Best general purpose shotgun mike for A-1 under $500.

[Roger Lee]

Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock

I was also lucky enough to pick up an AKG blue line with a hyper cardiod capsule for $250! It's a great mic, especilly indoors. Now if I could find a cardiod capsule for the AKG....
Bruce S. Yarock
www.yarock.com

Bruce,

I'd like to know more about your AKG blue line. I own and use an AKG3000B. Good mike for live sound....but very bright sounding when recording.

What are the characteristics with the blue line with the A-1?

Also, may I ask....what will the cardioid capsule do for sound that your hyper cardioid won't do? I would guess that the hyper cardioid would reach out further?

Just curious.

Rog Lee

[Don Palomaki]

A number of mikes have a -20db pad switch or something like that. Since shotgun mikes are designed to reach out...I guess that would defeat the purpose of the mike...??

That can work, if the 20dB pad does in fact extend the linear range of the mic to higher sound pressure levels, e.g., by attenuating the sound entering the mic. But that feature is not commonly found on the typical shotguns used for video in the under $500 class.

Perhaps there just isn't anything out there. mike wise, that can both reach out distance wise and compress sound when too close.

Keep in mind that compression is not the function of the mic - precise, accurate, distortion free and noise free tranducing of the sound pressure waves to an electrical signal is the function of the mic. Compression is used to reduce the dynamic range of a sound signal - and is usually accomplished by an external processor, or in sound editing software.

BTW, typical shotgun microphones discussed above do not "reach out" as such, they mainly suppress pickup of sounds from the sides and the rear giving allowing the sounds from the front to stand out effectively filtering out the sound from the sides and rear.

"Reach" is accomplished by amplification, sometime in the mic, sometimes in external preamps, or sometimes with special mics that use parabolic reflectors to concentrate the sound much as a lens does light.

[Roger Lee]

Don,

Good points and thanks for the reply.

Rog Lee