I am just starting out in the area of Digital Photography and Digital Editing? I currently think sennhiser makes great microphones. I am wondering what other company's make high end mics. What is the best type to hook directly into the computer? What is the best type microphone to hook into your camera? Thank you

David Applegate

David
Any mic that you'd hook directly to the computer isn't going to be the best by a long shot. You'll have to tell us what your aims are.

First, what kind of camera do you have and what is your editing program? Do you want to do a voice over right into the computer?

All the best
Beas

I have a xl1s and gl1, and I use soundforge.

David,
Could you tell us what you want to use the mic for? There are many great microphones and many great manufacturers out there.
Could you also give us a rough idea of your budget for 'high end'-
eg: below 500 bucks, 500-1000, 1000-2000, 2000-5000, 5000-10000?
Best,
Helen

//I am wondering what other company's make high end mics.

Schoeps and Neumann come to mind as the "ultimate microphone" companies. AKG, Beyerdynamic, Electrovoice, Shure and many other companies make great microphones.

David
I've posted several links for some interesting reading on your other thread. When you read these articles things will become more clear. No doubt you'll have even more questions after reading them, It's a facinating topic.

Jay's Rose's book is well woth the money.

First, in reply to helen. I plan to use the mic to record someone, as if in a interview and I do not have a price limit.

Second, in reply to bryan. What links?

If you want to use lavaliers for the interviews consider dpa (http://www.dpamicrophones.com/) 4071s. My favourite anyway.

If you want to use a boom-mounted mic (possibly as well as the lavs), then a hypercardioid or very short shotgun would be the thing. I'll stick to my favourites. There are plenty of others.

Supercardioids/Hypercardioids: Sennheiser MKH50,
Schoeps MK41.
The Schoeps system is modular, and so that could be the start of a collection.

Short shotgun: Audio Technica AT4073a

Bryan's links are in his reply to your other question, as he said.

Best,
Helen

Thanks a ton Hellen and Bryan. I really congradulate the people who make these forums happen, they have the knowlage of a thousand books. I still have a couple questions.

What are Supercardioids and Hypercardioids?
How does a shotgun differ from a boom?

David,

Strictly speaking (who does speak strictly?) a boom is a microphone support - a pole on a stand. The pole that people hold over their heads would be called a fishpole. However, a fishpole is more often called a boom, and the person that holds it can be called the boom op. The term 'boom mic' refers to the mic on the end of the boom.

Hypercardioid and supercardioid are almost interchangeable. They refer to a microphone that is more directional than a cardioid, but the consequence of that is that there is some sensitivity directly to the rear. Microphones capsules are some combination of omnidirectional and figure-of-eight components - an omni has no fig8 component, a cardi has equal omni and fig8 components added together and a hyper or super cardi has an excess of fig8 component - so a hypercardi has a directional pattern like a figure of 8 with a big top and a little bottom. Ahem. Oh, the hyper- is supposed to be a little more directional than the super- I think. If you want to play with this concept, go to the Soundfield (http://www.soundfield.com/software.htm) website and download their mic modeller demos. They're intended for their very nice stereo mics, but it's easy to work out what a mono pattern would look like.

Shotgun mics are hypercardioid capsules with an 'interference tube' in front. The interference tube cancels out sounds coming from the side by wave interference - but this is highly dependent on the frequency. Low frequencies are unaffected, and high frequencies are greatly affected. This introduces some colouration to the sound that the plain hypercardioid capsule does not have. Schoeps (http://www.schoeps.de) have their party line on this issue in a well written technical article on their website.

Best,
Helen

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18400

I posted links that go into great detail about each type of microphone. It's on the thread that I've linked above.

Read the exciting adventures of my wallet and credit card on todays installment of as the stomach turns. (my viisit to the sound shop:)