Freesound Forums

Hey people,
I'm a newbie round here, though I've been lurking for a while, and must say this is a great site.

I've been into making electronic music for 20 or so years and have dabbled in "field" recording in the past with a now dead Sony TCD-D7 (I think) and a few cheap mics. Now I'm wanting to get more seriously into it and put together a simple field recording system which will be capable of making good quality ambience / soundscape recordings.

I've reduced the mic list to the 2 following: Shure VP88 and Sennheiser MKE44-P.
Anyone her have experience with either, or both of these and could give me some feedback?

Very much appreciated y'all.

Dave.

Hi there

no personal experience with any of these mics, but I think user ingeos here at FS uses VP88, you should check his samples which are all great.

As for the Sennheiser, it seems to me a completely different mic: just two X-Y cardiod capsules, and weighs 120 g (in contrast with the Shure, which has selectable stereo imaging matrix, can do mid-side stereo and is bulkier and heavier, 400 g).

For a simple X-Y image I often use Rode NT4, which is cheaper than the Sennheiser, approximately same weight and more sensitive (12 mV vs 6mV of the Senn). Several samples of my samples here were recorded with the NT4.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Cheers Dobroide, that's helpful.

I realise that they are different mics, the Shure having M/S capabilities as well as X-Y. At the moment I'm leaning towards the VP88 simply for its flexibility, but I'll check out those samples 'cos at the end of the day it's the sound of the thing that matters rather than whether it's X-Y or M/S.

Any other opinions from users out there?

Much appreciated,

Dave.

P.S. Just some info for you U.K. readers out there; the Shure VP88 sells new in the U.K. for circa £750-£875 but can be had for $689us (£364) from B&H:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=68506&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Even when you factor in 20% or so for import duty and delivery you are still paying around about £436 - saving between £314 and £439. Worth considering.