the very best mics?

[jnorman34]

moke - the 4061s do a very nice job at everything i've used them on.  self noise has not been a problem at all, though i worried about that before buying them.  they certainyl rank up there in terms of best mics for the money.  i have used them as a spaced pair for many duos, even in really poor spaces with nice results.  the omnis have a diffuse sound that is nice, though doesnt give the same precise location of each instrument like you get with cards.  sometimes thats good, sometimes not.  all in all, the 4061s are great - sound is fantastic and the price cant be beat.  still, my favorite mics these days for most stuff are the 480s.  but it is nice to have the choice of omnis when i want them.

[Nick's Picks]

here's the problem with the 250.  i own one and its on loan to a prof who is going to buy it from me.  if you arent in the most perfect of position it really sucks.  for when you are in the right position its AMAZING

selling it out of the circle...
a tear in me eye

yea, I can see that being the plague of the Soundfield.  It wasn't designed to be "setup wherever you get the opportunity", it was designed to be in "the spot", for whatever application that may be.
And so true about how it shines when in "the spot", unlike any other.
When it was in my care, I guess I never really recorded outside of the sweet spot with the exception being distance.  i was always DFC with it.  Even at a distance, it sounds nice...but not as nice as other mics.

I think having a pair of multi-pattern mics will leave you in the best position for anything that comes along.
two ST-250's in mono mode ORTF

[BC]

i am generally looking for very flat freq response curve.  anyway, what is your vote for the very best pair of mics that are out there?  

IMHO if you are after neutrality the DPA line is very tough to beat. I am a 4022 owner and am very happy, I can't really ever see myself getting rid of these unless DPA comes out with an extended freq. response version a la the Schoeps CMC6xt.

Some other mics that seem engineered with neutrality in mind (that are a little more affordable) are the the AKG C 480 B-ULS line and Earthworks (QTC1 looks nice!).

Good luck!
Ben

[jnorman]

btw, moke - i got a really good deal on these 4061s, but if i was buying again, i would go for the 4060s instead, just for the lower self noise issue.

[kindms]

The new line of AKG c 414's would give you a lot of options

http://www.akg.com/products/powerslave,mynodeid,186,id,781,pid,781,_language,EN.html

[radioboy1977]

here's the problem with the 250.  i own one and its on loan to a prof who is going to buy it from me.  if you arent in the most perfect of position it really sucks.  for when you are in the right position its AMAZING

from my experience, that's about the long and short of it.  which is why i'm buying a big-ass boom arm so that even when i'm off center i can crane out to DFC

[F.O.Bean]

i can see it now jef, it will go from that back bar entrance to DCF 20' from stage;-)

w/ some long-ass 40ft boom

[Sean Gallemore]

shear stress due to bending is gonna be killer on that beam

[F.O.Bean]

shear stress due to bending is gonna be killer on that beam

jef, we'll have to make an arch over the dfc area back there, put a stand on each side, and a boom meeting the 2 in the middle, DFC for our mics

be about 5 ft on each boom

[utahtaper]

 still, my favorite mics these days for most stuff are the 480s.  but it is nice to have the choice of omnis when i want them.

I have said the same thing about 480's in the past but I think the Gefells may have chaged my opinion. I just can't get over how pleasing they sound. I have yet to touch the omni caps and none of the caps are dead flat but I'm going to fluff them anyway.

[F.O.Bean]

im turning into a 480/geffel kid at heart too, the geffel>v3 tapes d and i made are incrediable, but so are the 480->v3 from that same festie

[jpschust]

ok as far as accuracy goes, however, putting the 4022 against the 480, and mind you i havent done the comps, but looking at the on axis diagrams (akg doesnt publish an off axis diagram for their 480 with card cap), the 4022 has a flatter curve up until that bump around 10k.  The akgs look like the run flat up till 100-200k and then get a bump somewhere in the middle of that range and run flat till about 10 and get a dropoff.  the charts are on the respective companies websites.

I really wish akg would publish the off axis measurements too.  thats better data to look at for our application.

[F.O.Bean]

no doubt jonny, i can hear more off axis thru the v3 more than w/ the dmic, its because of the detail

but i wonder what their off-axis is???

what is schoeps?? cause i do give that to the shepz, their off-axis is really nice

[jpschust]

you know im not sure- i know that im not a huge fan of the schoeps card caps so i didnt bother to check.  it always bugs me when companies skimp on their documentation though (yes this means you AT, AKG, and sometimes Neumann).  

[carlbeck]

no need to throw stones at AKG, they will smoke most anything with the right GA pre-amp, trust me!