Let's cut to the basics, do you need a high-quality USB microphone to stream on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, or Facebook with? Maybe you're looking to upgrade from your laptop microphone for all of those Zoom meetings? Then the Blue Yeti X might be the best microphone for you.
First of all, I want to say thank you to Blue Yeti for sending this Yeti X microphone out to me, it's an incredible piece of equipment that I've been testing out for a few months now.
Set-up is simple, plug it in, and it's ready to go.
With a Blue-proprietary, four-capsule, condenser array--this has four pick-up patterns that will deliver excellent voice quality whether you're streaming alone or you're streaming with another person/people in the same room. Yes, that makes this an excellent choice if you're recording a podcast away from home, and can plug this straight into your laptop, and record from the software of your choice.
The pick-up patterns are: cardioid (straight to your face), omnidirectional (completely around the microphone), bi-directional (perfect for sit-down interview situations), and stereo (excellent for recording ambient noises while talking). Diagram below, courtesy of the Blue Microphone website.
Although Blue says it's professional quality, it's more of a "pro-sumer" quality microphone, and that's not to say it's bad, just don't be expecting to get studio-quality singing vocals out of it. You can get excellent quality audio out of it, but you'll need a few things to make that happen, at the very least, good microphone technique.
The stand that it comes with is basically a heavy piece of metal that will sit this microphone on a flat surface easily enough, but therein lies one of the very few downsides. If you're typing anywhere near this microphone, it will pick it up, and your live stream will hear it as a thumping noise. Not pleasant. Also, if your computer is on your desk, it will pick up the hum unless you put it on something super soft to absorb the vibration of the computer before it hits the stand. However, this can be averted by simply buying a microphone arm, and attaching a shock mount to it (best to purchase the Blue Microphone shock mount).
Since Logitech bought Blue Microphones, they have now been integrated into the Logitech G Hub software. You can use the Blue VO!CE software to get a tonne of presets from a classic radio voice all the way up to a loud high voice. Just install the Logitech G Hub software, and you're away laughing. (Photo below is just for image purposes only, these are not the settings that I went with).
As for quality, I have a low voice, and it dealt with that really well, in combination with compression and the RTX Broadcast software from Nvidia. (review coming up for that, soon).
If you're looking to buy the Blue Microphone, check my affiliate link below: