Ant Tenna Anatomy: What Mike is For Him?
~Deltarune Chapters 3+4 Spoilers~
I'm still working on a post on what equipment Tenna would want, and then I realized...hey, microphones should probably be their own post. This is because of multiple reasons: we have Mike, we have the fact he actually holds a microphone in a sprite, and the microphone is just important! So we'll have our own smaller post for the microphone and the cable he'll need to connect it.
Which one is Tenna holding?
This is the easiest, since it's just figuring out which microphone Toby probably used as reference, and there's one in particular that would fit the bill the best, because it's an iconic microphone model. Everyone has seen this microphone before, it's *the* microphone. This is also the closest match for Photorealistic Mike that I could find, but if someone has a better match they can ID, then by all means go for it.
Tenna's physical microphone is most likely the Audio-Technica AT818 Microphone.
So, just to go over what that name means: Audio-Technica is the company who makes the microphone. They're a Japanese company that's been top of the line for a very, very long time globally and mainly make microphones and headphones. AT818 is the model (AT is denoting that it's made by Audio-Technica, 818 is just the number they assigned it).
This is a cardioid microphone, which means it won't pick up everything in every direction and instead what's in front of it in a heart-like pattern. That's excellent for picking up one person talking. It also has a dynamic transducer, which makes it more precise with what it picks up and records and was revolutionary at the time. The AT818 is a classic for a reason, and stuck around for a longass time.
What's that cord do, though?
That's an XLR cable, and you need it. Some people also call it a cannon plug, but that's less of a thing nowadays. We use these for connecting audio, lighting, cameras, power...it's a very versatile cable and you won't see a set without one. Some microphones don't need to be plugged in for power (they have *phantom power*, which I have worked with for eight years and I still don't know what that means so don't worry about it), but everything has to be plugged in to transmit their audio to the recording device, usually with this. And because I know some people will want to see wires and cords for other reasons, here are some more pictures of them in different angles. First, where to plug it into the microphone.
All XLR cables that we use for professional microphones have the three pin configuration (the pin is that sticking-up bit of metal). There are other configurations for XLRs, they're for intercoms and the like and don't matter to the topic at hand. The other end can have a different shape depending on what it's supposed to connect to and also doesn't pertain to what I'm talking about. For the microphone we're talking about, you need to plug it in at the bottom there, so the cord will come out directly instead of from the side. After that, well, where you decide he has his multitrack recorder is up to your design, really. I was talking about suggestions with other people and i got in the forearm, a holster on the hip, or an ant-like butt that it connects into. Obviously if you need art references for the XLR cable so I'm going to go over what you can't find in a photo reference: how they move and feel.
These things are bitches and they are in charge of you. No, I'm not kidding. They're thick, they're tough, they're heavy, and if you treat them right, they're working for thirty years, but if you don't, not only are they disappointed in you, everyone in the crew is disappointed, because you fucked up the XLR cable. You cannot make them do what you want, you have to go with what they want. If you're drawing these, they'll have a lot of weight and very rarely be straight, since they love to coil in one direction and straightening them out can really screw them up. They're strong and won't ever have a sharp edge to them unless you want the director to fire you. If your Tenna has them bare, they'd also be a great show of emotions since these fuckers have so much personality to them it's a pain in the ass. I hate XLR cables. I went through some videos on cable management and I think this one is the closest to what I was taught in school on how to manage them and also shows how they really move and operate.
Notice how when you are handling them you have to run your finger along it when you pick it up. He doesn't force it into loops, it decides the loops for him and he goes with it. You physically feel how it wants to bend and follow through on it. If you force it to do something it doesn't want, congratulations, you just fucked up an XLR cable.
That's just what I have for now. I've been thinking about doing something about each of the Mikes since I thought it was funny how they're different microphones too, but I'm still thinking about that one. We needed to talk about his physical microphone while I work on the other bits, so here it is! His microphone. I looked at a lot of catalogues for microphones around this era from different companies just to see if there's a different one he could be using, but the one I said above seemed best. If anyone wants the microphones I was looking at for more options, then send me an ask and I'll post the catalogues I was flipping through.
