Church Sound Article Fri, December 05, 2008

Condenser mics, on the other hand, require a bit more understanding of audio in order to avoid feedback problems and to ensure that the higher detail produced by their superior resolution makes it all the way through the signal path to the ears of parishioners. Condensers also tend to be a bit more fragile, and are a bit more expensive than their dynamic counterparts. And we’ll save discussing ribbon mics for another day altogether. In every church in every town across the fruited plain you will likely find that 90% or more of the microphones available are dynamics, and rightfully so. As we said—they’re rugged and forgiving, and the conventional wisdom has always been that condenser mics are just too complicated (and/or expensive). Well—Audio-Technica offers its AT2010 design ($169) a handheld condenser intended for vocals. I put one through its paces and learned a bit about it.

A Close-up Look
The AT2010 presents an unassuming appearance; essentially just like any other handheld vocal mic you’ve ever seen. It’s a little over seven inches long and two inches in diameter at the business end, tapering down to about three quarters of an inch at its gold-plated XLRM connector. It’s finished with the same matte black surface for which Audio-Technica has become famous, and the mic’s black grille is made of a very substantial metal, lined internally with wind-noise dampening black acoustical foam. The mic’s element is a fi xedcharge back plate permanently polarized condenser with a 16mm diaphragm, identical to the capsule in Audio-Technica’s innovative AT2020 side-address mic. This type of capsule requires 48V phantom power. The mic ships with a storage bag, a thread-adapter, and Audio-Technica’s “Quiet-Flex” stand clamp, which is claimed to provide “silent, fl exible microphone positioning,” and it actually does.

The mic’s polar pattern is cardioid, which is the preferred pattern for handheld vocal mics, and Audio-Technica publishes a broad frequency response of 40 Hz to 20 kHz. This is one feature that lifts this condenser mic above its dynamic competitors—most handheld dynamic mics roll off at 15 kHz to16 kHz. Its impedance is rated at 100Ω, and its typical dynamic range is rated at 113dB. The stated maximum input sound level is a very healthy 136dB SPL, and the published signal-to-noise ratio is 71dB.