Dynamic vs. Condenser Mics: What's the Difference? (PGOA 1.2)

00:00 - The Basic Differences
01:53 - Background Noise Rejection

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[Podcastage]

Next video will be live on Tuesday at the regular time. See you then!

[Lishtenbird]

When I bring SM58 home after a cold winter day, it becomes an excellent condenser.

[devilsdoorbell]

The suspense of whether you'd include "Hello, Neuman!" after saying Neuman in this video was palpable. Great quick video to confirm how the mics work.

[LesArtsdelaParole]

I knew exactly what I was going to watch before watching it, yet I watched it all. Yes, that's how good you are !

[randyrektor]

This is a fantastic and super practical demo. Nice to hear your take on this!

[nickglover]

Thank you for that bit on background noise rejection, saved me the hassle of making the video myself :P That's exactly what it is, polar pattern, frequency response, and distance, not dynamic vs condenser or high vs low sensitivity. I think a lot of people also don't look at the entire polar pattern graph, like the SM7B gets really, really narrow at high frequencies, basically a super cardioid, even though it's fairly wide at lower frequencies, so of course it's good at noise rejection. Plus everyone puts their mouth right on it, like yeah, of course you don't hear the room.

[brockmannolaf]

Great Test!
It‘s all about the polar pattern
and of course the distance of the Sound source to the microphone.
Thanks for your great work!

[COZYFORREAL]

Hey Podcastage, would you be interested in covering topic of compression when comparing microphones? Like, you don’t really know how microphone will sound until you hear it with compression or in mix. Because i think a lot of people mistakingly think that microphones from different price range sound the same and content creators giving toxic advices to beginners to go cheap/cut corners/not invest in themselves because brand doesn’t worth it (TLM 102 = Rode NT1A, Audio Technica AT2020 = TLM 103, Shure Sm7b = Fifine k688, Warm Audio = U87). This series of videos is amazing, you giving the most detailed info on subject on youtube by showing and telling.

[dirkadfa]

Thank you for keeping this simple for us who know very little about this.. and can start to understand.

[Dracomies]

In terms of perception, to me, in the typing test that condenser was picking up more of the annoying noises. Between the Neuman KM184 and the SM57, there was much more reverb in that Neumann. And between the RODE NT1 and the SM7B it felt like the SM7B was picking up less of the fan (it actually was if you see the RMS). If you look at the RMS of the condensers and dynamics the condenser was picking up more in nearly all your tests (so it actually was picking up more). That said, I agree that it's not as simple as dynamics reject more than condensers. The polar pattern as you mentioned and frequency response are key factors. There's also varying differences in the polar patterns, ie even when both are supercardoid.

[hackinghifi]

This is something I had thought myself but wasn’t sure. Good to see some scientific tests on it. I think one of the reasons people think dynamics pick up less background noise is that at the same gain level on your audio interface they will seem more quiet. But that isn’t usually fair because your voice would also be much lower. Thanks for this!

By the way your link to the other video seems to be paywalled, not sure if that was your intent.

[PsychoBenches]

I love whenever I need to compare microphones for a decision, you already have some comparison video of the same mics I needed to compare lol. Love your stuff

[johnheiser]

Always enjoyable to watch. Thanks Bandrew.

[ScottishWatches]

Great vid - I also figured out that the dynamics reject more was a lot of crap bar it not taking in as much high end and giving that illusion.

[homestudioacademy]

Awesome explanation. It’s definitely going to help many people getting started with audio production.

[MrNicknayme]

Great video!! I loved how you changed mics all along.
For me, the choice between a dynamic and a condenser comes down to emotion. (I do live sound, btw.) If I have a band that mostly plays songs like Summertime, I’m going for a condenser for the lead voc, where as if they are playing aggressive stuff, a dynamic suites it better. Condensers has a flow, dynamics some resistance.

[OlexanderZnaharenkoUA]

As always so good😊
Very useful information for anyone. I wish you a good time ☺️

[lucinae]

The eternal VO question. My brother uses a dynamic microphone, while I have a couple of condenser microphones.

[LautaroQ]

Wow! I didn't know the "streamer sm7b" was a dynamic! Lol I always thought, since it was so expensive and how it sounded that it was also a condenser for some reason.

Now, some of those did have differences but I could barely distinguish some of them if any at all. I wonder if going lower in price, the difference between a dynamic/condenser is more noticeable in these tests.

It would also be cool to test, if possible, if you were a "new gamer" or whatever and you buy one of these but do not have the preamp or anything. You just put in the interface and plug it into the computer. How would that sound?

This series of videos is awesome!

[TyQuinn]

I don't know whether this is true (have never been able to find a study that has actually tested it properly) but I have always thought that the higher mass of the diaphragm of a dynamic must have higher inertia and therefore resist being excited by low level sounds - such as background noise. On the other hand, thin mylar and a few microns of gold in a capacitor mic will respond easily to very small levels of acoustic energy. I feel like this results in a natural sort of downward expansion for dynamic mics where low level sounds and background noise ends up getting pushed down into the noise floor of the mic itself

We all know that the mass of a dynamic contributes to compression of high level transients, so I don't see why it can't have a similar (but inverse) effect in low level sounds

Just a theory!

Edit: Of course dynamics will generally have a higher noise floor than a condenser anyway, so when I say that background noise sounds as if it is 'getting pushed down into the noise floor of the mic itself' it may also just be perceived illusion disguised by the fact that the mic itself has a higher noise floor