Saturday night I recorded at Muir Woods. I took the opportunity to
test my new (new to me, mics bought used) Sennheiser MKH M-S rig in an
Indian blimp. I set up my 3032s on a Josephson Jecklin disk, and next
to it my new M-S rig. I recorded both to my 4-channel 744T recorder,
the M-S rig going through an MP-2 preamp decoding M-S to stereo.
I was quite surprised at how different they sounded! The coloration
was so different that I had a hard time matching the levels by ear.
I'll make a more detailed report when I have a chance to do some
careful study and level-matching, probably after the NAB convention
next week. But my first impressions were:
1) The Sennheisers were dramatically brighter in the upper-mid range.
Maybe as much as four or five dB. The only standard for which was
"right" would be comparison to a measurement mic.
2) The Sennheiser/MP-2 combination had to be set at a higher preamp
gain than when I use the MP-2 for 3032s, and was noticeably noisier. I
was matching the -ambient- levels, which might not be fair to
directional mics--but it was soundscape recording, after all.
-Dan Dugan
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