Blue shrinks its flagship microphone, introducing the compact Yeti Nano

Although Blue Microphones has seen some rising competition in its consumer range of recorders in recent years, the Blue Yeti has remained the de facto for many up-and-coming content creators on a budget. Launching today, the Blue Yeti Nano is the firm’s way of condensing its best seller into a compact, more affordable variant that retains the aesthetic stylings of its bigger brother.

The Blue Yeti Nano retains its predecessor’s plug-and-play USB interface, zero-latency headphone output, a volume wheel and a mute button to silence the microphone’s pickup. Blue has confirmed that the new compact microphone is compatible with its proprietary Radius III shockmount and Compass boom arm.

Image: Blue Yeti (right) and Blue Yeti Nano (left)

Despite its similarities, the Yeti Nano supports a higher 24-bit/48kHz recording quality than the Yeti’s 16bit/48kHz. Due to its much smaller size, Blue has forgone the bidirectional and stereo pickup patters in favour of a more streamlined offering of just cardioid and omnidirectional.

Adding an element of flexibility to the user’s control, Blue has introduced its new Blue Sherpa companion application, with options to fine-tune the Yeti Nano hands-free. This includes the ability to mute the microphone, switch the polar pattern, and even adjust the gain, levels and sample rates, all at the touch of a button. Sherpa integration also keeps the Yeti Nano up to date on its firmware.

“With Yeti Nano, content producers can easily record and stream with the signature studio-quality sound of Yeti, in a new compact and streamlined design that fits in perfectly on any desktop,” said Tommy Edwards, director of product management at Blue Microphones. “Whether you’re gaming, making a business call, or recording something new, you’ll be heard loud and clear with incredible sound quality, every time.”

The Blue Yeti Nano is available in select retailers, with the company’s website listing the device at $99.99. Customers can choose between the default Shadow Grey, Red Onyx, Vivid Blue and Cubano Gold versions.

KitGuru Says: Having previously owned a Yeti, I can attest to its price to performance being one of the best around. My only criticisms surrounded the sensitive pickup, a con often found in USB microphones in comparison to their fiddlier XLR counterparts. Hopefully Blue’s efforts see the Yeti Nano improving on that value for money.

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