jerryfreak, I don't want to hijack the thread by talking about myself, but yes, among the other things that I do, I work on an occasional basis as a free-lance editorial consultant, tech writer and German-to-English translator for Schoeps. Ethically I feel obliged to be open about that even though it's never been my main activity or source of income, and I actually have no fixed or formal relationship with them other than as a customer.
I don't generally engage in advocacy for them versus other microphone manufacturers, either. That role doesn't interest me and it would feel wrong for about seventeen reasons. In fact, just because I happen to like brand X, Y or Z would be (in my opinion) a poor reason for anyone else to buy it. Different people can get wildly differing results with the same equipment even when they use similar methods. I know this from trying to copy other people's recording techniques after watching them work, and getting results that weren't as good--even though I couldn't see any difference between what they did and what I was doing.
It turns out that for someone who does the kind of recording that I do (mostly classical), the crucial moment occurs after you've set up your mikes, and you turn them on and you listen through them to the musicians warming up: How do you listen, what do you listen for, and what adjustments, if any, do you make next? That's when you earn your fee.
An engineer who's used a particular pair of mikes in many different acoustical settings and who has listened carefully to the results will be able to predict the effect of moving them a foot closer to the stage, raising them, or placing them farther apart. Give that person better microphones, send him or her out to make a recording without any chance to practice with those microphones, and he or she will almost certainly lose a significant amount of competence for a while.
I don't want that on my karma--so I rarely advise people on what microphones they should buy. I pretty much think that the "best" microphone can be anything that is generally suitable for the given application, provided that you know how to use it and how not to use it. We've all heard a few good recordings made with "trash" microphones and many terrible recordings made with great microphones; shouldn't that tell us something?
(The attached photo shows a badge that I used to wear to AES conventions.)
--best regards
Topic: Schoeps MK4 Question (Read 7584 times)