New user of Audacity and Blue Yeti - How to safely unplug the Yeti?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Windows 7 on an older Dell laptop
Audacity 2.3.3

I tried a search online, but no joy, so I’m sorry to have to ask a tangential question here.

I went into Control Panel in Win7 and set the record/output device to the Yeti. In Audacity, I set the sample rate in Preferences to 48000 kHz to match the Yeti. I’ve been able to record a test recording, and I’m working my way through some tutorials.

I want to safely unplug the Yeti, but I don’t see the option in the little popup window from the Win7 toolbar - safely eject the device.

I did a search here, and it appears that the Yeti can be simply unplugged and replugged. Before I did that, I wanted to ask if there is a best practice. In the past, I’ve had a USB port go temporarily dead because it didn’t like that - looking at you Samsung Gear Camera. I’ve also had other audio software lose its ability to find the microphone.

Can I just unplug the Yeti and replug it without causing any Audactiy or USB problems?

Thanks, and thank you for having me!

2

I’d advise that you shut down Audacity before plugging in or unplugging a USB microphone.

“Safely Remove Device” is more important for data storage devices as they may be writing data, which will be corrupted if the device is unplugged before the device has finished.

3

Thanks!

I notice that the Win7 system is resetting the system volume to zero at seemingly random events now. Not during use, but when changing software programs and/or hardware. Not a biggy, but one of those things. For example, when I re-connected the Yeti, the system selected it, but reset the output to zero volume so there was no audio in the headphones until I turned it up in the Win7 system tray. Then again later, when I loaded the MP3 from Audacity into Lightwave (my 3D animation software) the system volume was again reset to zero. Maybe it’s a safety thing, to protect from over-loudness?