What’s the difference between a condenser and dynamic microphone?

We are from Podcast Services Australia, back in your LinkedIn feed with another Tuesday tip about podcasting.

Now, today, we're answering the question "What is the difference between a dynamic and a condenser mic?" So, these are some terms you may have heard... you may have heard being thrown around in the podcasting world and today, we're going to share with you what... what they would actually mean and what we recommend.

So, the first is a dynamic mic and this is one example. A dynamic means that it's directional so an easy way to remember that is D for dynamic D for directional. And what it does is it takes in the audio from one direction. So if I'm speaking to a mic, it's gonna best pick up the sound that's going straight into it. Not if I'm off to the side here. So anything out to the side right or if I'm talking over the top like this, it's not going to pick up as good a crisp sound. Now, a condenser microphone on the other hand, like Aaron is showing here...

This is a condenser mic that comes built into the digital recorder that we have.

This picks up sound from all around. So, a time when you might use this is when you have five people in a roundtable discussion and you don't have enough microphones for everyone. We recommend using two microphones if you're doing an interview. So, like one of these for me and one of these for Aaron for example. Because in the editing process, it will track each individual's person's voice, put it on separate tracks, separately. And then you'll be able to edit as you see fit. I'm a little bit louder than Christina, she's a little bit softer. So, if you need to turn someone up or turn someone down because when you're listening to a podcast that even sound is very important. You don't want to blow someone's ears out or have someone craning their head to try to hear what you're saying. Yes, so it gives you more control over the editing process and with one of these recorders if you're using two mics when you are recording, you can control here the different levels of input that each person has. So, you get a lot more control and you get a nice crisper sound as well.

Well, so, if you're recording an interview with one mic here, it just makes it more difficult to have that control over editing in the long run. So, those are the difference between a condenser and a dynamic mic. We hope that that's been useful for you and has helped you in making a decision about what type of mic you purchase for your podcast. Thanks for watching and we will see you next week. Bye!

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