or co-hosted shows

The most important thing to be aware of is to set your levels properly, by starting halfway on both the headphone dial and the gain dial. The headphone dial only affects what you hear. The gain dial affects how loud the input (your voice) is. If you can’t hear your voice through your headphones, double check that the level meter isn’t in the red, that means your input level is far too high and your headphones might be too low.

Remember, the best quality sounding podcasts come from the best recording quality – don’t fix it in post!