Thread by @wirecutter

(🎙THREAD for audio nerds)

Here's how the history behind the cult-favorite USB microphone, the Yeti by Blue, and how it got its name.

wrctr.co/36yr0Rl

https://twitter.com/wirecutter/status/1359545644797603843

In the mid-2000s, Blue Microphones had a great reputation for sound quality and a retro-futuristic design aesthetic when they released the Snowball, their first foray into USB mics.

At the time, there were few options for a decent, affordable USB microphone.

Meanwhile, the desktop content creation boom was just beginning.

Just some of the things that were quickly gaining popularity:

• Youtube
• podcasting
• and GarageBand

But as good as the then-$100 Snowball was, the company knew they could do better

“We saw there was a need for a high-quality plug-&-play recording studio right on your desk,” said Gabriel Whyel, Head of Product Marketing at Blue Mics. “So we need to take this to the next level.”

To do that:

The company looked at the Kiwi, their $2000 XLR condenser microphone, which can record in a variety of different patterns, thanks to a proprietary cluster of switchable audio capsules inside the larger microphone.

This provides multiple sound options that one can easily switch b/w, depending on what you’re trying to record.

Blue also added a built-in headphone jack, w/ separate gain & volume knobs—basically turning their USB mic into a self-contained plug-&-play desktop recording studio.

And finally: How The USB Mic Got Its Name

Blue has always had fun names for its products, and in naming this new mic, they wanted to keep it in line with the winter-theme established by the Snowball and the Icicle, the now-defunct XLR-to-USB converter.

Someone remarked that the new model was “vaguely humanoid,” with a sleek silver shell and haunch-like desktop stand—and thus, it was dubbed the Yeti.