Part one, Setting up the Blue Yeti microphone hardware.

This is a front view of the Blue Yeti microphone.

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This is a dial for adjusting the gain on the Blue Yeti microphone. Microphone gain increases the amplitude of a microphone signal. When recording to Adobe Audition If your audio volume is too low, you turn it to the right. I will discuss this further when I demonstrate audio level settings in Adobe Audition.

This dial is on the back of the microphone. This dial will set the correct setting for monaural audio which is the cardioid setting. This setting is perfect for podcasts, game streaming, vocal performances, voiceovers, and instruments. This mode records sound sources that are directly in front of the microphone, delivering rich full-bodied sound.

The mute button is on the front of the microphone. When the button is blinking, the audio is muted. When the red button is solid red, the mic is receiving power and is ready to record.

This is the underside of the mic. The connector on the left is for the cable attaching the mic to the USB port of your computer. The connector on the right is for a headphone jack. In this tutorial, I don’t use a headphone. I customarily setup  the sound to output directly to my speakers on my computer. The connector in the middle is for connecting a boom arm an alternative to using the out-of-the-box desktop stand.

This is a Blue Yeti windscreen or pop filter. This item, which is purchased separately, is designed to minimize background noise and to prevent moisture from damaging the mic. It minimizes plosive sounds such as a loud “p” which can be jarring to a listener.

Part two, using the Blue Yeti microphone with Adobe Audition.

This example presumes a Microsoft Windows 10 environment.

After I connect my mic to the USB port on my computer, I need to check the Windows settings for audio. Look for the gear icon on the Windows Start menu. Click on the system menu and go to the sound settings.

Check the Windows settings for audio. In my particular setup, I output the sound to my computer speakers, as opposed to a headset. And you need to check that  the input device selected is the Yeti microphone.

In Adobe Audition, I go to File > New > Audio File or hit the key combo Control-Shift-N.

Next, I establish the file settings for new audio file. I name the file ”test”. Choose the sample rate as 44,100 hz, Select the mono channel, since this is single-speaker narration, and bit depth of 32.

In edit preferences, playback and recording, you get this dialogue box. Probably the most significant item here is the meter color crossover levels. You will see green, yellow and the red when you’re recording. In the level bar, you don’t want your sound to go in the red. That means that the gain is too high, and you need to back off on the gain. This can lead to clipping or distortion of the audio file, This can be because the volume is too high, or the amplifier gain is improperly set. Seeing the yellow is okay, but most of the time you should be recording in the green.

Next, I’m going to be doing a test recording with Adobe Audition.

Recording the following:

This is a test of the Blue Yeti microphone. Testing. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

In listening to the clip, there is a slight hiss, probably coming from an office air conditioner. Also, I would like to reduce some slight pauses in my narration.

The easiest way to solve the first issue is to use the Edit > Adaptive Noise Reduction / Restoration function. A dialog pops up, with some settings established by Adobe. I have found that these settings work well for me, so I just click “Apply” and let this utility work. Next to reduce the pauses, I select the areas of silence and hit the “delete” key. I save the file under a new name and listen to the results,