Welcome back to another demystification post! This time, it's about microphones. I had a question recently about microphones and phantom power, and after doing some rather extensive research on the subject (unintentionally of course :P), I thought it a waste not to summarise it here.

Basically, phantom power is a +48V direct current that's transmitted through a microphone cable (not the kind you plug into your laptop I don't think - the big chunky ones). It's required by condenser microphones (though some use a battery instead), which have a pair of films (called diaphragms) which vibrate. When a current is passed through from one plate to the other, the physical sound gets converted into an electrical signal we can use.

Condenser microphones are much more sensitive than their dynamic microphone counterparts. They are able to better represent a wider range of frequencies - but as a result of this heightened sensitivity, you normally need a pop filter if you're recording vocals. In addition, they don't tend to perform too well in loud environments, such as concerts. Finally, they tend to be more expensive than dynamic microphones, too.

Dynamic microphones, on the other hand, don't require phantom power. They are basically a loudspeaker in reverse and generate the current themselves - they have a single diaphragm that's attached to a metal core - which in turn has a coil of wire around it. When the diaphragm vibrates, so does the metal core - and as you can probably guess, a current is induced in the coil, as metal cores tend to do when inside coils of conveniently placed wires.

While they are better in loud environments (like concerts and drum kits), dynamic microphones aren't so good at representing a wide ranges of frequencies - and as such they are usually tailored to be pick up a specific frequency range better than others. Furthermore, they aren't as sensitive in general as your average condenser microphone, so they don't get on particularly well with very quiet sounds either.

Which you use generally depends on what you want to do. If you've got an overly enthusiastic drummer in a rock concert, you probably want a dynamic microphone. On the other hand, if you're trying to record the song of a cricket on a still summer's evening, you probably want to keep a condenser microphone handy.

I'm not an audio expert, so I might have made a few mistakes here and there! If you spot one, please do let me know in the comments below :-)

Sources and Further Reading

• What Is Phantom Power? on the Dawsons blog
• Condenser Microphones by Media College
• Dynamic Microphones by Media College