Sennheiser MKH 418S: Stereo/Shotgun Mic

Sennheiser MKH481S Stereo/Shotgun Microphone

The Sennheiser MKH 418 S stereo/shotgun mic is an obvious and welcome extension to Sennheiser's industry standard MKH 416 shotgun. Sennheiser has lengthened the interference tube of a standard MKH 416 to accommodate a figure of eight capsule positioned directly behind the front facing mono capsule and created a Mid/Side (MS) stereo mic.

Rode Pin Mic

I had the original PIN mic from Ricsonix years ago. Peter Freedman and Rode liked the idea so much that they picked it up and buffed it a bit, making it the Rode Pin Mic.

I used the new Rode Pin Mic today on a shoot and was very pleased with the results. You can see it here between the buttons. Even though this is the buff silver color, it blends in very nicely with the blue denim shirt. I had a Schoeps cmc641 on the boom and the Pin Mic on the other track. They matched very nicely.

No problem with clothing noise. If I wanted to, I could have "replaced" the second button on his shirt with the mic to make it less obvious, but I wanted higher placement because we were in a pretty slappy kitchen and I wanted to get the voice as clean as possible.

NYC Mic and Mic Preamp Demo Room

People within a daytrip of NYC are pretty lucky. B&H has a positively scary mic and preamp demo suite at their Manhattan location. If you are mic and preamp hungry, how can you not say yes to this?

Non-shotgun boom mics for interiors (and exteriors)

I get a lot of repeat questions about which mic other than a shotgun to put on a boom, especially when working inside. The answer is a hypercardioid or supercardioid. You can also easily use these mics outside and they work very well in outside situations with hard surfaces, e.g. streets, buildings, walls, windows.

Here's a little video that explains why. Listen with really good headphones or on good monitors.

BTW, cardioid is pronounced like cardiac, but with an oid at the end. Car-Dee-Oyed. The name comes from the root cardio and in this case refers to the heart-shaped pattern the mic makes if you're looking down over it and it is positioned parallel to the ground.

I have listened to the others including the Sennheiser 8050 and, while it is a very nice mic, I didn't care for the EQ curve on it for boom work. My choice of these mics from the best down are:

Schoeps cmc641

And get the more expensive B5D pop filter shown here.

Sennheiser MKH50

Audio Techica 4053b

Audix SCX-1 HC

Oktava MK012 HC

Analog? Digital? Solid State? Tube? Who Wins?

Neumann M150 Omni Tube Mic

Neumann M150 in a Decca Tree Configuration

At $5,300 (including suspension-mount, vintage-style power supply, multiconductor cable and aluminum flight case), the Neumann M150 small-diaphragm, transformerless, tube condenser microphone will probably not be found in many basement studios. Perhaps more relevant than its cost, the M150's fixed-omni pattern makes it a less than desirable choice for recording in small spaces with challenging acoustics — the mic is quite capable of “hearing” exactly how good or how bad a room sounds.

However, Neumann's operating instructions for the M150 note that the mic is especially suited for Decca Tree recording (see below). Because that configuration requires three M150s, anyone whose microphone budget is less than $15,900 can stop reading here. But, if you're looking for a reliable method for producing a stable stereo image that will hold up throughout the application of Dolby and other surround sound matrix systems, the Decca Tree technique is worth examining.

Schoeps CMIT Analog Shotgun Mic

Schoeps CMIT Analog Shotgun

Yes, there is now a Schoeps Digital shotgun mic. But this analog version came first in 2005 after some arm twisting and it's a great sounding mic. I'll post my review of the digital SuperCMIT later.

Imagine the surprise of shotgun mic users everywhere to find that Schoeps finally caved after twenty years and made a shotgun microphone. At the 2005 New York AES Convention, there it was, in blue anodized aluminum. No other mic on the planet looks like it so they get marketing marks for that alone. What took them so long? What are the implications? What are the features? How does it sound? We can only guess what changed their mindset from, “We don’t want/need to.”

A Recent History of Ribbon Microphones

Audio-Technica AT 4080 and 4081

Ty Ford (written sometime in 2005)

The BBC cites 1933 as the year pressure gradient ribbon microphones were introduced. It also notes that RCA's Harry Olson applied for a patent on January 31, 1941 that was granted May 9, 1944 for ribbon microphones that converted sound pressure to electrical energy using a strip of aluminum between two magnets. 

Shure 24-bit Digital Wireless - This could be a game changer.

This just in! Shure has just popped a 24-bit digital wireless system with encryption. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but this will be the first real digital wireless response to Zaxcom. Check here for the details. More later.

Getting Good Sound On The Street

Rycote Pistol Grip and Softie Wind Cutter

How do you get good audio on the street? Unwanted noise can come in from anywhere; people, cars, trucks, animals, planes. 

If you don't want to stick an RE50 into the frame (which sort of freaks some people out). The Pistol Grip Suspension Mount used at a distance is a very good solution for this type of work. Yes, it's another piece of gear, but it really makes the job easy, comfortable and effective.