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Audio-Technica AT4071a

Shotgun Condenser Microphone

The AT4071a is a lightweight shotgun microphone with a true condenser capsule and a patented interference tube that provides “directivity equal to mics up to 50% longer.”

The mic is also remarkable for its high sensitivity (89 mV/Pa) and low self-noise (12dBA).

According to Patent 4,789,044, most “shotgun” microphones attempt to narrow their pickup pattern by attaching an interference pipe to the face of a cardioid transducer, leaving the rear of the capsule is exposed (“positioned at a free audio sound field”).

Patent 4,789,044

[This arrangement] has a defect and drawback [in] that it picks up wind noise and raises a proximity effect which distorts [the] low-band area when the sound source is near.

Audio-Technica’s innovation incorporates the following changes:

• The holes along the top of the interference tube are elongated, and covered with a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane; these work together to prevent resonance inside the pipe and to introduce a phase change.
• The transducer is mounted toward the rear of the tube, but offset toward the front to allow space for additional vents in the tube behind the transducer.
• The outside diameter of the microphone capsule is smaller than the inside diameter of the interference tube, allowing the spaces before and behind the capsule to be acoustically mated.
• Most, possibly all of the vents in the interference tube are covered with a “non-woven textile,” presumably to reduce wind noise.

The Audio-Technica AT4071a is also known as: AT4071.

Specifications

Frequency Response - ShotgunClick Graph to Compare!

Pickup Patterns	Pads & Filters
Shotgun (89.1 mV/Pa; 30 - 20,000 Hz)	Filter: HPF @ 150Hz (Via Switch)

Capsule Dimensions	Impedance	SPL/Noise
Diameter n/a	100 Ohms (Low)	Max SPL: 124 dB Self-noise: 12.0 dB(A)

Weight	Length	Max Diameter	Interface(s)
155g (5.47oz)	395mm (15.55'')	21mm (0.83'')	3-pin XLR male (1)

Power Specifications
Requires phantom power Phantom voltage: 11–52v

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