Earclip microphones for podcasting?

[Brian Car]

I noticed both headworn mics you linked are omnidirectional. Wouldn’t cardioid or unidirectional always be preferable in this situation? Trying to isolate the voices as much as possible on individual channels.

Thanks SO much for your help!

[Ty Ford]

In my own experience, the distance from mic to mouth (or lack thereof) plays a very big role in separation.

Yes, you can get cardioid over the ear mics. Countryman makes a nice one. They are usually more expensive than the omnis.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/511124-REG/Countryman_E6IDP7B1_E6i_Cardioid_Ear_Set.html/BI/8631/KBID/9745

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Bruce Watson]

Wouldn’t cardioid or unidirectional always be preferable in this situation? Trying to isolate the voices as much as possible on individual channels.

There’s more to it than just isolation. Off-axis coloration can be a PITA too. This comes into play more if your talent is moving, particularly if they are moving their head while providing you signal. Think about what happens with off-axis coloration while the head moves. As the head moves, the noise sources around the head change how they sound due to the variables of the off-axis coloration. This can be distracting even if the sound levels of said noise are low.

Better mics made for this kind of thing (think Broadway musicals) have less off-axis coloration. At the lower end of the scale it’s usually a safer play to stick with omnis.

As Ty says, the vast majority of the increased isolation available with earset mics comes from their proximity to talent’s mouth. That’s way more important than the extra couple of dB you’ll get by going with a cardioid over an omni.

Then there’s proximity effect, which omnis don’t have but which directional mics do have. The mic manufacturers typically roll off the bottom end in various amounts to compensate somewhat, but it’s still dependent on distance to source, which means that every time you put the mic on a person it’s going to be a little different, which just adds to your post processing, especially if you’re trying to match clips across various shoots. It’s done all the time, but it does add some time and complexity to the task at hand.

So, if you’re bound and determined to use a directional mic, have at it. Just don’t be surprised if it’s not as easy as you had hoped.