Topic: SP-CMC-2 vs MM-HLSC-1

[noam]

Compared to my AT853s it's a no brainer as far as quality goes, however, sometimes I wish I had cardiods instead of omnis because the 4061s are brutally realistic. 

The DPA 406X give the best sound I've heard from omnis when combined with their DPA MMA6000 preamp. Personally, the venue determines for me the pickup pattern I have to use. Omnis are fine for recitals, concert halls or small venues. But in a large house with an orchestra pit separating me from the singers I feel I have to use cardioids. BTW, the MM $250 Sennheiser omnis (mke-2) are excellent too, (not the same class as the DPA's, though). But excellent stealthy omnis are easy to come buy; cardioids are a more difficult issue - Noam

[corsair]

Thanks for all the replies

Actually, I own a pair of OKM II Rock Omnis already. They work very well in open park and indoor recordings. However,
in my local arena, which is dome shaped, they suffer abit from the acoustics of the place. Furthermore, I kinda hate
wearing them in my ears while doing the taping. The DPAs are very nice, but outta my budget..

Hence, I'm looking for a pair of cardioids for different taping situations. Looking at how CMC-4 requires to bring more gear
in for phantom power, its turning me off. Leaning more towards the CMC-2 now over the Sennheisers now, because
I feel they are more bang for buck for what I'll be recording.... Unless someone can really suggest
something else besides these two, and dun burn a hole in my pocket. 

[Evil Taper]

Well how are you planning on wearing the mics?  Cards are definately more sensitive to placement and movement while recording so keep that in mind also.  I'll agree with you that cards are much more forgiving in crappy sounding venues and sometimes I wish I had some really nice cards to stealth with but the ease of stealthing 4061s is beyond what any cards can offer.  What's you're total budget for this rig and what do you have bought already?  Keep in mind that you need a power unit and a recorder also so the mics alone aren't getting the job done.  Honestly, there's no stealth setup that will always pull excellent tapes.  It mostly depends on the venue and where/how you tape that night.  And please don't forget that these are YOUR recordings so get what you like the sound of best.

[corsair]

I was planning to clip the mics to the collars of my polo T-shirt and rotate the mics to point at the source...

My old rig was OKM II R( comes with its own battery box) > Sony D7.

Have since sold my D7, am using an Archos Gmini 400 now.
Am also planning to get a Reactive Sounds Preamp to power the mics...Read pretty
good things about it, so I'm going to give it a try...which leaves me around
$250 for the mics...

[macdaddy]

noam wrote:

One was SPCMC-X>MM-MBM Miniature "Mint Box">DAT and the other Sennheisers>SPSPSB1>DAT (or vice versa, I use the MM and SP battery boxes interchangeably).

noam - which battery box do you prefer..?

and have you tried the c/s cardioids..? i have a pair i could send you if you wanted to use them to run some tests...

[noam]

noam wrote:

One was SPCMC-X>MM-MBM Miniature "Mint Box">DAT and the other Sennheisers>SPSPSB1>DAT (or vice versa, I use the MM and SP battery boxes interchangeably).

noam - which battery box do you prefer..?

I prefer the SP for two reasons: 1) it is better designed, because lying in my pocket I prefer the in and out cords to come from the same side; 2) the SP may be more reliable - I have a friend who had signal drops in one channel with the MM, and he went through hell until finding out it's the box. But it may be comparing apples to oranges, because MM have a bigger box and SP have a miniature one. I also prefer to have them run on one 9v battery, rather than a car remote battery or 3X3V like the "Mint Box", because they last longer (and when they die, that screws up a tape). - Noam

[noam]

and have you tried the c/s cardioids..? i have a pair i could send you if you wanted to use them to run some tests...

Hey, I love 1:1 comparisons! They are panasonic capsules, are they not? My first tickets for this upcoming season for cardioid venues are October 1, 7, 12, 14, 20, Nov 10, 17, (NY) - and then 6 performances in Tel Aviv, Barcelona and Madrid, so that would be a lot of opportunities to compare - unless one performnce will give clear results. I usually prefer to compare in 2 venues, so that's at least Oct 1& 12.

Noam

[macdaddy]

i would like to have them back by the end of october, as i am considering using them at the beginning of november...

but if you would like to use them until then, send me a pm, and i will get them out to you...