Condenser or Dynamic Mic for Podcast?

That depends:

- is it just you, or do you have multiple people speaking?
- if multiple people, do you want everybody on their own track?
- how's your environment? Noisy? Quiet?
- how are the acoustics in your environment? dead? reverberant?
 
A condenser mic will sound more detailed, and more "crisp", however - if you don't have a properly treated space it will also pick up the unwanted acoustics of the room.

I would recommend a dynamic mic if you are not in a room that is acoustically treated.

Depending on your budget, there are some AMAZING sounding dynamic mics for voice, including the Shure SM7 and Electrovoice RE20.

I've also found that condenser's are better for the female voice than dynamics, because the high end detail tends to come through more. Some dynamic mics have more "boom" in the low end that can help beef up a male voice.

Hope this helps!
 
"however - if you don't have a properly treated space it will also pick up the unwanted acoustics of the room."

An oft repeated myth/misconception ^ Capacitor mics are often up to and beyond 20dB more sensitive than their dynamic cousins. If you put 80dB of gain behind an SM5X it would pick up a fly farting sitting on the clock except the clock would deafen you! There is no "mechanism" that makes capacitor mics "room sensitive".

If OP gets an SDC which is my standard reccy for a "Swiss army" mic, with a 20dB pad switch on it he can enjoy the wide, smooth bandwidth of the cap' principle but still get very close (with spit gag!) and keep the room out.

Dave.
 
I know this is an old thread but it came to mind while I was archiving some recordings just now.

A show I did before Christmas had a huge number of pre recorded voices and, for all sorts of logistics reasons, I had to record people where they were, not in my studio.

Because of the conditions and limited time, I did each recording with two mics: a dynamic (SM58) and a condenser (AKG C451EB).

Here's a couple of sentences recorded on those mics...in a room that was untreated except for some thickish drapes on two walls (and a ghastly noisy air conditioner at the other end so I worked at the draped end with the AC unit in the null of the mics). The first version you hear is the SM58 and the second is the AKG. The differences aren't nearly as dramatic as people say--and the pickup of the airconditioner wasn't as horrible as some would think.

https://app.box.com/s/af4q8rqsi5z11lw0azmed0f9tmesola6

FYI, I used the condenser version with some EQ and compression but could have easily used either.
 
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