What's your favorite microphone?
 

I need a great sounding microphone for on location shoots. It would be used for everything from run and gun shooting to fully staged professional shoots, indoor and outdoor. The camera (Canon XH A1) has two XLR ports as well as the mic in. What kind of microphone do you use, what would you recommend for the best audio quality?

Rode NTG-3 is a good start, high-end performance for medium cost. Stunning guarantee/aftersales service (should it go wrong).

You cannot go wrong with the Schoeps CMC641 for a cardioid variant and a Schoeps CMIT5u for shotgun usage. Not cheap but you asked my favorite.

Dan

+1

and maybe a sanken CS-3e

Regards,

Ty Ford

Sanken CS-3e for video shotgunning.

I've had a couple of Sennheiser 416-T mics for over 20 years. They've been through plenty of rough and tumble and hostile environments and are still sounding great. Use them on a cold morning or in a humid greenhouse and they won't let me down. Why T power, you might ask? Well, when I got them T power was the normal film guy thing. But an advantage over Phantom - about the only one - is that you can plug one straight into a radiomic transmitter, which will provide the power. With Audio 2020 radiomics it's a cheap (about £40) adaptor lead. If you have a 48V Phantom powered mic you either have to use a powering box in series, or buy a voltage regulator lead (in excess of £200).

They are hyper cardioid mics, and so do not meet with undiluted approval for all situations; but for general indoor and outdoor work, if you can have only one mic, it's the 416 every time for me. Possible increased reverb indoors is more than compensated for by directivity outdoors. But this is a personal thing, I suppose.

+1 for the 416. Some of us even have RF transmitters that supply P48 for them. :-)

Thanks for your replies! I will be doing a lot of run and gun outdoor filming (Hunting for one) where it will need to be ready in a moments notice and wounder if a wireless lavaier microphone would be better for that. Any suggestions?

Two different considerations, there. You probably want an on-camera mike for run-n-gun, where there is no opportunity to wire somebody up...breaking news like we do...our XHa1's are equpped with Sennheiser ME66K6 mikes, excellent sensitivity and ruggedness at a great deal less than the (very fine and expensive) Sankens...and we also equip with two sets of Sennheiser G2 wireless mikes with Tram microphones for those occasions when we can do a proper interview and wire people up for the occasion. No one mike or type of mike will do it all --- you may want a handmike (we use the EV RE50 hand mike, arguably the most commonly-used ENG mike these days, you see them in every tv news clip, seems like). You definitely need an 0n-camera shotgun, and wireless lavs are the best way to get decent interview audio in most situations. We always say audio is 70% of a video, and equip accordingly.....my two cents..../ Battle Vaughan/ miamiherald.com video team

Mitch:

Keep in mind there is a fair degree of size (length) variance in the mics reccomended.

The B&H catalog has a nice graphic with all the microphones lined up in order of length.

Check it out:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWor...ForVideoLR.pdf

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P48 from transmitter
 

Hey, that's great! Tell me more. Is it a body pack or a plug into the end of the mic affair?

Sennheisser SKP500 and Lectro UH400A plugons, among others, supply 48v phantom to the mic.

Aha! Not sure my boom op would want the extra weight on the end of his pole! Don't know whether a plug in would fit in the mount and gag either. But it's all useful information; many thanks.

PS I suppose if I were to re-equip with P48, the plug on could be at the end of the boom cable, in a pouch at the boom op's waist.

A more common placement of a wireless plugon is at the bottom end of the pole. I have a Loon internally cabled pole and its bottom end XLR connector is on a "J" shaped bracket so a plugon folds back against the pole itself keeping it out of the dirt when resting.

That's a good plan.

CMC64 & 641

the more I work with the 416, the more I hate it. proximity effect for starters with this mic made matching audio from an early take with a later one a real pain when the dialog was cut back to back. I just find it to be a flat thin sounding mic, even after having worked with a fairly new one recently. yes I know a lot of people like this mic, but I don't.

For situations where you will use microphone stands and run cables back to the camera, I like the AKG C1000s. You can usually get a pair for about $350.

i love my BLUE mic. I have the blubird ($350) great mic!

I love all my mic's If I was to go out with just one I'd leave the Schoeps and take the mkh60. It's a heavier set up, (I love the light weight CCM41 set up), but the 60 has more suck and it's quieter too which I like. It might not sound as good but it's less trouble on the pole and although it might not sound as good indoors as the Schoeps it does when you can't get the mic in close enough.

Since nobody has mentioned it, I'll mention that the Nuemann KMR 82 is probably my favorite long shotgun mic. Not an everyday mic (unless your outside everyday), but certainly my main go to mic when I'm doing anything outside.

I started using the Sennheiser MKH8040 this past year for indoor booming and I really enjoy it. You can't beat the size and while no Schoeps, it's certainly as close as you can get for less than the real thing.

For music recording, I always go to my Earthworks mics. I love these so much, I have four sets of them. Two sets of matched omnis and two sets of matched cardiods. For recording music, I'll put these up against any mic out there.

Wayne

My favorite microphone is probably the NT4 - Rode stereo mic. For performance, ambient, and acoustical instruments.

But it can't replace a shotgun for voice. From the tests I've heard the NTG3 should be considered. The kit might include on-camera as well as boom stand or pole.

Jimmy, just how are you using your MKH-60? ;-)

Dan

A couple of times I was in a large warehouse with sets in and the 60 turned out better. I was trying to loose a long reverb from the warehouse which was not treated for sound. It was a porn studio actually but had been borrowed for a sit com pilot over the holidays this time last year. Anyway after that I stopped going straight to the Schoeps as the 60 had more suck or reach as you might say.

Is that what you where asking Dan?

Yes, Jimmy. Using that word in that way in the U.S. would usually get you a lot of question marks floating over people's heads. Must be a U.K. way of using the term. I am always fascinated how gear and terms changes from country to country and even here in the U.S., there are lot of terms used on the west coast that guys back east have clue about and vice versa.

Thanks for clarifying.

Dan

Audio Technica AT875 (very) short shotgun:
Audio-Technica | AT875 Short Condenser Shotgun | AT875R | B&H

... because its good quality and so small, low handling noise, and convenient in a variety of situations.

Obviously this is not the high-end mic, but it is very servicable for on the go videographers and sound recordists for a lot of purposes.