It is vital to grasp what microphones do and the way they work when capturing audio. Every kind 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 soar in and begin breaking this device down.
Pencil Condenser Microphones
A pencil condenser might be simply what’s wanted when a shotgun microphone or lavaliere microphone will not work. It is easy to make use of and does 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, equivalent to acoustic guitars, drum overheads, and small percussion, and so they all share the identical common form. They’re all comparatively brief compared to an enormous 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? Nicely, two most important 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 might current an issue.
As you realized earlier, a shotgun microphone will usually have a pickup sensitivity within the rear of the microphone, and in some conditions it might create a very bizarre phasing impact, the place you might have the sound arriving on the microphone from the sound supply within the entrance of the microphone, after which you might have 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 could trigger section cancellation, which sounds bizarre.
Additionally, shotgun mics are giant. If you’re in an inside and you’ve got a shotgun that could be a foot or longer, getting it up excessive sufficient when you have individuals standing might be problematic. That is the place these smaller pencil condenser microphones can turn out to be useful.
Tips on how to Use Pencil Condenser Microphones
They’re principally used the identical manner you’d use a shotgun microphone. Most frequently they’re placed on some form of growth with a shock mount, and also you’d growth them over the expertise and level them within the common path of their mouth. As a result of a lot of these microphones have a wider sample, you might have a bit of little bit of wiggle room concerning the place the particular person is positioned. You do not all the time should have it centered proper on the particular person’s mouth. If it is pointed within the common path and it is shut, you will get nice outcomes.
Due to the dimensions of those microphones, you will not see them labelled as a shotgun sample. However you’ll discover them in cardioid, tremendous cardioid, and hyper cardioid. The tremendous and hyper might 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 will get nice ones for not a lot cash. For instance, yow will discover microphones just like the Samson C02 pencil condenser, and you will 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 possibly can simply transfer it about 8 inches nearer and get a greater sign to noise ratio. The sign shall 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 vital to do not forget that it is a cardioid sample, and in the event you have been attempting to document 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 plenty 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 plenty of choices.
What’s very nice is that these are tremendous reasonably priced. Would two shotgun mics be higher? Most likely. Would two lavaliere mics be higher? Sure, most likely. However in the event 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 dearer, The excellent news is that the equipment, like shock mounts and wind screens, are very reasonably priced for every type of pencil mics.
Wrapping Up
The pencil condenser microphone is a superb little device to have in your arsenal, and it sounds incredible. Developing in our subsequent audio recording tutorial, you may study concerning the final microphone that is actually helpful for video manufacturing, and that’s hand-held microphones.
