MD46 handling noise.

R

RichardfromLondon

Member
I wish to do some street interviews and have a Sennheiser wireless G3 and also a MKE 600 and a MD46.

It should be fine to use either of these but I wonder what anyone suggests. I have done some tests on the MD46, the sound is nice, but I find if I move any of my fingers
whatsoever, I hear annoying handling noises. Can anyone suggest the best way of avoiding this, as clearly the thousands of others who use this avoid this problem.

I don't mind having a rycote softie in shot with my MKE 600 but it would be nicer to use the traditional MD46 mic for the street interviews. Any suggestions would be appreciated. :)
 
RichardfromLondon said:
I have done some tests on the MD46, the sound is nice, but I find if I move any of my fingers whatsoever, I hear annoying handling noises.
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I've never heard of an MD46 having handling noise issues. The lack of handling noise is one of the mic's selling points. Perhaps you've got a defective one?

Personally, I'd go with an MD42. An omni is much easier to use, especially if interviewing people who aren't used to mics. Why? It's easy for untrained interviewees to twist, turn, and move about such that they drift out of pattern for a cardioid. The resulting audio is difficult if not impossible to fix in post.

I use an EV re50n/d-b omni for this duty and both it and the omni pattern work beautifully, especially in crowded and noisy environments like trade show floors.
 
The MD46 is, relatively speaking, a very low handling noise microphone. I can only suggest that you work on your technique a bit so you aren't moving your fingers on the mic body while holding it for a shot. Maybe wearing gloves would help? (Depending on the visual impact.)

I have to disagree with Bruce in that I've never liked using omni mics for stand-up interviews. (Perhaps because I've often shot in industrial locations with very loud machinery in the background.) With experienced interviewers, my preference is actually to use a short shotgun. But the cardioid pattern is a good compromise that provides some noise attenuation while not being too touchy about distance and angle.

- Greg
 
Never heard of 'handling noise' issues with either the MD42 or 46. Maybe the OP had the input cranked abnormally. That said, a piece of foam water pipe insulation on the handle would help. I did that on a 635 once for an inexperienced (heavy-handed) reporter.
 
Greg Smith said:
...too touchy about distance and angle.
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And that's what the OP has to decide. Can he/she/it (whoever is holding the mic) maintain distance (to avoid variable amounts of proximity effect) and stay in pattern (to avoid off pattern colorations)? If so, using a cardioid is fine, and it does offer better off pattern noise rejection. But if not, using an omni saves a huge amount of frustration in post.
 
Have you considered renting a Sennheiser SKM 100-835 G3 mic to use with your G3 system ?

I've shot dozens of street interviews using this mic with no handling noise at all. Here's an indoor interview shot 4 years ago with the SKM 100-835 handheld mic going directly into my old GH2 camera...

Ronnie Burkett Interview
 
The 835 is almost exactly just a short handled version of the MD46. I have both in my kit and can't discern any handling noise difference between them. If the OP has trouble with one, he'll probably have it with the other.

- Greg
 
The hard-wired 'Evolution' e835 is a good mic but.. like an SM58, is more designed for close mic'd vocals. Both have a tighter cardioid pattern than the MD46.. even more so with e835. It's also about half the price of the MD.
 
Don't run the transmitter input too hot signal wise as the compander circuit in it will squash the dynamic range and therefore bring up the handling and noise floor.

I tend to run my plug in transmitters at -50db but it is worth experimenting to get the best signal to noise ration as even less gain can prevent overloading too.

A cardioid mic will always have slightly more handling noise than an omni but my personal favorite dynamic hand held is the EV RE50-NB
 
GaryNattrass said:
I tend to run my plug in transmitters at -50db but it is worth experimenting to get the best signal to noise ration as even less gain can prevent overloading too.
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I've always had the best results from my Sennheiser G3 mics with the transmitter at -18 dB and the receiver at -12 dB, which shows a dynamic range of about 68 dB in my audio editor.
 
The transmitter's desired gain setting is dependent on the mic's sensitivity and the source SPL. -50db seems low to me, especially with a dynamic H/H, unless the source is real loud. I normally set my SKP100 plug-on transmitter (w/RE50) around -20 for a 'normal' reporter's level. The receiver's meter is usually around 40-50% allowing adequate headroom for the unexpected.
 
My lav G2's and shotgun plug in are set to -20 and -10 but the plug in transmitters for a dynamic mic seem to have different settings.
 
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