Sennheiser G2 Lavs
 

Hi

I have a Sennheiser G2 112P kit with the ME2 omni lav. To my ears it sounds fine, but I have read here and elsewhere that the mic is not particularly good. What is wrong with it - is it noisy or is the response not flat enough? And what is a good mic to replace it?

Many thanks,

Nick

Hi Nick:

I am presently working on a test of 18 different lavalier microphones. I wouldn't say that there is anything wrong with the stock mics that inexpensive wireless systems come with. They are fine but utilitarian sounding in comparison to what you can obtain with a top of the line lav.

In my experience so far, lavaliers are no different than shotguns or cardioids in that they are sound different, they all have individual characteristics that may or may not be desirable. Some have a cleaner, smoother sound. Some have a bassier sound. Some are waterproof. Some are so tiny that they are invisible.

I would only upgrade if it makes financial sense to. Are you happy with the quality that the stock mic is delivering? In audio, we have the law of diminishing returns which means to get better sound quality, the more money you spend, the smaller the incremental gains in quality usually. Yes, a $500.00 DPA or Sanken will sound better but that's how much you paid for your entire system so is it worth it? That depends on you and more importantly, your clients. Are your clients happy with the sound quality?

Best,

Dan

Dan

Many thanks - what you say makes a lot of sense.

Nick

Lack of top end/brightness/clarity
Lack of bottom end/depth/fulness
High distortion in comparison to some
Cheap plastic cable which often break at the plug
It is not small, although is not large either
Lack of detail in its response
Not particularly sensitive
sounds duff

Having said all that it is still a perfectly useable mic and for live P.A. systems it is sometimes advantageous to have a less sensitive mic as it can help to avoid feedback. Having said that a well eq'd system will sound better with a good mic.

As to flat response, that is not important with mic's aimed at voice reproduction. Generally they have a presence lift built in to help with vocal clarity. Smooth response might be something to think about rather.

Why not try a better mic for on camera work and se what you think. It will be a good learning experience either way. The MKE2.4 gold wired for the G2 will be a great improvement and the the cable will last as opposed to the ME2 which seem to always fail eventually. I have literally frown dozens of those mic's away on behalf of hire company I once worked for.

Hi Jimmy,nice to see someone else from Bristol.

Here's an example of the Countryman B6 lavalier running through the Sennheiser Evolution G2. The detail surprised us. http://www.dvcreators.net/countryman-b6-lavalier/

Wow... that sounds a lot better than I would have expected. Where did you place the B6 in this shot? Just above the guitar?

I used my G2 with its stock lav to grab a few spoken lines of dialog from an actor to fix a dropout in the audio track from her musical that I had recorded from he house board. The audio from the board, which came from the house's body pack & lav that she had worn during the performance sounded strikingly more natural than mine. I'll be buying new lav soon.

Mid chest, yep, right above the guitar. If you look close at the video you'll see a white zipper. Right there. BTW, this was shot outside our office in the parking lot, cars are driving by and you can hear people at a busy lunch time restaurant across the street.

Interesting. I use the Sennheiser G2 system a lot more than I had planned when I purchased it - it's a great system for the buck! I have always found though, that when shooting outdoor interviews, etc, the stock lav picks up way too much ambiance (distant traffic, weather, etc) so I usually end up pulling from a shotgun on a stand - but even on a stand that turns into a juggling act when shooting alone. I never really thought that a better lav could make that kind of difference. I am going to have to take a closer look.

Guy,
What program/blog software do you use for the website? Is it WordPress? Thanks!

The entire DVcreators.net site is a WordPress Blog.
Now if I could only figure out how to use PodPress to allow *two* movies side by side, we could hear what the boomed shotgun mic sounds like on the same shot....always learnin' somethin' new :)

Both the Sennheiser ME2 and the Countryman B6 are Omni directional. You're still going to hear all of that same ambiance if they're mounted in the same location. With the Countryman and other top end lavs, you're (hopefully) going to hear a smoother response with additional detail and clarity. Man....Always chasing that better sound...it's like a drug!

I use the G2 system for live PA use and for the most part like them. However, for video or audio recording, I wouldn't like it. Not for sonic reasons, you can always eq, but for noise reasons. The system is clean sounding with its balanced output (XLR), but the lav mic itself has a very cheap swivel clip, to allow clipping from either side of a tie for instance. It is made of plastic and have some give and every time something touches it, it makes a clicking sound. Very distracting in a recording but tolerable through a PA.

Thomas