First, I support wholeheartedly Doug's admonition that you need to be getti=
ng
out and experiencing the basics of field recording before you get lost in t=
he
mental maze of "what is the ultimate mike?". Your technique, if it's less=
than pristine, will have far more impact on the recording than the mike,
preamp, or recorder.
Having said that, here's a comment or two replying to recent posts on mikes=
.
I have the predecessor of the Neumann RSM191, the 190. In hot humid lowlan=
d
Bolivia twelve years ago, the 190 started crackling. I switched to
Sennheiser MKH's in the same location, and had no further problem. The 190=
had previously been fine in a Vietnam trip under less severe heat/humidity=
circumstances; after drying out from Bolivia the crackling disappeared, and=
the mike has been fine for less demanding locations since then.
The main difference I know of between the 190 and 191 is that they integrat=
ed
the pattern control box and battery pack into one casing in the 191 (which=
were separate in the 190); don't know if they changed anything in the mike=
that would give the 191 better environmental stability. The price of this=
mike is more than a pair of Sennheisers, and its output level is about 10 d=
B
lower.
Before this gets to be TOO much of an MKH lovefest, though, I'll mention
something that I've written here before. Fall 2001, walking along an
overhead-electrified commuter railway track in SE Pennsylvania (dry autumn=
conditions), my MKH40 started crackling. I surmise it took a static
discharge. Crackling persisted until sent back to Sennheiser for repair. =
So
even the MKHs aren't absolutely reliable. Caveat recordor!
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