Help me find a video of shotgun mics on a 20-ft C-stand

I

Imamacuser

Veteran
I'm wondering if someone can help me find a YouTube video that compares a short shotgun and long shotgun microphone at increasingly higher elevations. I think he used a C-stand or a light stand and went up to 20-ft. I think he used Sennheiser mics, bust can't remember for sure.
I've done a bunch of searches, but all google will bring up is videos trying to sell me crappy Chinese microphones. :furious3:

Thanks.
 
I can't say I know the video but Curtis Judd has plenty of microphone review videos.

edited

Long shotgun mics have narrower pick up patterns not longer reach. So if you don't have a boom operator or your subject isn't standing perfectly still, a narrow pick up pattern isn't good. An improperly positioned mic will have a bigger impact on the audio quality.
 
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I'm not looking to purchase a microphone, I already have a Rode NTG3 and Audix SCX1HC, which are often referred to as the poor mans Sennheiser 416 and Schoeps 641 respectively.

I'm familiar with the fundamentals of recording audio, no need to retread them.

I'm looking for a particular video that I saw a year or two ago, and am interested in hearing how the long shotgun microphone sounds at different elevations.
I thought someone on here might have seen the same video, and hoped they'd have better luck finding it than me.
 
Pretty sure it is a video from this channel

Sound Speeds - YouTube

He was comparing two microphones from the same brand and the longer one was surprising (to me, not an expert at all). I had a brief look but could not find the specific video but I am 90% it is one of his.
 
Did you check your YouTube history? That is a great way to go back and find videos you enjoyed, Google keeps track of everything!
 
I don't quite see what such a video would do. I have lots of shotguns in my stock and the 416 always makes me smile because the reason we use it is because it works so well and is predictable. Few people ever really discover it's hardly narrower than a hyper-cardioid. Mine go to the ridiculously long CK-9 for the AKG 451, which is so similar looking to the Sennheiser 816, but ssounds different and works differently too. 20ft in the air for shotguns seems a bit pointless, because practically they need windshields and 20 ft on a long boom is hardly useful.

I know you don't want to rehash old stuff, but not all Chinese shotguns are rubbish. SOME are of course, but so some from the big names. If there is something you want to hear, inside or out, I might be able to record something for you? I could stick a mic on a wind up stand that will go up very high - 6m or so, and record it? What do you want to hear? I've done lots of shotgun videos so could easily do another if it solves a query?
 
paulears said:
I don't quite see what such a video would do. I have lots of shotguns in my stock and the 416 always makes me smile because the reason we use it is because it works so well and is predictable. Few people ever really discover it's hardly narrower than a hyper-cardioid. Mine go to the ridiculously long CK-9 for the AKG 451, which is so similar looking to the Sennheiser 816, but ssounds different and works differently too. 20ft in the air for shotguns seems a bit pointless, because practically they need windshields and 20 ft on a long boom is hardly useful.

I know you don't want to rehash old stuff, but not all Chinese shotguns are rubbish. SOME are of course, but so some from the big names. If there is something you want to hear, inside or out, I might be able to record something for you? I could stick a mic on a wind up stand that will go up very high - 6m or so, and record it? What do you want to hear? I've done lots of shotgun videos so could easily do another if it solves a query?
Click to expand...
These type of forum questions seem to always be some variant I'm trying to do something out of the normal practice and I'm looking for a piece of equipment to defy physics. And here we have the old shotgun mic for extra reach.
 
I'm still trying to find the physics to explain how the AKG CK-8 and CK-9 capsules work. They are NOT the usual interference tubes we see on Audio Technoca, Sennheisser and loads of others, but a slot from tip to capsule. Imagine a plumbing pipe, with a slot cut down the length with a grinder - but of course formed by bending the flat metal into a tube that doesn't quite meet - qith ¼" or 6mm gap, withe the gap filled with a performated grill. It doesn't matter if the slot faces up down or left or right, the pickup pattern remains the same. There is side pickup, down in level of course but a very tight cardioid by experimenting, and weirdly speaking into the solid metal is picked up just as well as speaking into the other side where the opening is?? I know that in RF antenna design, there is a similar antenna called an Alford slot, which also receives and transmits omni directionally, in horizontal polarisation, from a vertical tube - again with a slot milled down the length. Maybe they share the same properties - or perhaps just coincidence?
 
paulears said:
I'm still trying to find the physics to explain how the AKG CK-8 and CK-9 capsules work. They are NOT the usual interference tubes we see on Audio Technoca, Sennheisser and loads of others, but a slot from tip to capsule. Imagine a plumbing pipe, with a slot cut down the length with a grinder - but of course formed by bending the flat metal into a tube that doesn't quite meet - qith ¼" or 6mm gap, withe the gap filled with a performated grill. It doesn't matter if the slot faces up down or left or right, the pickup pattern remains the same. There is side pickup, down in level of course but a very tight cardioid by experimenting, and weirdly speaking into the solid metal is picked up just as well as speaking into the other side where the opening is?? I know that in RF antenna design, there is a similar antenna called an Alford slot, which also receives and transmits omni directionally, in horizontal polarisation, from a vertical tube - again with a slot milled down the length. Maybe they share the same properties - or perhaps just coincidence?
Click to expand...
I guess if it's one long vertical slot vs a series of horizontal slots running down the barrel it doesn't matter. I never was a fan of long shotgun mics because let's say it's 2.5 ft long and that needs to be 2 ft away from the subject that means the capsule is actually 4.5 ft away which isn't close.
 
I didn't think of checking YouTube history, I guess big brother & big tech are always watching.

I mentioned a mic 20' in the air, because it makes the video stand out from the thousands of other microphone videos on YouTube; my question wasn't a tacit endorsement of 20' in the air as the ideal mic placement.

Ironically, I wanted to find this video to post on another forum to illustrate that shotgun mics work best close range, in response to someone who clamed that "Shotgun mics are definitely NOT suitable for close up coverage, they're designed to acquire sound at a distance with a narrow sound field." My Point is the complete opposite of what Peter is accusing me of.

Peter, you seem to be trying to reinterpret my question and pigeon hole it into a completely different question that you know the answer to. You don't have to reply if you don't know the answer, Aram answered my specific question, and there's no need to continue the thread with irrelevant rabbit trails.

Even though I'm a freelancer/hobbyist, I'm not a noob, I have learned a thing or two over the past 15 year, and am fully aware that a shotgun mic and parabolic mic aren't interchangeable.

Paul, I appreciate your offer, I'll let you know if I need any long shotgun mic tests, as I don't have a long shotgun mic to conduct my own tests.
 
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