Blue Yeti Pro-How do I get it into Cubase 6?

Obviously a USB mic. No problem getting it to record in FCP (voice over tool) or GarageBand. But I haven’t been able to figure out how to get a USB mic into Cubase 6. I’m on a newer Mac Pro, Snow Leopard, using built-in audio out. Thanks!

Will other USB mics work with Cubase 6?

Do other USB mics come with an ASIO driver…?

The newer models, like the Yeti and the Samson Meteor, are designed to be plug and play with Macs, PCs, and iPads. They are plug and play with Logic, Protools, Final Cut Pro and GarageBand. Unfortunately it seems Cubase doesn’t work for this.

The Yeti Blue Pro is a great sounding 24 bit/192 kHz USB mic which also has analog XLR connection. 95% of what I do is midi/virtual instruments and sample libraries. I don’t have or need a mix board, mic pre-amps, etc. So a USB solution makes sense for my work. But it looks like I will have to record audio in another DAW and export to Cubase 6 to use this mic. Seems weird.

Are USB mics not more for blogging, video conferencing and stuff like that?

Like any mic I suppose you could do that. But I didn’t buy a 24 bit/192 kHz condenser mic for blogging. It would be a bit over-kill. :slight_smile:

Yeah but most people who are trying to achieve what you are possess at least one half decent pre for the job…
I think that mic is designed for a variety of uses but USB mic technology being fairly new still to more ‘pro’ applications there is the XLR connection there for those uses.
I think things are different under mac os as opposed to win and asio regarding multiple drivers although i may be wrong not being a mac user… you can’t do this under windows as far as i’m aware as you can only use one asio driver at a time under windows so your audio out would have to come through that driver too if you follow?
Might be worth hitting ebay and seeing how much you can pick up a reasonable single channel pre for?

Oh and i wouldn’t read too much into what sample rates things are capable of too either… even the venerable POS old soundblasters can do 96Khz and i wouldn’t p#ss on one of those if it were on fire! :wink:

Yes, but Cubase works with ASIO (also on the MAc, I guess…?) So therfore you need an ASIO Driver, and if - as you say- are using your onboard card, you might have to create an “aggregate device” in your OS, to use two devices in Cubase. Last time I had to deal with Macs was 6 years ago, so I´m not really very savvy with Macs anymore…

Thanks. Now you have me thinking. The mic features a 24 bit/192kHz audio interface (to an internal headphone amp/output) that I didn’t think I would need. Maybe it’s there to facilitate the single driver issue. I will pursue that.

Sounds like a rather good idea… :wink:
you don’t see too many mics with headphone jacks on them he he :wink:

It’s becoming standard on the more expensive USB mics so the talent can monitor themselves with zero latency and control of headphone gain.

If it works with FCP and Garage band there must be a Mac Core Audio driver in there - so it should work with Cubase shirley? (Mac doesn’t use ASIO as such, it has Core Audio to bring audio in and out)

Connect the mic, go to System Preferences>Sound>Input, you should see the mic as an option - you may need to enable it. In Cubase, go to Devices>Device Setup>Built In Audio - you should see the mic in the available inputs

Is your MBP online? if so it might well go and get a driver off its own bat…

Thanks for all of your help. You all gave me enough clues to figure it out. Everything is sorted out, and the mic sounds very nice in Cubase 6 through USB.

For a simple project studio at home this mic covers a lot of bases. It sounds great, and the stereo mode allows for easy stereo acoustic guitar overdubs with no phasing concerns, etc.

The biggest unexpected surprise came when I selected the Yeti Pro as a USB output device to try the 25 bit 192kHz audio interface with the Mac. Yikes, I thought the Mac Pro line out sounded good enough with my powered reference monitors, but when I used the output on the mic the sound difference was truly incredible. The detail in my Symphobia patches now blows me away. And, I can perform overdubs with the mic and listen through headphones with zero latency, in perfect sync with playback.

I’m a happy camper! Thanks again for all of the suggestions.

Running into the same issue(s). How did you get the Yeti to work with Cubase on the Mac?

A bit off topic, but why oooh why isnt there a screen capture program on the planet that uses ASIO???..at least then the companies would have to produce drivers and not just an inherent usb uaudio device nonce.

Trying to do Video capture without Asio, is a lame excuse for programmers of capture software not to get into the way theoir users would ultimately manipualte the sound synched to video.

(Camtasia etc, not one screen capture program uses asio, which is why we have a plethora of usb mics with NO Asio drivers…pish! :smiley:

If you have a audiointerface with a dedicated driver it is not advisable to use a USB mic as it most likely will only work with a generic driver like ASIO4ALL.

Here is a guide for Windows and Mac: →
Here is how to setup your USB Mic and Cubase on a Windows system:

  1. Download and install ASIO4ALL from http://www.asio4all.com/

  2. Open Cubase and go to “Devices–> Device Setup–> VST Audiosystem” and select ASIO4ALL as Asio driver. Apply the changes.

  3. Now go to the point under “Devices–> Device Setup–> VST Audiosystem” called ASIO 4 ALL. → Click on the “Control Panel” button

  4. Now make sure that the little tool, the screw wrench, has a red cross on it. This makes sure that you are in the advanced mode. On the left you will see a list of your devices and little plus signs next to them.

  5. In the WDM Device list on the left of the ASIO4ALL control panel dialog activate your USB Mic and the respective inputs. Click on the little plus to the left of the device to make sure all inputs are activated. Next to your inputs the little ice blue on button should glow.

  6. In Cubase now go to “Devices–> VST Connections” and go to the Input tab.
    Create a new mono bus. Now select the USB Mic input as Device Port for that bus. If you want to you can also rename the bus to for example to “USB Mic Bus”.

  7. Now create a mono audio track, Project–> Add track–> Audio

  8. As Input for that track choose the newly created input bus in the inspector on the left.

  9. Now record enable the track and you’re ready to record tracks as described in the getting started manual and the operation manual.


This is how to get a USB Mic working with Mac OS X and Cubase:
How to combine multiple audio interfaces by creating an aggregate device on Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

USB Mic’s are not ideal for DAW setups and I would not recommend them for Cubase users. :frowning:
Instead I would recommend an ASIO audiointerface and a mic with a common XLR connection.

Gr,
JHP

Thank you!

USB Mic’s are not ideal for DAW setups and I would not recommend them for Cubase users. > :frowning:
Instead I would recommend an ASIO audiointerface and a mic with a common XLR connection.

‘’

Can you elaborate? I’ve seen others say this too, but other than potential latency issues, I can’t think of any reason a USB mic is necessarily sub-par. I’m no expert, just looking for info.

I’ll reply to your point Greg, as my post above points out the root cause. Podcasting & the “Screen Capture” industry (Video Tutorials, Youtube “Fun” videos etc…does not acknowledge ASIO as a driver platform. I have NO idea why any audio interface nowadays doesnt come with ASIO drivers, mostly for the point you mentioned about latency. Which if not kept under control, renders any audio interface absolutely useless in many situations.

I will say though that the quality aspect here is not under scrutiny or attack, but in the way one would normally use your microphone. All screen capture software uses the windows inbuilt driver (probably to try and avoid resources being spent on constantly updating the drivers for the device, would cause small companies headaches.

I mention Screen Capture/podcasting as that is the biggest useage for a USB mic. certainly they were NOT designed for recording in any studio type environ…

Any other audio device before this boom, or after has acknowledged ASIO as the standard. But “cheap” companies offering albeit good quality Microphones, have steered well clear of using asio. Usb mics are in some cases very good quality, but offer no use other than Podcasting and screen capture (As this software has no need for ASIO in their eyes, . and definately Not for any serious Music or recording situations. :smiley:

And lastly using a mic with an XLR connection is to prevent noise (buzzs. electrical interference etc, from coming into play while recording. and again a recognised standard that the Music industry has strictly adhered too, for many years, and again using a USB mic is for NON critical recording,any serious work should be done with a mic with an XLR connection. (and thus the problem you will incur there, is that you need to preamplify the signal to get to a level that Cubase will be happy recording with…and you also open a whole can of worms with using a XLR mic, as you need the preamp on your audio interface or seperate Mic preamp…Phantom power comes into play as well…the list is long, so the only cheap simple way a non recording genius can get a mic signal into a computer is via USB, the mic quality is not in question, but the knowledge & necessary equipment needed to actually use a Mic in a recording situation is not very straightforward indeed, and USB was borne out of necessity, certainly not for true recording functionality. :wink: