In the modern age, when someone brings up “church,” people get an image in their minds — an image that strongly resembles a rock concert or a rave. There are lots of color-saturated lights, hazers, lasers, and gigantic LED displays with eye-popping full-motion video. There are line arrays and copious subwoofers pouring out concert-level SPLs. This scene is indeed pretty common, but it does not describe every church everywhere. There are still plenty of churches across the fruited plain offering more traditional services that have their own historical archetype — music provided by an organ or piano and a choir or small group of vocalists, and a pastor in the pulpit bringing a message and the word of God.
In the spectrum between these two extremes lie many churches that lean toward more traditional services — subdued and certainly quieter. And along that same spectrum, the likelihood for the appearance of a pulpit featuring a microphone is somewhat higher near that more subdued end. Nevertheless, we might still see a pulpit mic in bigger, more modern churches, and the bottom line is that while pulpit mics may not be used in the same proportion as yesteryear, they are still deployed in moderately big numbers now. If you decide to use a pulpit mic (or even more than one), there are some things to consider. Let’s talk about it.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s address some terminology. Is this device a pulpit mic or a podium mic? There is a difference between pulpits and podiums (and some people muddy the waters even more by introducing the term “lectern.”) Here’s the deal: you stand behind a podium, and you stand in or atop a pulpit (and lecterns are essentially the same as podiums). When it comes to microphones, you will see the terms “pulpit mic” and “podium mic” used. They are the same thing. The “podium” qualifier is used in the secular world, and the “pulpit” qualifier is used in the religious world. Both kinds are intended to accomplish one thing: to capture the voice of a speaker in a clear and consistent way so the voice can be amplified, and potentially recorded, broadcasted or streamed online. In pursuit of that goal, there are a few considerations.
Polar Pattern
As is the case with every mic that might feature on our church platform, we would probably all love it if we could use omnidirectional mics for everything and be done with it. Unfortunately, physics shakes its finger at us and threatens us with feedback. So we compromise and sometimes even go full-on hypercardioid when it’s necessary. And super-tight polar patterns are great when the source of the sound we seek to capture behaves and stays put in one location.
Alas, pastors don’t all do that. Some of them do, but a good many of them get pretty animated — they oscillate and undulate and dance around. If we try to capture their voices with a tight cardioid, we’re going to miss bits and pieces as they move in and out of the capture pattern. We can consider an omni, but if we go that way, we lose gain before feedback, and we might have to get a little crazy with EQ to try to ring the thing out. It seems that we’re probably best off to settle into the middle ground — probably a wide-ish cardioid. If we do happen to be blessed with that rarest of creatures — a pastor who stays nice and still — we might be tempted to choose a tighter pattern, but if there’s even a tiny chance we’ll have a guest speaker of any kind (someone reading announcements or a guest pastor), that tight pattern might not work so well.
Bottom line here: under certain uncommon circumstances, an omni or a tight cardioid might work, but by way of accommodating guest speakers and avoiding feedback, a broad cardioid is probably the best way to go. One other thing to consider — use two cardioid-ish mics in a de facto X-Y pattern. You’ll want to pan both to center so your pastor’s voice doesn’t slide back and forth in the stereo image, but this can give you a pretty wide pickup area, along with the redundancy of having two mics (in case one decides to go into early retirement). As long as both mic elements are very close together, there shouldn’t be any major phase issues either.
Dynamic or Condenser?
As we all know, dynamic mics are generally just tougher and meaner than condensers and can (in general) handle being handled and jostled around more than their condenser counterparts. However, since a pulpit mic is almost always going to be mounted semi-permanently [more on this thought in a moment], “jostle-ability” is not likely an important attribute. As we know, condensers generally deliver a bit more detail than dynamics, and detail could be a key consideration, especially if we have a pastor who occasionally (or even frequently) brings the intensity down to whisper levels. But even if not, crisp, clear detail is typically a priority in delivering speech. Dynamic mics can do the trick, but I’d wager that the vast majority of pulpit mics in use right now are of the condenser variety, and with good reason.
Now as to “jostle-ability,” there is also the rarified circumstance in which a pastor might want to have the option to pop a mic out of its clip and go mobile with it. Obviously, a purpose-designed handheld is the only legitimate option in this case. Luckily, a number of manufacturers offer high-quality handheld mics that would fit the bill. And considering that we’re leaning toward cardioid-ish condenser mics, we’re blessed that there are excellent handhelds that exhibit those characteristics as well. Mounting a mic that’s intended partially for hands-free use and partially for handheld use is something we have to think about, but it’s plausible to do. And that creates a perfect segue to our next topic…
Mount Up!
Pulpit mics are, by definition, mounted at least part of the time. In fact, a huge majority of them are permanently mounted, for all practical intents and purposes. The only exception is the recently aforementioned scenario in which a handheld mic is temporarily placed in its clip for hands-free use, but then popped out when the pastor needs to move about. Either way, mounting must be considered. In my experience, it’s preferable to have the mic mount physically attached to the pulpit for one primary reason: mounting on a separate stand invites the possibility of thumps and bumps if the stand comes into contact with the pulpit itself. And as we know, people approaching a microphone to speak just can’t stop themselves from grabbing and adjusting it. With a separate stand, it’s an inevitability that it will bump into the pulpit. Attaching the mic directly to the pulpit at least resolves that issue. The next thing I’d advise considering is the use of shock mounts that further reduce thump-and-bump that could result from a kinetic sermon during which hands come somewhat forcefully into contact with the podium.
Another thing I recommend (quite strongly, in fact) is a gooseneck mount. As we noted, people invariably walk up to the mic, grab it, and maneuver it to where they want it to be. Stiff mic stands or booms just don’t work for this, because non-professionals never (and I repeat, NEVER) bother to loosen the clutch before attempting to adjust, which creates noise, ruins clutches, and never really gets the mic into the right position anyway. Whether it’s a full-length gooseneck, or a hybrid solid boom with one or two gooseneck flex points, the results will invariably be better than we could achieve with a solid stand or boom. Even in the case of a temporarily-mounted handheld mic, the gooseneck is usually the better option.
So here’s what we do — choose a mic that will give us good, clear transduction in an appropriately wide pattern, and mount it in a way that keeps its operation quiet and keeps the pastor happy, and we’re in good shape!
John McJunkin is an adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University
