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Reality Check on Audio-Technica 4073a Shotgun Mic

Subject: Reality Check on Audio-Technica 4073a Shotgun Mic
From: "paradoxofchoice" paradoxofchoice
Date: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:43 pm ((PDT))
Hello all,

With the idea of making some of my first outdoor recordings of rain, 
ocean, rustling leaves, wind in the trees, and so on, I picked up an 
Audio-Technica 4073a shotgun mic for my Sound Devices 702 recorder. 
This my first shotgun mic. I chose it because of some favorable 
comments I read online, reasonable price ($450 used), and low self-
noise (14 dB).  

(http://www.audio-
technica.com/cms/wired_mics/69c1a91daefb7b3c/index.html). 


But . . . it sounds terrible--it's echo-ey (reverberant), sibilant, 
and very unclear. Outdoor or indoor dialog at 4 to 5 feet is muddy 
and tubular. There's no way I would use use this dialog in a 
production. And when I tried to record a breeze in some nearby pine 
trees, it seemed more like white noise than anything I could 
identify. I was hoping for "journey to a pristine mountain forest" ;-
). Is this unit defective? I can't believe a mic that is widely used 
for film work could actually behave like this. I checked my settings, 
low frequency roll-off and so on, everything seems correct.

What is your experience with the 4073a? Have you been able to 
effectively capture nature sounds that were realistic without the 
negative effects I mentioned? In any case, I'm trying to capture 
these sounds to combine with some other audio material into a series 
of meditation/relaxation CD's--the sound has to be great without any 
element that would distract or annoy a listener. 

If this 4073a is actually behaving normally, then I need another mic 
for this work. Recommendations welcome!

(By the way, I don't mean to complain about Audio-Technica in 
general. I own a number of their mics and they have been 
excellent . . . until now.) 




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