Charles wrote:
> Seems that a lot of people on this group favor sennheiser mics.
> Not sure why. I'd say check out the Schoeps MK4's and MK8
> mics (so you can do M/S and X/Y recordings). Note that the
> shocks and screens and mounts will set you back more than the
> cost of the mics combined. Also, the neuman 191 is very good
> for capturing on the fly stuff for both mono and M/S.
Some of it is simply habit, some of it is a track record.
The thing that's little known about most high end mics is just how they
are going to react to environmental conditions. At worst they may only
record for a few seconds before the humidity or whatever gets to them.
And this is true for some very expensive mics. Sennheisers have a well
established track record in nature recording in this regard.
The Sennheisers combine this environmental durability with low noise and
pretty high sensitivity. The noise floor is a smooth sound. Just the
sort of basic combo of specs folks are looking for in nature recording.
Schoeps has higher noise, much lower sensitivity. Not sure on environmental=
.
The Neuman is a interesting mic. But highly expensive. That's another
characteristic of nature recordists, they don't have a huge supply of
money. Going with mics that are known to work avoids the problem of
buying some expensive quality mic that's untried for nature recording
and finding out it has some kind of problem.
I do believe there are plenty of other mics that may work very well
indeed. I'd love to try them all. I've watched the auctions of the
Neuman 191 on Ebay for some time. So far none stayed low enough for me
to even bid.
You can get the shocks and wind protection off Ebay a lot cheaper,
though there are lots of people looking, so it takes some time watching.
Certainly at list price rycote gear costs a hugely overpriced amount.
There's room for someone to easily make a killing undercutting their prices=
.
Walt
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|