The Best Mic for Streaming - The Blue Yeti Nano

I hear when it comes to YouTube videos audio quality is almost more important than the quality of your video footage. Well, at least they taught me at YouTube Space London.

That's why this new Blue Microphone is so exciting for me. I've been looking to step up my audio game for a while & I heard this might be one of the best mics for podcasters. I also heard this will be one of the best mics for game streamers too. So If you're a gamer you are going to want to check out the WhatGear video on the Blue Yeti Nano...you will like it, even more, when you see the price.

Design

So this a Yeti Nano mic, is much...much smaller than its big brother the original Yeti that stands at about 30cm's tall and weighs in a 3.3lbs (1.55 kg) with stand. The Blue Yeti Nano comes in at just 21cm tall and weighs 1.39lbs (0.63 kg).  Yes, it's in a lower weight class but do not underestimate its power.

The reduced size & weight makes the Blue Nano microphone much more portable and will free up a lot of important desk space (for even more gadgets). The Blue Yeti Nano is so much easier to transport and setup than the gigantic original blue Yeti. 

If you a game streamer or podcaster your might be using a mic that sits in front of your face, maybe your current mic even partially blocks you from your camera. The reduced footprint of the Yeti Nano will allow your viewers to see more of you without compromising any of that all important audio quality.

I'm loving the Yeti Nano's awesome new design. It's far less rounded than its bigger brother & better looking than the Blue Snowball. Blue have added some nice angles to it this time which in my opinion will make it look nicer on camera. 

That entire mic casing is made up of premium metals including the stand. They've also added a notch to the stand so that the cable can run underneath it tidily. If you are planning on using the stand that comes with the Nano, you will be happy to know this has 1/4" thread mount built in & comes with 3/4" adapter just in case. If you're not going to be using a boom arm or mic stand.

Blue Microphones have streamlined the onboard user interfaces on the Yeti Nano, keeping the design really sleek and premium without sacrificing its functionality. More on the functionality in the usability section. 

So the design, in summary, the Blue Yeti Nano doesn't feel cheap at all & it does feel like it could take few knocks without it falling apart... this could be handy if you need to rage quit during a gaming session. Right now you can find the Blue Yeti Nano in Shadow Grey, Vivid Blue, Red Onyx & Cubano Gold... I like the stealthy look of the shadow grey.

Usability

When it comes to the onboard controls on the Yeti Nano, Blue have streamlined it down in comparison to the big Yeti. On the front is a dial for adjusting your headphone volume & this same dial doubles up a mute button. The nice little LED circle you see on the dial itself is used as an indicator and lets you know what's happening. Green indicating you ready to go, Red for when you're muted and yellow when the mic is updating. 

On the back of the mic you a single button that will allow you to switch between the two pickup patterns. Cardioid for when it's you and your Yeti Nano (ideal for game streamers) and Omni for when there's a few around the mic and you want to pick audio from all around (ideal for podcasters). If you hold the pickup button down for 2 secs it will also allow you to toggle on and off the playback monitoring as well. At its base you will also find the USB B port for connecting this to your computer. 

Now you're probably thinking that all sounds great but what about Gain adjustments? now there is no physical gain control onboard the Yeti Nano, however, the NEW Blue Sherpa app will let adjust the mic's sensitivity via your computer. Blue do initially set the gain to the recommended level out of the box so there's a good chance you may never need to adjust it. Also available on the Blue Sherpa app is the option to switch the pickup patterns, adjust your headphone levels, select between the audio quality settings and mute playback completely.

If you're going to be using this mic for Skype and other conferencing apps, it most cases the software you will be using will use an auto gain feature. So no need to worry about firing up sherpa for these scenarios

Also through the Sherpa app, you the mic will receive updates from time to time that will further improve the performance of this mic in the future.

Quality

This is a Mic and you are here because you want to know if this is a good option in comparison to the Big Yeti? 

The answer to that is yes this is a really good option, the Nano is virtually indistinguishable from the original Yeti if you use the mics side by side in cardioid or omni pick up modes. 

This doesn't, however, make the aforementioned big Yeti mic redundant as there are some differences. The Yeti Nano has two condenser mic capsules inside, whereas the big Yeti has a triple capsule array. The big Yeti also has a couple for pickup patterns, bidirectional and stereo... which to be honest you might not need if you're just looking for a mic for streaming or YouTube voice overs. The Nano does have an advantage of the Blue Snowball however as both had two pickup patterns but the Nano has the direct monitoring feature built in.

The Nano supports up to 24bit/48kHz recording which is what most operating systems support. Recording at this sample rate is going to give you a really crystal clear & proffesional recording of your vocals or instruments.

Awesome Features

This microphone has definitely been designed this with YouTube streamers in mind, as they have also added a little bit of embossed branding on the back of the mic stand. Giving the Nano mic a little bit of bling if you're going to be using this for video...and like that.

If you have an OTG adapter you can even plug this into an android device. This combined with it's more compact stature means you can basically setup a really high quality podcast studio virtually anywhere. Of course, bare in mind compatibility will vary from device to device (If you have a prehistoric android it may not work!) make sure you look into that if that's how you want to use this mic.

The direct monitoring feature I think is an awesome new addition. This is going to be particulary useful it doing multi-track recording, or recording VO over a backing track for example. Really awesome.

Also the fact that mic will automatically be recognised by most of the popular recording software out there like Garageband, Soundcloud, audacity, makes the Blue Yeti Nano really easy to use... and maybe the best mic for streaming in 2018.