Blue Yeti How Far Should I Be From the Mic

For those of you who use the Blue Yeti, I'd be curious to know the distance you keep between your mouth and the microphone.

I've been recording very close, within roughly three inches (cardioid pattern, gain knob set to zero, using a pop filter), but this seems to capture too many mouth clicks, which I've tried in vain to get rid of by swishing water and eating green apples. I've read several tips that suggest a distance of a foot or more while turning up the gain, but this seems to create too much echo.

Any thoughts? Should I just stop obsessing over mouth clicks? (They tend to bother me only in my own recordings, not when I listen to others!)

Post by **Darvinia** » June 8th, 2014, 5:32 pm

I have a Blue Yeti. I record in a padded cell (closet under the stairs with acoustic foam panels on the walls). I have the microphone on its own stand on the table as I sit. It is 9 inches to one side of my mouth, at a 45 degree angle facing my mouth. It is 4 inches below the level of my mouth. There are no number marking on my gain so I don't know where your zero is. I set the marker on the knob left of centre at approximatey 10 o'clock. Cardiod pattern and I use a pop filter.

Post by **jrob1385** » June 8th, 2014, 5:42 pm

Thanks, Darvinia! Sounds like a terrific setup. I'm hoping I can add some acoustic treatment to my recording space sooner or later—then I should be able to record further away from the mic without significant echo.

Post by **Peter Why** » June 8th, 2014, 11:07 pm

I read perhaps nine inches from the mike, with a pop filter, and speaking slightly past it. Gain set to about one o'clock. No special environment, as I live in a fairly quiet street. Hard walls at varying distances round the mike, a foot away, five feet away and further.

I cut my clicks, very occasionally de-amplifying them, manually during editiing.

I often have over-hard K and T sounds. I scale up the sonogram in the same way and cut out the loudest spikes, leaving the sound quieter, but otherwise almost unchanged.

When recording with a group, we've probably read from anything from 1ft to 1½ft away, and it just needed a little bit more amplification and noise cleaning afterwards.

Peter

Post by **jrob1385** » June 9th, 2014, 7:03 am

Thanks, Peter! I did a recording last night sitting a bit further away with the gain at nine o'clock, and it seemed to work well. Still getting mouth clicks picked up, but I'll try my hand at editing them out going forward.

Post by **Peter Why** » June 9th, 2014, 8:15 am

That business with the clicks is a little fiddly but, assuming your clicks are the same as mine, you can spot them by magnifying the sonogram. First select and play a short fragment from a little way before to just after the click, and from just before to a little way after, to help you to zoom in on where it is. Then highlight that small section and magnify until you can see the sonogram as a single line going up and down over the axis. You should be able to see a thickening of the line in one very short section of the line. This is the click. Highlit it, force the boundaries of the highlit section to cut the axis by pressing the Z key, and delete.

It's such a small time fragment that you shouldn't notice its loss.

Peter

Post by **Cori** » June 9th, 2014, 11:04 am

I'm about 6 inches away from my Yeti ... or at least, the pop filter is, and then I'm about half an inch away from that. (And bump into it at exciting moments, which is annoying.) And the Yeti is a few inches lower than my mouth too, when I don't slump.

It's worth looking to see how often clicks happen during your recording. I tend to be very bad at the beginning and it smooths itself out after 15 mins or so to a more intermittent pattern. So I do try to re-read a few paragraphs from wherever I left off previously, as a kind of warm-up. I should probably do more, but it doesn't seem to make thaaaat much difference, so ...

Post by **jrob1385** » June 9th, 2014, 1:22 pm

Good point about warming up, Cori—I often get more clicks at the beginning as well. Should be more patient and do some warmups first ... Not to mention avoiding milk!

Post by **carolb** » June 9th, 2014, 2:04 pm

I'm a mixture of the above. Like Bev, my Blue Yeti is on the table, about 9 inches away at 45 degrees from me.

Like Peter the gain is set to 1 o'clock - I'm completely ignorant about what it does, and haven't taken the time to experiment.
Also I nit-pick my way carefully through my recording, snipping out bits I don't like.

A good tip I heard from a very well known voiceover star, whose name escapes me is to drink plenty of water,
not just during the recording or a little before, but to start several hours before to ensure good hydration.

Carol

ETA: Oh, yes - Cori mentioned the warm-up. I find this Six Minute Warm-up really helps.

Post by **Darvinia** » June 9th, 2014, 3:53 pm

carolb wrote:Like Peter the gain is set to 1 o'clock - I'm completely ignorant about what it does, and haven't taken the time to experiment.

The gain knob simply adjusts the input volume. The only time I adjust it is when I'm reading dialogue. If the characater is excited and speaking loudly I move the knob anti-clockwise to 8 o'clock and then if it's a very calm voice or whisper I turn it clockwise to 2 o'clock. I find this a quick and easy way to control volume while recording, instead of trying to get it all perfectly even in post-editing.

EDIT: I always watch the wave form in Audacity as I record so the numbers above are approximate. The gain knob being on the back of the mic I can't see exactly where it is, I just turn it as I speak until the peaks are where I want them.

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » June 9th, 2014, 4:34 pm

I sit about 15 inches away, my gain is at noon. The mic is about 3" below my mouth, but I speak strait toward it, or towards the base. I put my reading material on the desk between me and my Yeti, which is why my mouth is pointed down at the stand and not at the Yeti itself.

Wonderful to have such a forgiving mic.

Carol - you might try Auphonics to even out the volume in dialog. I've found it effective, too effective actually, on a couple of poetry pieces that were supposed to be loud and soft at spots.

MaryAnn

Post by **RuthieG** » June 10th, 2014, 12:01 am

I'm about 9 inches from my Yeti, which has the Blue pop filter attached. Gain is at 1 pm, cardioid setting, though this depends on your operating system input volume, which for me is at 35%.

I do not ever adjust my input volume while recording, but I suppose over the years I have learned to modulate my voice and sometimes back off the mic a few inches if shouting or creep forward a little if whispering. I routinely use compression to even out the volume, and I favour the vocal setting of GVST's GComp (free, but for Windows only).

Hydrating is definitely the answer to the mouth noise thing, though I still have difficulties and, like Peter, do very detailed editing to remove the remaining traces.

Ruth

Post by **carolb** » June 10th, 2014, 1:03 am

MaryAnnSpiegel wrote:Carol - you might try Auphonics to even out the volume in dialog.
I've found it effective, too effective actually, on a couple of poetry pieces that were supposed to be loud and soft at spots.

Oh, thank you for that, MaryAnn. That's a problem I didn't know I had!

Carol

Post by **RuthieG** » June 10th, 2014, 2:20 am

I think that should have been addressed to Bev, Carol, viz.

Darvinia wrote:If the character is excited and speaking loudly I move the knob anti-clockwise to 8 o'clock and then if it's a very calm voice or whisper I turn it clockwise to 2 o'clock. I find this a quick and easy way to control volume while recording, instead of trying to get it all perfectly even in post-editing.

Ruth

Post by **carolb** » June 10th, 2014, 3:40 am

Thank you, Ruth

I was thinking I should perhaps re-visit The Old Fashioned Fairy Book,
which was the only project here in which I engaged in dialogue!

Post-processing takes me forever, but encompasses clicks, stumbles, volume etc.

Carol

Blue Yeti How Far Should I Be From the Mic

Blue Yeti recording distance

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