Recording very low Bass

Efexone

Efexone

Well-known member
Not sure what I need to be looking for since I'm fairly unexperienced with audio hardware. I need a shotgun mic, preferably battery powered that can capture the deep bass and "booming" of a distant train in a tunnel or the deep rolling booms created by lightning... I was looking at the NTG-2 since its frequency response is one of the lowest at 20Hz, but is that the only factor I need to be looking at?
 
I wouldn't go with a shotgun for this. You are basically doing sound effects recording, and I'd start by looking at a schoeps setup, but there are a myriad of microphones out there that can do the job, and I bet once people see this you'll get a bunch of recommendations. I would do stereo recordings on this stuff, especially trains and nature stuff. I've done a ton of sound FX recording, and for nature stuff, or ambient, atmosphere stuff I ALWAYS record stereo. Don't mess with surround. It's not worth it.

There are lots of other factors to consider here, other than the mic. Things like:

-Wind Protection
-Mic Mounting (shock mount, on a stand, on a boom pole)
-Type of recorder
-Headphones
-Most importantly...your budget.

It really depends on what you are planning to do with these sounds as to which way to approach it. You need to keep in mind that if you want the best equipment, it's going to cost you at least 10 grand to buy. If this is an 'every so often' type of thing you are doing, then consider renting. You also need to consider how mobile you want to be. Do you want a big expensive rig? Then be prepared to not be as mobile as, for example, you had one of the smaller handheld recorders that have a built in stereo pair of mics (which do surprisingly well). I see that you live in the Bronx, so I would venture a guess that you have multiple opportunities to record these things? I lived in Chicago for 4 years, and I had an opportunity to record the EL train every 15 minutes as it passed under my apartment. IF that's the case, then you have a unique opportunity to experiment with different recording setups until you find one that works best for you.

I hope that helps. Let us know if you have any other questions.
 
You might just want to look into some of the thousands of SFX libraries available these days, you might just find what you're looking for on the cheap (compared to buying equipment, etc.)

But, something to consider, capturing 'deep bass' and 'booming' is one thing....reproducing it is another!
 
Shotguns generally don't have great bass response plus you don't want one for what your doing. These are big SFX and you want them in stereo. You could look at an Oktava pair (or the Schoeps if you have the green). You could also for these go with large diaphragm condensers, but they will be unwieldily for anything portable.
 
bass = low sounds

low sounds = low frequenties = long waves

Long waves are captured "better" with large diagram microphones (theoretically)
So I would try a large diagram microphone
 
Try a Shure Beta 52. Designed to record Kick drums and other bass-heavy instruments. Back when I was mixing boxing & MMA matches I used to run one of these mics under the mat to get a nice "thump".
 
A trick you find used in music recording for capturing the really low stuff from a kick drum or a bass is to wire an old speaker up to use as as a mic (Speakers work on the same principal as a dynamic mic, just in reverse). I've used this on a couple recordingings to beef up the kick. It works best in conjunction with another mic or mics to get the attack and the higher frequencies that the speaker wont pick up.

Check out this thread on GearSlutz for a little discussion, and googling 'speaker mic kick' or something similar should turn up a ton of results.
 
The Rode NT-4 captures full spectrum sound, and is a great stereo mic for nature and field recordings such as these. I would not use any dynamic drum or bass mic, as the pickup drops off within a couple of feet. A condenser mic is needed. Shotguns - no. Large diaphragm, maybe? They are very very sensitive to any amount of wind, even with protection. We need a budget to go any further with suggestions...

Some used and new NT-4 mics here: http://www.amazon.com/Rode-NT4-Stereo-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B0002DUVZY

Mix magazine review: http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_rde_nt/

It fits in the Rode Blimp too, but you can just get a "Dead Kitten" if the wind is not bad.
 
Efexone said:
Not sure what I need to be looking for since I'm fairly unexperienced with audio hardware. I need a shotgun mic, preferably battery powered that can capture the deep bass and "booming" of a distant train in a tunnel or the deep rolling booms created by lightning... I was looking at the NTG-2 since its frequency response is one of the lowest at 20Hz, but is that the only factor I need to be looking at?
Click to expand...

Definitely not a shotgun.

Directional mics roll off at pretty high frequencies.

It depends on how low you need to go.

The old Sennheiser MKH 110-1 went down to 0.1 Hz and the standard 110 went down to 1 Hz.

A modified MKH 20 could go to 5 Hz, the standard version went down to 12 Hz.

The new MKH 8020 goes down to 10 Hz.

All these are omni microphones.


Directional microphones tend to start rolling off the bass at about 50 Hz, though the MKH 8040 (cardioid) and 8050 (super-cardioid) go down to 30 Hz.

It all depends on how low you need to go.

But for the real bottom end you need an omni.
 
Thanks for all the responses. budget is around $300 for a single mic, maybe more if I need to buy new rather then used. After reading through this thread, I'm pretty sure I'll need to get two different types mic's for what I want to capture. I mostly shoot ENG and require a cardioid/super cardioid mic, which is why I asked for shotgun suggestions. For my film making/nat-sound capture, I'll look into those oktava's.
 
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