Posted by: "Ed Anson"
> I'd say it depends on what you are recording. If you are recording a
> relatively loud sound, higher sensitivity trumps noise up to a point.
> But if you are recording a quiet ambience that is relatively near the
> self noise level of the mic, then a quieter mic would be preferred.
This is true to a extent. But in between the loud sounds are quieter
times, the background sound floor of the site. A noisy mic that records
the loud sounds just fine can still fill the time in between the loud
sounds with it's self noise and make a recording sound poor. Always
consider the quietest times in your site for self noise choices, not the
loud sounds. Sensitivity will more relate to the louder portions and to
separating those from your recording's noise floor.
The reality is that even the quietest mics are not as quiet as the
quietest sites. At such sites the sound floor of your recording becomes
the mic self noise. As the background site sound levels get higher the
mic self noise will be less than the background sounds so it's
importance becomes less. Since the self noise is likely to be audible in
the background of quiet site recordings you want to evaluate the
character of that sound. A soft, smooth sound like is found in the MKH
mics will not intrude much, whereas a mic that produces sputtering,
crackling or other such in it's self noise is going to be a much bigger
problem.
Walt
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