Topic: Sennheiser Mic Model ID Help

[dgale]

I'm trying to figure out the model# for sennheiser mics we used to record a bunch of shows back in the mid-to-late 80's.  They looked just like those old airplane headphones they used to give you that went in your ears and hung down between your neck and chest.  I'm pretty sure they were binaural mics but I could be wrong about that.  Any help identifying them would be appreciated.

[flipp]

probably the MKE2002

you can download the manual which has some good illustrations from Senn's old manual page
http://www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/home_en.nsf/root/service_download_old-manual


< Perhaps they should be called the MoKE-2002 as he sent a drawing of the way they were worn and the model number with a cassette I got from him years ago. I don't recall what the show was (it was a dead show) and he referred to the setup as HRTF. I can't find the drawing now but ran across it within the last couple of months. My memory isn't that good though it does contain a lot of useless minutae. >

[dgale]

That looks like them, although they didn't have the little wire chin clip that's shown in the photos, although maybe it had been removed as we used them for stealth and that would have been pretty obvious looking.  I seem to remember they sold a dummy head like is in the pictures that was threaded to mount on a mic stand.  It was some absurd amount of $$ for the head and I remember we were joking about it.  They had great sound but I've never seen another pair of them around.  Funny that the date on the website says 1990, but I remember using them at the '87 Laguna Seca shows.

[flipp]

It was an 80s show Moke sent as I don't collect 90s dead. His drawing showed that he wore it behind his head/down his back. Easier to be stealthy, especially if one had long hair. The 1990 date could be when that model went out of production or more likely it was the last revision of the manual. I actually thought Moke's note indicated MK-2020 but there is no such listing, MKE-2002 was close and looking at the manual it pretty much had to be the model Moke used. If anyone has a link to a similar model, I'd like to see it to compare.

That loop under the chin is often how I wear headphones since I dislike the way most feel when worn the "traditional" manner.

[John Willett]

The MKE 2002 was the only dummy head microphone that Sennheiser made.

You could buy it on it's own or complete with a dummy head - the carrying case could double as a torso , so (if I remember correctly) you could put the case on a chair with the head on the top for recording.

Some friends made an album with the MKE 2002 on it's dummy head on a mic. stand at head level and all 8 stood in a circle round the head for the vocals - an interesting result. 

[flipp]

The MKE 2002 was the only dummy head microphone that Sennheiser made.

You could buy it on it's own or complete with a dummy head - the carrying case could double as a torso , so (if I remember correctly) you could put the case on a chair with the head on the top for recording.

Some friends made an album with the MKE 2002 on it's dummy head on a mic. stand at head level and all 8 stood in a circle round the head for the vocals - an interesting result. 

Is that the origination of Circle Sound Services?

[dgale]

Thanks you guys.  I have a few recordings I need to transfer at some point that we made with these mics and I want to have the correct source info when I do.  Unfortunately one of the recordings I recall was Bruce Hornsby & The Range in '87 opening for the GD at Laguna Seca - the quaslity sounds great but my buddy was wearing them for that set and I was running decks (we'd switch off each set usually) and he moved his head too much, so I recall that the sound rolls back and forth from one channel to the other when he does it...I'm not sure there's an easy way to fix that (or even a hard way).  Those mics did have great sound when we ran them down front.  I recorded Neil Young in Eureka in '89 with those mics as well...I think that's the last time I used them as they belonged to my buddy and I lost touch with him.

[darby]

Dan,
I would love to hear that Hornsby or even the Ry Cooder
from Laguna Seca 87 if you recorded that
the Cooder from one of the days circulates from Poris's source

[dgale]

We were too lame both days to get our lazy asses going early enough to catch all of Ry's sets, so we didn't record.  Horsnby sounds great but I gotta figure out how to deal with the L/R drifting audio as he moved his head back & forth.  If anyone has any tips on how this can be addressed with audio editing software, let me know.

[darby]

We were too lame both days to get our lazy asses going early enough to catch all of Ry's sets, so we didn't record.  Horsnby sounds great but I gotta figure out how to deal with the L/R drifting audio as he moved his head back & forth.  If anyone has any tips on how this can be addressed with audio editing software, let me know.

I hear ya...
I sat up on the hill in my campsite listening both days until after Hornsby's set

EDIT:
you didn't by any chance record the Touch Of Grey video session?
that was a ton of fun just being there 

[dgale]

No, like most folks I made a mad dash into the venue to check it out, but without any gear.  A video camera would have been the way to record it...I'm not sure how much of interest an audio recording would have grabbed...I had forgotten all about that - wierd scene for sure - GD meets MTV.  That of course was the precursor to the "In The Dark" summer, where IMO the whole GD scene changed.  For whatever reason I remember it first really sinking in at Alpine Valley that summer - it was a zoo and all the shows thereafter seemed to be that way.  Gone were the great smaller venue summer tours, NYE shows at the Oakland Aud, great venues like Ventura, BCT, and shortly thereafter the Frost and Greek etc.