It is necessary to grasp what microphones do and the way they work when capturing audio. Every sort and mannequin comes with its personal set of options and traits that can be utilized to your benefit when recording a topic. On this audio recording tutorial, we’re going over pencil condenser microphones. So let’s leap in and begin breaking this instrument down.
Pencil Condenser Microphones
A pencil condenser will be simply what’s wanted when a shotgun microphone or lavaliere microphone will not work. It is easy to make use of and would not break the bank.
What Is a Pencil Condenser Microphone?
The time period pencil mic or pencil condenser is often used to explain a category of small diaphragm condenser microphones which might be used for acoustic devices, corresponding to acoustic guitars, drum overheads, and small percussion, and so they all share the identical basic form. They’re all comparatively quick compared to a giant shotgun microphone, and so they’re cylindrical and fairly slender.
Benefits of Pencil Condenser Microphones
So why are pencil condenser microphones helpful for video manufacturing? Effectively, two major causes: they’re small, and their polar sample is wider than a typical shotgun microphone. This implies they can be utilized indoors when a shotgun microphone could current an issue.
As you discovered earlier, a shotgun microphone will usually have a pickup sensitivity within the rear of the microphone, and in some conditions it may well create a very bizarre phasing impact, the place you’ve the sound arriving on the microphone from the sound supply within the entrance of the microphone, after which you’ve the identical sound being mirrored from the ceiling or the partitions that will get picked up from the rear of the microphone. This may be problematic as a result of these two sounds will arrive at totally different instances, and this will trigger part cancellation, which sounds bizarre.
Additionally, shotgun mics are giant. If you’re in an inside and you’ve got a shotgun that may be a foot or longer, getting it up excessive sufficient when you’ve got individuals standing will be problematic. That is the place these smaller pencil condenser microphones can turn out to be useful.
Use Pencil Condenser Microphones
They’re principally used the identical manner you’d use a shotgun microphone. Most frequently they’re placed on some type of increase with a shock mount, and also you’d increase them over the expertise and level them within the basic route of their mouth. As a result of a lot of these microphones have a wider sample, you’ve somewhat little bit of wiggle room concerning the place the particular person is positioned. You do not all the time should have it targeted proper on the particular person’s mouth. If it is pointed within the basic route and it is shut, you may get nice outcomes.
Due to the dimensions of those microphones, you will not see them labelled as a shotgun sample. However you will see that them in cardioid, tremendous cardioid, and hyper cardioid. The tremendous and hyper will be nice for getting that tight directionality on the microphone, whereas nonetheless providing you with a wider pickup sample in comparison with a shotgun mic.
One of many nice issues about these pencil condensers is that yow will discover actually high-quality microphones with nice efficiency pretty inexpensively. That is to not say all pencil condensers are cheap, however you may get nice ones for not a lot cash. For instance, yow will discover microphones just like the Samson C02 pencil condenser, and you may get a pair of microphones for round US$100, and the efficiency of those mics is fairly good.
Shotgun Mics vs. Pencil Condenser Microphones
One benefit of a pencil condenser over a shotgun mic is that as a result of it is so small, you may simply transfer it about 8 inches nearer and get a greater sign to noise ratio. The sign will likely be nearer to the supply, which implies extra sound from the topic is being delivered to the microphone with much less room noise interfering.
It is necessary to do not forget that this can be a cardioid sample, and in case you have been attempting to file two individuals with a single mic, you would be a lot better off utilizing this as an alternative of a shotgun mic. It is because with a shotgun mic, whenever you go off axis from its sample, you begin to lose quite a lot of high-frequency info. Tremendous and hyper cardioid pencil condensers are near a shotgun’s directionality, although nonetheless not as slender. So that you do have quite a lot of choices.
What’s very nice is that these are tremendous inexpensive. Would two shotgun mics be higher? Most likely. Would two lavaliere mics be higher? Sure, most likely. However in case you solely had one microphone to make use of, this pencil condenser microphone would most likely be the one you’d wish to go along with.
Whereas cardioid and tremendous cardioid pencil condensers can discovered for worth, hyper cardioid patterns will often be a good bit costlier, The excellent news is that the equipment, like shock mounts and wind screens, are very inexpensive for all sorts of pencil mics.
Wrapping Up
The pencil condenser microphone is a good little instrument to have in your arsenal, and it sounds implausible. Arising in our subsequent audio recording tutorial, you will study concerning the final microphone that is actually helpful for video manufacturing, and that’s hand-held microphones.
