condenser vs dynamic for spoken audio books

ashcat_lt said:
This has been pretty well replaced by real advice later in the thread. It's a very commonly held belief, but is completely wrong. The mike doesn't give a damn how far away the sound it's picking up is, it's all about the SPL at the diaphragm and the sensitivity of the mike. Period.
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Well, to expand on that, a big factor is the relative levels of the voice vs. room noise.

A big part of the reason a mic like an SM58 rejects a lot of noise when used live on stage is that it's designed to be used right up against the singer with the grill almost touching the mouth. Move an SM58 12-18 inches away from the vocalist (as you likely would with an LDC) and crank up the gain to compensate and you'll get just as much room noise as the LDC (and probably a lot more pre amp noise because of the higher gain.

The thing is, the frequency response of dynamics often features a lot of LF roll off to allow close up working without proximity effect being a problem. Most condensers don't so you'll have add the roll off for yourself if you get too close. Of course, for some applications (like the deep "Just when you thought it was..." voice on a movie trailer) the proximity effect is actually desireable!
 
Bobbsy said:
Well, to expand on that, a big factor is the relative levels of the voice vs. room noise.

A big part of the reason a mic like an SM58 rejects a lot of noise when used live on stage is that it's designed to be used right up against the singer with the grill almost touching the mouth. Move an SM58 12-18 inches away from the vocalist (as you likely would with an LDC) and crank up the gain to compensate and you'll get just as much room noise as the LDC (and probably a lot more pre amp noise because of the higher gain.

The thing is, the frequency response of dynamics often features a lot of LF roll off to allow close up working without proximity effect being a problem. Most condensers don't so you'll have add the roll off for yourself if you get too close. Of course, for some applications (like the deep "Just when you thought it was..." voice on a movie trailer) the proximity effect is actually desireable!
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Thanks. Sometimes when I post at work I don't have enough consecutive processor cycles available to get very in depth. Sorry if I came off as short or condescending above.
 
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