Blue Yeti Nano USB Mic guide

The Blue Yeti Nano boasts premium audio quality for streaming, podcasting, and music. With 24-bit/48kHz recording capabilities, two pickup patterns, and a fairly portable build, this condenser microphone can do a lot for a reasonable price. If you need a budget recording setup or just want good sound quality on your video calls and streams, keep reading.

Editor’s note: this Blue Yeti Nano review was updated on October 7, 2022 to include the JOBY Wavo POD as an alternative, and add an additional FAQ.

The Blue Yeti Nano is a USB desktop microphone with two polar patterns, cardioid and omnidirectional. With the Yeti Nano, you’re going to want to talk at it, rather than directly into the top, since it picks up sound from the sides of the microphone. You can choose between the pickup patterns directly on the housing, or through the Blue Sherpa software.

The mic has a headphone monitoring volume dial, but there is no indicator that conveys your volume level. You can adjust gain and headphone volume in the Blue Sherpa app, and mute the mic by pressing the headphone dial on the microphone, which turns red when muted. You get two ports: a 3.5mm headphone jack for live monitoring as well as a microUSB port for connecting to your computer.

The Blue Yeti Nano is not very sturdy. You can easily knock it off your desk if you like talking with your hands, or your cat decides it’s time to swat at something. The microphone has a mount socket, which is worth using to avoid any accidents.

How do you set up the Blue Yeti Nano?

Setting up the Blue Yeti Nano is really easy—just plug it into your computer using the USB connector. If you want to adjust the settings on your computer, you can install the Blue Sherpa software (Mac and Windows). Blue Sherpa makes it easy to control the gain, headphone monitoring volume, and pickup pattern. Sherpa can also let you adjust EQ and apply different preset effects to get the sound you want from the microphone, be it a “flat” sound, “warm and vintage” sound, or anything in between.

Are there any requirements for using the Blue Yeti Nano?

To record anything, you’ll need to use a digital audio workstation (DAW), like Audacity, Reaper, or Garageband. Garageband comes free with macOS and is very user-friendly. Audacity and Reaper are solid cheap options for beginners that work on any operating system. Like Garageband, Audacity and Reapear are free, though Reaper will ask you to buy it every time you open it. While the pop-up is annoying, Reaper is worth buying ($60 USD) if you intend to use the mic regularly.

How does the Blue Yeti Nano sound?

The Blue Yeti Nano sounds great for a sub-$100 USB microphone. The cardioid pattern accurately picks up speech, and it handles plosives pretty well for a mic that isn’t a professional XLR microphone.

What should you get instead of the Blue Yeti Nano?

If you want a similar but beefier microphone for pretty much all the same use cases as the Blue Yeti Nano, the Blue Yeti X is a great choice. It has two more polar patterns, bidirectional and stereo, if you want more versatility. It’s $139 USD, so the price tag is a bit higher for the extra features the mic has.

But hey, maybe you really don’t want to go above the $100 USD price point. If money’s tight, we recommend the Movo UM700. This desktop USB microphone directly competes with the standard Blue Yeti and can often be found for around $79 USD. You don’t get any fancy software here but Movo provides four recording patterns and and useful hardware for controlling the mic and headphone monitoring out.

Another option that doesn’t break the $100 budget is the JOBY Wavo POD, a $99 desktop condenser microphone with two recording patterns and no additional hardware, so it’s simple enough to just plug in and start recording. It also comes with a pop filter for no extra cost.