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Blue Yeti Incompatible with Big Sur / M1?

Piepod

Piepod

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 6, 2020
6
2
Hey guys - so I recently got one of the snazzy new M1 Macbooks and simultaneously upgraded to Big Sur and have been getting this error repeatedly with my Blue Yeti X microphone: "Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI" (working out of Garageband). Even recording a voice memo to test the mic outside of garageband, the audio is completely unrecognizable and distorted

Have tried everything under the sun, including trying the mic with a windows and older macbook air (both work fine), restarting, software updates, etc. Seems like a Blue Yeti software compatibility with Big Sur, but not sure if anyone else is experiencing this as well.

Has anyone else been experiencing this issue (with the Yeti or other devices?)
 
Having the same problem same mic, opened up a case with blue yeti support and am waiting to hear back, sounds like they think it’s Big Sur related
 
I saw your message when looking for a solution to same problem last week, but wasn’t registered. I finally had success with resetting the PRAM. Try shutting down your computer and holding command-option-p-r whilst rebooting; it did the trick for me.
 
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I THINK IT'S FIXED.

So I tried to reset the PRAM by holding command-option-p-r at power on, but it didn't seem to do anything (apparently you should hear the startup chime twice as if the system restarts again) and I still had the same problem.

Today I tried the same thing with the microphone plugged in and it worked. Blue Sherpa opens automatically for me and at startup I saw a brief "Logitech Updater" open and close in the bottom right of the task bar and the microphone now works great.

Either Blue updated the firmware in the past 24 hours or that PRAM reset with the mic plugged in worked.
 
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So I have the MacBook Pro m1.... purchased the yeti x and my voice was all distorted on repeat. When trying a new usb plug doesn’t show up as an audio input at all. Upset considering was excited to try it. I do have a iMac that it works on but when swapping out cords the iMac didn’t even pick it up on audio inputs. So it’s definitely a Big Sur/ m1 issue. Any tips? Anyone reach out to blue ?
 
Piepod said:
I THINK IT'S FIXED.

So I tried to reset the PRAM by holding command-option-p-r at power on, but it didn't seem to do anything (apparently you should hear the startup chime twice as if the system restarts again) and I still had the same problem.

Today I tried the same thing with the microphone plugged in and it worked. Blue Sherpa opens automatically for me and at startup I saw a brief "Logitech Updater" open and close in the bottom right of the task bar and the microphone now works great.

Either Blue updated the firmware in the past 24 hours or that PRAM reset with the mic plugged in worked.
Click to expand...
Cool. Doing this. I am just afraid this is a temporary fix.
nc_sketchy said:
Having the same problem same mic, opened up a case with blue yeti support and am waiting to hear back, sounds like they think it’s Big Sur related
Click to expand...
Any response?
 
Piepod said:
I THINK IT'S FIXED.

So I tried to reset the PRAM by holding command-option-p-r at power on, but it didn't seem to do anything (apparently you should hear the startup chime twice as if the system restarts again) and I still had the same problem.

Today I tried the same thing with the microphone plugged in and it worked. Blue Sherpa opens automatically for me and at startup I saw a brief "Logitech Updater" open and close in the bottom right of the task bar and the microphone now works great.

Either Blue updated the firmware in the past 24 hours or that PRAM reset with the mic plugged in worked.
Click to expand...
Are you able to use the Blue Voice software now? I can get the mic to work but as soon as I open the software it stops and I have to restart the computer to get it working again just as a basic mic. Do you have an M1 Mac?
 
So essentially you need to stop using the G Hub suite of software until a fix is produced. I created this video to walk through setting up the mic on a Mac with a M1 chip, and an alternative software to use to eliminate background noise on the fly. Hopefully you find it helpful.
 
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Glad I saw this thread. A friend and I are interested in starting a podcast/videocast and she got a Blue Yeti. I have never done it before and have been checking out the Blue Yeticaster Pro as I have 3 5K displays and a large desk - the arm would be perfect. Currently running Catalina as I have Big Sur on a laptop and I know compatibility is an issue for a lot of apps and media effects still.

Aside from the Blue Yeti, what are some good mics on the market?
 
satcomer said:
The post you link to just reinforces my thinking the Blue Yeti doesn’t work with Big Sur on M1 Mac because Big Sur doesn’t use Kernal Extensions anymore!
Click to expand...
They are working on a fix according to their support. Who knows when that will be fixed. Looks like this has been going on for a while.

Logitech's G-Hub is the problem. The microphone works fine until you launch G-Hub.
 
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I think it's fixed now. I bought a Blue Yeti X (Pro) microphone, and it was immediately properly detected in macOS Ventura 13.0.1. Then, I decided to install the Logitech G Hub software to be able to gain additional control over the Blue Yeti X microphone as well as get sound effects (which are part of the G Hub) software. Even though the microphone worked after installing the G Hub software and the software detected the Mic, after the installation of this software, my Mac (M1 Pro) started showing two instances of the Yeti device in audio inputs as well as two instances of the Yeti device in the audio outputs in macOS. I figured it was caused by the G Hub software, so I tried to uninstall the G hub software and reboot the Mac, but the duplicate instances of Yeti audio input devices and Yet audio output devices persisted. After googling the solution, I found a few sets of instructions as to how to fully uninstall the software. Once that was done, and the Mac was rebooted once again, the duplicate devices named Yeti were gone.

So, even though G Hub now works on M1 Macs in Ventura, and it sees the Blue Yeti X microphone, having duplicate Yeti devices in macOS is not something I am willing to deal with. I believe the second device was probably the driver that was pumping the input through the G Hub software, while the first instance was the standard Apple driver that Blue Yeti X uses out of the box without any additional software. Additionally, the G Hub software installs the audio driver that is still compiled for the Intel architecture and is run in Rosetta 2 emulation, which is not optimal and should have been compiled for Apple Silicon now that it's been 2 years since M1 macs were first released.

I hear that Blue Sherpa (the original software made by Blue before Blue was sold to Logitech) requires that G Hub be installed. I haven't tried Blue Sherpa myself in fear that I would have to spend hours trying to figure out how to uninstall it properly because it would cause some other artifact.

So, is there a different way to update the software on Blue Yeti X without having to run G Hub or Blue Sherpa? Also, is there other software that can control additional features in the Blue Yeti X (like gain, noise reduction, gate, de-esser, compressor, equalizer, etc.).
 
After you install Blue Sherpa correctly, having given it the necessary permissions in System Preferences / System Settings (in Ventura) and rebooting macOs, you need to unplug the Blue Yeti microphone while Blue Sherpa is running and then plug it back in. At this point, you will be able to click on the Microphone icon and go into the Microphone properties. There, you can check the microphone firmware version and update it from there. However, the Yeti microphone itself will not function at this point. For the microphone to function, it has to be plugged in before macOS boots up, so once you upgrade the microphone software, you will have to reboot your Mac again. Therefore, it's safe to say that the Blue app functionality is broken in (at least) Ventura on (at least) M1 Mac.


Additionally, please be advised that if you install the Blue app (aka Blue Sherpa), the driver loaded for the Yeti microphone is the Blue-compiled driver for the Intel architecture running in emulation on the M1 Macs. You can see that by running the Activity Monitor app in macOS and doing a search in it for Logi. You will see the driver LogiGamingAudio running and if you enable the column "Kind" in Activity Monitor, you will see that the Kind of this driver is Intel.


Fortunately, the latest version of the Blue (Sherpa) app has an uninstall feature under the Blue menu in the macOS menu bar. If you use this uninstall feature in the Blue app, it will remove itself properly, so after you reboot, you will be using the native macOS CoreAudio driver compiled for the Apple Silicon architecture, which can be seen in the "Kind" column of Activity Monitor when you search for CoreAudio. You can also make sure that the LogiGamingAudio driver is no longer running (by searching for its name). However, with the native macOS CoreAudio driver running in macOS on the M1 Mac, there is no way to update the firmware in the Yeti microphone.


Now, there is another piece of software by Logitech that's called G Hub. G Hub also has a feature for upgrading the firmware in the Yeti microphone, the control of the various features of the Yeti microphone (not available with the physical buttons on the Yeti microphone), and having Blue sound effects that can be overlayed when doing voiceover (but not in real time when streaming). The G Hub app also installs the LogiGamingAudio driver, but it's a newer version of the driver than the version installed by the Blue (Sherpa) app, but it's still a driver compiled for the Intel architecture and running on the M1 platform in emulation. However, after the G Hub app is installed, there are two Yeti input devices and two Yeti output devices listed in macOS, which is extremely confusing to deal with. They also appear to be two independent devices and not just a duplicate listing of the same device. I assume that one of them is loaded by the native Apple CoreAudio driver, while the other one is loaded by the Logitech LogGamingAudio driver (compiled for the Intel architecture running in Rosetta 2 emulation in macOS on Apple Silicon). It is the presence of two Yeti devices (named the same) is what caused me not to continue running the G Hub application. Unfortunately, this application doesn't have an uninstall feature, and if you simply drag this application to trash can, it doesn't remove all the pieces that are installed by this application. So, to uninstall this application properly, you have to do the following:


  1. Drag the GHub application to trash can
  2. Delete the folder /Library/Audio/Plug- Ins/HAL/LogiGamingAudio.driver/
  3. Delete the folder /Library/Extensions/log_audio_over ride.kext/
  4. Reboot macOS
 
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