Blue Microphones Yeti 2018 User Manual

The Yeti microphone was conceived as the ultimate, state-of-the-art USB microphone, a recording tool that anyone 
from a casual user to a professional musician could use in almost any recording environment. With the inclusion of 

such features as gain control and zero-latency headphone output. It had to sound amazing. And of course it had to 
look . . . 

Blue. In other words, it had to look and perform like nothing else on the market.

Before I even began work on the project, indeed, even before the project had a name, the mic had to be designed. 
Through a tortuous process of scribbles, sketches and squabbles, Blue’s mysterious Design and Engineering Dept. 

Unlike other microphone 
companies, Blue has 
always refused to follow 
accepted convention 
by naming its products 
after a series of seem-
ingly random letters 
and numbers. Instead 
of the C110-EX, we had 

-

sal shockmount (a device that suspends the mic and dampens surrounding vibrations) with the sublime moniker of 
“Ralph the Wonder Mount.” It sold very well.

Naming sessions usually include a group of people in a small, barely air conditioned room with a whiteboard on the 
wall and too many cups of coffee. Ideas are brought forth and dutifully recorded. Or ignored. Going off on tangents is 
not uncommon, as are names that would not be acceptable in most churches, but eventually a few names stick and 
a consensus is reached. The Yeti was born of this process. To this day I don’t know who thought of the name — it was 

shape of the mic.

Now that we had a name and a pretty good idea of the look of the mic, the creative process for the packaging could 
begin. Aside from conveying to the consumer the immediate, “What is this product and what does it do,” I felt that 

the overall theme of the artwork had to 
emphasize a friendly, personable ap-
proach. The Yeti is a physically large mic 
with a tremendous amount of features. 
Lots of knobs. Lots of options. Something 
like this could easily intimidate consumers, 
so like the Yeti of lore, we needed to be 
warm and fuzzy. I hit upon the idea of cre-
ating a family of Yeti (Yetis?) that would 
make the user more at home and comfort-
able exploring all of the amazing things 
the Yeti can do.

I began by researching Yeti mythology and 
how the character had been visually in-
terpreted. (Note to readers: I don’t believe 
the Yeti really exists. Sorry. I think it’s the 
mistaken identity of the endangered Hima-
layan Brown Bear, which is prone to walk-

-

lustrated versions of the Yeti abound, from 
outright scary to cuddly-adorable. Some