if you could only.....

R

radar

Active member
buy one microphone for indoor, outdoor, interviews, vo and natsot... what would it be?

I realise the jack of all trades master of none scenario. but if you were going to build a kit slowly but needed something versatile right now what would you get?
 
Schoeps CMC6/MK41

It isn't a great outdoor mic for rejecting background noise
but it is so superior in
"indoor, interviews,vo, and nat" that I would choice that.

---
If the Sanken cs3 didn't have quite as high of a noise floor it would be my 2nd choice,
but because of that I feel it wouldnt be a great choice for nat, or quieter interviews inside.
(as my only mic)
 
thanks ripple.. that's one expensive mic! so based on that design you can add different heads to that amp down the road?

I used to be a news eng guy and basically worked with shotgun mics and "handheld" reporter mics. when i bought my kit I think I may have jumped the gun on some of my audio accesories. after watching sound for tv and film I started thinking I should have proceeded differently than i did as far as my audio kit is concerned.

I guess hindsight's 20/20.
 
My Neumann KMR81 has served me very well for 19 years. The multiple posts on this NG against using a shotgun inside are exaggerated. Only in very reverberant rooms will a shotgun be less than ideal. Those rooms don't happen very often. I've shot many, many times indoors over the years, and the Neumann has served me very well, as I'm sure many other top end shotgun mics would. That being said, I've been the proud owner of a Schoeps 41 for 5 years and it instantly became my interior mic. But in a reverberant room, the only thing my Schoeps can do is sound a bit less crappy than my 81.
 
radar said:
thanks ripple.. that's one expensive mic! so based on that design you can add different heads to that amp down the road?

I used to be a news eng guy and basically worked with shotgun mics and "handheld" reporter mics. when i bought my kit I think I may have jumped the gun on some of my audio accesories. after watching sound for tv and film I started thinking I should have proceeded differently than i did as far as my audio kit is concerned.

I guess hindsight's 20/20.
Click to expand...

Yes, the Schoeps is a modular design in that you can have one amplifier along with a variety of capsules and mount the capsule that best serves a given situation. Schoeps also has a shotgun, their CMIT 5u, that has been carefully designed to have a similar sound for use where you want a bit more reach and need to intercut the footage with the CM641.

I honestly don't think you can get a single 'one size fits all' mic for a professional kit for dialog work. The minimum starting rig, IMO, is a hyper for interiors and short gun for exteriors, both to be used on a boom, a dynamic hand-held stick mic for standups, and a pair of lavs with the necessary power modules / adapters to allow them to be used either hard-wired back the mixer in sitdown situations or with a wireless setup where you have to record on the move. None of those really cover voiceover narration recording in the studio where a large diaphram condensor or broadcast dynamic such as the Electrovoice RE20 would be the mic of choice.

Rippie mentioned the Sanken CS3 - that mic looks like a shotgun but works on a different principle than the interference tube design of most short guns. As a result it is better behaved in a reflective environment than they are and comes closest to being a single mic that can be used both indoors and out.

My personal cabinet right now holds a Schoeps CMC641 hyper, Rode NTG-3 short gun, a pair of AT3031 small-diaphram cardioids, Sennheiser MD46 cardioid dynamic reporter's stick mic, AT804 omni dynamic, and a Rode NT1a large diaphram for VO. Next step is the lav kits. Hoping to eventually add a second Schoeps CMC6 amplifier, a MK4 cardioid capsule (perhaps 2 of them) and a MK8 figure-8 capsule to combine with my current Schoeps to form a kit I can use for stereo recording where it's applicable (such as music or SFX recording). That would give me a stereo pair of Schoeps that could be setup as either a pair of cardioids for X/Y micing or a M/S pair with one mic as a fig-8 and the other centre mic a choice of either cardioid or hypercardioid. But that's a way down the road yet unless I hit the lottery.
 
Last edited:
Look at used Schoeps, too. There are some really good deals on CMC4 (t-powered) amps with used capsules (I picked up a CMC4 + MK41 + GVC + a collette cable that needs to be re-cabled for a really good price (I'd have to look, but I think it was $500 or $600 or so).

Phil
 
Yeah, and I couldn't complain about the frayed collette cable because it wasn't even listed as a part of the deal, it just showed up. Oh yeah, came with a windscreen too. :-)

Sorry, not for sale. ;-) I will be selling a bunch of other stuff shortly and will post a note here when I do.

Phil
 
radar said:
buy one microphone for indoor, outdoor, interviews, vo and natsot... what would it be?
Click to expand...

Sennheiser MKH 8000 series - the RF principle makes them bullet-proof in the damp and are also capable of the finest classical orchestral recordings (and everything in-between).

At least equal to Schoeps in sound quality, but with the added advantage of the RF principle - and modular as well.
 
Steve,
what about the oktava (russian) mk012 matched pair set with 3 capsules? How would that compare to shoeps?

thanks for all your help, and everyone else's so far
 
radar said:
Steve,
what about the oktava (russian) mk012 matched pair set with 3 capsules? How would that compare to shoeps?

thanks for all your help, and everyone else's so far
Click to expand...

Not even in the same ballpark. But in fairness the price isn't in the same ballpark either. The matched pair of Oktavas with 3 capsules for each amplifier, 6 caps in all, runs $689 at the SoundRoom store. A pair of Schoeps CMC6 amplifiers with 2 each MK2 omni, MK4 cardioid, and MK41 hyper caps totals out to close to $7250. The question then becomes is the extra performance worth the extra cost. If you're working professionally or planning to, and what you bring to the job determines in part whether you'll be hired back for the next job, then the answer is probably yes. But not everyone is in that situation.
 
Last edited:
thanks again guys,

I understand you get what you pay for but wow the price difference is staggering, I guess, great video without audio is worthless.

fyi, I plan to work as a pro... but would like to deliver mostly to the web... although you never know where the next project will lead... however, most of my contacts are from my broadcast days.
 
Get what you can afford. Very simply solution.

But remember this, prosumer level gear (ie:oktava) will lose value the moment you buy it
and not be a great reseller.

Pro level gear (ie:schoeps..etc) keep their value FAR better.

Some personal examples:
Bought 2 lectrosonics 201 systems for 1800 bux, used them for 4 years..
sold them on ebay for $1600.

Bought a $1500 mic, used it for 4-5 years sold it for $1200...


One the other side, I bought countless gear over the years that was prosumer
and sold it for peanuts when i was done with it.

Just another side to consider.

But in the end, just get what you can afford. Figure out a budget
and buy at the top end of that.
 
Excellent point, Rippie. I bought a new Schoeps CMC641 just about exactly 1 year ago. I figure I could sell it today used and actually make a bit of a profit. Likewise I could sell my Sound Devices 442 mixer and get back virtually all of what I paid for it.
 
Tax write offs are a wonderful thing arent they :)


Yea just to add to the list..
I bought a sound devices 744 May of 2007 $3900
sold it may of 2008 (for a 788T) for $3600

Had a years worth of rentals in my pocket to boot.
 
I would definitely rather get better quality now, then feel cheated when i sell lesser gear down the road to buy better gear... i just won't be able to buy as much of it?

I am sure i will be back... but thanks again for now.
 
if its possible for you, grab a few mics from a rental house and see what works for you. I use a sanken cs3e and love it. I have had to use it indoors on shows with 3 cams( one always wide). depending on the room, it sounds good to very good. Some mixers use the mk41 outdoors all the time and avoid using shotguns if possible. I think your better off getting 2 good used mics. a used mkh416 for exterior and, if you can find one, a sennheiser mkh435 for indoors. the 435 sounds great, is a tight cardioid( cloose to hyper pattern) and can get used for about 300. Only downside is T power only. those 2 mics will run you under $1000 used
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top