wireless microphone: omni vs. cardioid
 

Hi,

I just ordered a Sennheiser Evolution 100 wireless microphone system (body back transmitter, camera mount receiver, plug-on transmitter for dynamic microphones, ME2 moni lavalier microphone) from G&G Technologies for under $500.
My application is generally martial arts seminars, so I'd like to pick up the voice and body sounds of both the instructor and the human body bag. Do any of you Eveolution 100 users use a cardioid or hypercardioid microphone for this or interview type situations?

You might want to use an omni mic. That will pick up the audio around the instructor. Further, you may want to place additional mics to enhance audio.

i second that, with the Senn, youve made a good decision.

The omni direcitonal head is extremely sensitive, and you might even be able to get away with planting it on the referee (if there is one ;) )

gain can be adjusted on the fly and their built like bricks, I would actualyl suggest you put teh mic on teh ref for tournaments or non demonstrative material.
At least if the transmitter is on the ref, there is no human injury if the athletes accidentaly hit the pack. And it could cause some serious damage (to the equipment and people) if the pack gets airborn....

oh and the low end pick up on these mics is incredible, so your splats and thuds will sound extremly nice!

You also do not want to get anyone impaled by the gear.

I would stay away from the unidirectional mics.

We were using those for a while and switched to omni mics.

A unidirectional (cardioid pickup pattern) requires the sound source to be right in the middle of that pattern to work right. As the sound source strays out of the pattern's optimal zone the audio's tonal qualities will change.

For example, if you place a cardioid mic 9 or 10 inches below the subject's chin, as most lav mics are placed, the person will sound just fine when his head is centered over the mic. But once the subject turns his head, his mouth is now close to the edge of the mic's pickup pattern. As a result, it'll sound muddy and/or hollow. A real nightmare for the editor.

Another problem is that with the mic clip Sennheiser provides allows the mic to freely swivel around. And that's about the worst thing that could happen to a directional microphone. Often the mic ended up pointing away from the subject's mouth -- and even toward the other on-screen talent. It's a dumb design.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Thanks for all of the suggestions. The Sennheiser Evolution 100 and omni mic worked very well. I taped a martial arts instructor that was moving around the room and was able to avoid the usual ambient noise while capturing the sounds of his instruction and anyone working with him. I was interested in the cardioid mic for my mat-side interviews because it's REALLY hard to get spectators to be quiet when I really need them to. Actually, you can tell guys to be quiet while I'm vtaping the Master, but they still won't shut up. Perhaps I should bring more duct tape ...

Film sets have all sorts of boom gear and stuff, but really, my subjects are not pros and don't know how to address a camera for a consistent performance.

For personal interviews in a noisy environment nothing beats a good news mic. I got an m58 from B&H and it gets just a touch of ambience from the area you're interviewing in (desireable) while still isolating the interviewee PERFECTLY. You won't believe it. When you want to do a voice over or something like that where it's actually fairly quiet... it will sound like you recorded your voice in a soundproof booth.

You'll eventually realize why all us jerks want (and buy) so many mics... it always seems like "something else" will work better, unless you just get the mic that was meant for a given purpose in the first place.

You can get one of the EV news mics (used all over the world) for less then a hundred bucks... for $120-$150 you can get the same mic that almost every US news channel uses, an re-50.

Matt,

Thanks for the tip. You're talking about this?
Beyerdynamic
M58 Omni-Directional Handheld Dynamic Microphone

The specs say that it's frequency response is tailored for
intelligible sound. Beyond that, it's just a thinner mic
that's harder to see. The frequency response appears to
have an +8dB hum at 5500 Hz (Q about 1) and a +2dB hump around 2500 Hz (Q something like 0.5) . Interesting.