Topic: Stereo pairs: Core, MM, Church?

[dorigatti]

I have a Sony Hi MD recorder (MZ RH-1) and I plan to record:

(A) acoustic guitar plus one vocalist (no amplification).
(B) Indian small musical ensembles on location (vocals, harmonium, tabla) in a quiet non amplified or moderately amplified environment.
(C) Lectures (mic clipped on lapel of lecturer).

I want to avoid hiss.

Questions:
1. Binaurual or cartoids? Especially for recording situation (A) which will be my primary application.
2. Pros and cons between stereo pairs similar offerings from Core Sounds, Microphone Madness and Church Audio. MM's mikes are Sennheiser based which I know and respect. (I live in Europe, Amsterdam).
3. Do I need a pre-amp or will the battery box be sufficient.
4. Difference between the box with or without the bass roll of switch?
5. Can I use mics without the battery box on my RH-1?
6. My budget is $300

Any advice will be very welcome. Thanks.

[illconditioned]

I have a Sony Hi MD recorder (MZ RH-1) and I plan to record:

(A) acoustic guitar plus one vocalist (no amplification).
(B) Indian small musical ensembles on location (vocals, harmonium, tabla) in a quiet non amplified or moderately amplified environment.
(C) Lectures (mic clipped on lapel of lecturer).

I want to avoid hiss.

Questions:
1. Binaurual or cartoids? Especially for recording situation (A) which will be my primary application.
2. Pros and cons between stereo pairs similar offerings from Core Sounds, Microphone Madness and Church Audio. MM's mikes are Sennheiser based which I know and respect. (I live in Europe, Amsterdam).
3. Do I need a pre-amp or will the battery box be sufficient.
4. Difference between the box with or without the bass roll of switch?
5. Can I use mics without the battery box on my RH-1?
6. My budget is $300

Any advice will be very welcome. Thanks.

To start out I recommend Church cardioids and a standard battery box, directly into mic-in, low sens setting and manual record levels.  This works great on MD for a wide range of recording scenarios.  The mic pre in the MD has pretty low self noise and has pretty good sound, you don't need a preamp.  But you do need a battery box if you're going to use this in a loud environment (MD plug in power is not quite enough IMO).

It is *my* opinion that this setup is pretty hard to beat as a starter rig.  I still use this for a "secondary" or "loaner" rig for my recordings.  Enjoy it...

  Richard

[Arni99]

I would not choose church-cards as they are low-sens modded and that´s the last thing you need for acoustic not amplified stuff as more preamp-gain is needed for the loss of -12db caused by the 4.7k low-sens-mod.
Chris himself recommends his mics for loud amplified stuff..I think 96db and higher, only.
You need some high-sens low-noise mics:
If you can afford, go for "DPA 4060" omnis which are high-sens....318€ for 1 mic + the DPA power supply "6030" or have them 3.5mm modded so you can use them with a 9V battery-box.

I just emailed you a sample from yesterdays session:
MM-HLSC-1 on RH1 MIC-in at gain 13 with plugin-power only...no bbox or preamp was used.

[boojum]

I'd second Arni. Also, the SP-CMC-4U, and Audio Technica mic, is also pretty good.  I have both, use both, like both.

Cheers

[illconditioned]

I would not choose church-cards as they are low-sens modded and that´s the last thing you need for acoustic not amplified stuff as more preamp-gain is needed for the loss of -12db caused by the 4.7k low-sens-mod.
Chris himself recommends his mics for loud amplified stuff..I think 96db and higher, only.
You need some high-sens low-noise mics:
If you can afford, go for "DPA 4060" omnis which are high-sens....318€ for 1 mic + the DPA power supply "6030" or have them 3.5mm modded so you can use them with a 9V battery-box.

I just emailed you a sample from yesterdays session:
MM-HLSC-1 on RH1 MIC-in at gain 13 with plugin-power only...no bbox or preamp was used.

I still think Church's cardioids are pretty good for quiet to moderate levels.  The self noise is reasonable (comparable to AT853 I think).  The mic's output may be a bit lower (not sure exactly, though), but the MD has plenty of (noiseless) gain.

If you were going into an Edirol R09, though, I would recommend a "hotter" mic.  The Edirol has a significantly higher noise floor on mic in compared to MD.  I really like the Sennheiser MKE2 omnis (MM-HLSO-MICRO) and, yes, they are a bit hotter than the AT853 or Church cards.

Anyway, I think any one of these three are a good choice...

  Richard