From: "jan.larsson" <>
>
> A beginner who is prone to leave the mics on the floor in the car and =
> then clean them by blowing hard straight at the membranes. Well, even =
> if they want quality and can afford MKH:s or Schoeps or Neumanns it=20
> may not be the best recommendation ;=3D)
I've seen pros do far worse.
When I was out in Seattle on my trip, the first part of my visit with
Martyn was a three day seminar on nature recording that he and several
other nature recordists had set up. The folks participating in that
seminar were handed our precious equipment and sent out to use it. As
far as I know no equipment was damaged. And those folks got to try out a
wide range of expensive gear. Did we worry a bit about the equipment we
handed out, not that much, it was handled with great care. We did our
best to present options that fit each person, in the form of real
equipment they could try out.
I know that when I've gotten a expensive piece of equipment I'm doubly
careful to take care of it. It can be hard to just bring myself to
exposing it to working field conditions at first. Most folks I've seen
working with new expensive equipment that their money paid for are the
same. The few that don't treat their equipment well will always do that,
no matter what their experience level. It's certainly no reason to not
present the options to beginners.
> But in general I agree with you. It is better to start with best-you-
> can-afford (and field-tested) equipment and concentrate on learning=20
> how to get good results rather than having to put energy into=20
> constant equipment upgrades.
It is a point that seems to be lost on a lot of folks. Sure there are
variations in what folks can afford, which results in compromises and
eventual upgrades. But folks should have some idea on the extent of
available equipment, not just the cheap end, regardless of where they
fall. They should be aware of what the experienced recordists use, and
why they use that equipment. I found out the details of using MKH mics
in nature recording in this group. Early discussions in this group
included that equipment routinely, as well as discussions of cheaper
options. Now it's just cheap stuff that's discussed on and on. My MKH
mic setups are a direct outgrowth of the info I got off the original
group. I can thank, especially, Lang Elliott and Bernie Kraus who's MKH
setups were the genesis of mine. The only expensive mic I owned when the
group was formed was the Telinga. Which I'd laboriously researched
entirely on my own. And I was using a Sony MZ-R30 walkman MD recorder.
In the first year I was recording frogs I upgraded mics 4 times and I'd
not even got past the cheap stuff, it was still a bit of money spent
each time. I recorded with a homemade parabolic which used a science
fair reflector and a inexpensive lavalier mic for several years after
that. I only bought the Telinga when I decided I wanted more than just
science survey recordings. A increasing desire to do quality recordings
lead to the accumulation of first, a quality recorder, the Portadisc,
then one by one over several years, the mics to go with it. I'm not
rich, I just know how to handle money and focus it to good effect.
The MKH were not all that expensive, at least not like the scare stories
around here would have you believe. M/S MKH-30/40? MKH-40's were $450 &
$499, MKH-30's were $460 & $449, pro suspension and windscreening about
$150 for each M/S setup. MKH-60's were $560 and $759. MKH-80's were $699
& $769. MKH-20's a matched pair (two MKH-20's) for $1199. Spread that
over more than three years finding them at that price and it's not bad.
How did I find those prices? I checked ebay virtually every day over all
that time. I paid in my time, which is very cheap, for the low prices.
Walt
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