Sanken CS-3E - A magic mic?

[Jon Fairhurst]

(In theory...) you'll lose something when mounting on camera. You'll have less proximity, so voices will probably sound thinner. You'll have less signal, so noise will likely be higher. But you should still benefit from the natural rolloff of the off-axis signal in echo prone environments.

Overall, it will be less good than it could be when on a boom, and won't offer any special benefits in a low-echo environment. But it shouldn't do poorly or worse than anything else would.

Again, in theory...

[Robert McGowan]

I shot my first interview session last night using a CS-3e attached to a Bogen 420B boom stand. I attached the mic with a Pearstone universal shock mount. I haven't brought the files into my NLE system yet but my initial impression of listening to the recordings is impressive. I'm sure with a little tweaking it will be even better. I appreciate all of those who gave their opinions and experiences with this particular mic as it did help me in making my decision to purchase one. Cheers.

[Trell Mitchell]

Shot Gun Mic Comparison - Sanken CS-3E included!

See Link below.
YouTube - Recording Audio in less than Ideal Conditions

[Garrett Low]

Hi Robert,

I too recently purchased a CS-3e and have shot a couple of interviews with it. I'll be shooting a short movie next week and my sound guy is really excited to get to use it for that production. It is really an incredible piece of equipment. Prior to that I was using a Senn ME66 which is not a bad mic but comparing the two is like night and day.

Trell, that video is what pushed me over the edge. I had been looking to upgrade for a while and after listening to Guy's demo I was convinced. In fact, that very mic you see in the video is the one I bought. Guy was nice enough to sell me that one at a very good price.

Garrett

[Jon Fairhurst]

The video really demonstrates the advantage of the CS-3E. It doesn't eliminate the fan noise, but as Guy rotates the mic toward the fan, the timbre hardly changes. It just gets louder. With most shotguns, the further you rotate the mic from the fan, the boomier it would become.

[Aaron Zeller]

Just stumbled onto this link and thought I should chime in. I am a boom operator mainly for feature films. I work with a lot of different mixers and on a regular basis I have the opportunity to use a lot of different shotgun and location sound mics including the Sennheiser 816, 416, 70, 60, 50, 406 (the 406 is an extremely underrated mic), and the Schoeps CMIT and CMC641, etc- pretty much everything but the new Rode mic, I would wager. Nothing sounds as good as a Schoeps CMC641 in my opinion, but due to today's realities of poor locations, loud camera fans or shutters, wide and tight camera angles and the sort, it's a mic that I can't use as often as I would like. When I can't use the CMC641, which is most often, my first choice is always the Sanken CS3e. I first used it in 2006 while filming The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, and it was the go-to mic for most of that film due to the extremely loud cooling fans on the Viper system cameras.

It is a mic whose performance continues to literally amaze me on a weekly, if not daily basis. The off-axis rejection is stellar and has saved the sound on literally dozens of scenes that I've done. It is definitely a mid-range forward mic, as compared to something like a Sennheiser 60 which tends to be flatter and "more natural" across the spectrum, but it manages to still be rather smooth in comparison to a 416; that is, it pretty much never sounds harsh as compared to a 416 which can be rather "prickly" and painful to my ears at times. All this and the on-axis bass response is incredible at close range or at a distance, and it sounds great indoors, even in small rooms with a lot of echo. The pattern is rather tight and falls somewhere between an 816 and 416, which means that in the wrong hands, it can be easy to miss your target, but you get used to it. That said, I have had a great number of times where when micing multiple actors, I've had to use the side of the mic at closer proximity to one of the actors in a manner where you would think it would sound totally off-axis and unbalanced in comparison to the other actors who were more on-axis, especially for a mic with such a pickup pattern, yet the mixer had no idea because it sounded great.

The amount of "suck" that this mic has (suck being the ability to be a long distance from your target, yet still have the target sound on-axis and focused) is what is so amazing about this mic. It's rivals the 816 for the amount of suck you get, but with less than half the size and weight of an 816. This is what constantly amazes me about this mic, and I will frequently say to mixers after a take, "Damn, have I told you yet today how much I love this mic?"

On my last project, our CS3e went in for repair and I felt almost crippled without it and the product did suffer a bit. While we made it through, when the repaired mic came back to us, it went back into immediate use, and improved the sound of the location we were in.

[Guy Cochran]

Originally Posted by Aaron Zeller

Just stumbled onto this link and thought I should chime in. I am a boom operator mainly for feature films. I work with a lot of different mixers and on a regular basis I have the opportunity to use a lot of different shotgun and location sound mics including the Sennheiser 816, 416, 70, 60, 50, 406 (the 406 is an extremely underrated mic), and the Schoeps CMIT and CMC641, etc- pretty much everything but the new Rode mic, I would wager. Nothing sounds as good as a Schoeps CMC641 in my opinion, but due to today's realities of poor locations, loud camera fans or shutters, wide and tight camera angles and the sort, it's a mic that I can't use as often as I would like. When I can't use the CMC641, which is most often, my first choice is always the Sanken CS3e. I first used it in 2006 while filming The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, and it was the go-to mic for most of that film due to the extremely loud cooling fans on the Viper system cameras.

It is a mic whose performance continues to literally amaze me on a weekly, if not daily basis. The off-axis rejection is stellar and has saved the sound on literally dozens of scenes that I've done. It is definitely a mid-range forward mic, as compared to something like a Sennheiser 60 which tends to be flatter and "more natural" across the spectrum, but it manages to still be rather smooth in comparison to a 416; that is, it pretty much never sounds harsh as compared to a 416 which can be rather "prickly" and painful to my ears at times. All this and the on-axis bass response is incredible at close range or at a distance, and it sounds great indoors, even in small rooms with a lot of echo. The pattern is rather tight and falls somewhere between an 816 and 416, which means that in the wrong hands, it can be easy to miss your target, but you get used to it. That said, I have had a great number of times where when micing multiple actors, I've had to use the side of the mic at closer proximity to one of the actors in a manner where you would think it would sound totally off-axis and unbalanced in comparison to the other actors who were more on-axis, especially for a mic with such a pickup pattern, yet the mixer had no idea because it sounded great.

The amount of "suck" that this mic has (suck being the ability to be a long distance from your target, yet still have the target sound on-axis and focused) is what is so amazing about this mic. It's rivals the 816 for the amount of suck you get, but with less than half the size and weight of an 816. This is what constantly amazes me about this mic, and I will frequently say to mixers after a take, "Damn, have I told you yet today how much I love this mic?"

On my last project, our CS3e went in for repair and I felt almost crippled without it and the product did suffer a bit. While we made it through, when the repaired mic came back to us, it went back into immediate use, and improved the sound of the location we were in.

Thank you Aaron for sharing your experiences. I had yet to hear someone describe high end mics where "suck" was a positive thing :) I had to laugh because having used the CS3e quite often as well as the 416, your findings are dead on accurate. The CS3e can just reach out and pick up sounds from a greater distance whereas other mics would not be able to isolate without physically moving the mic closer. I'm sure that others appreciate your in the trenches experience. Welcome to the forums.

[David Peterson]

Originally Posted by Allan Black

Such a simple mod it's a wonder Sanken didn't include it earlier than serial 2791. Cheers.

Creating a zombie thread.... as curious to hear more about this mod for the CS3e?

[Jim Feeley]

It's a simple mode that you, or a good technician can perform. Here's the Sanken service bulletin from eight years ago:

http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pl...ionMay2010.pdf

[David Peterson]

Thank you very much! I saw a couple of links to that pdf document, but all of them were dead links.