terrasound

I didn't test the Cosi with the cmc but I did test it with a MKH 8050. For indoor I prefer the schoeps B5D over the Cosi, unless you need to swing the boom a lot. The B5D is very transparant and very small. The Cosi is a bit less transparant, but much better than the Rycote softies. The pianissimo with only the main cover gives quite good wind protection and is super transparant (as good as the B5D to me), better than the Cosi. I often use the pianissimo outside with only the main cover. I didn't compare the Cosi to the pianissimo with the short pile fur yet. But I think they should be quite similar. The Leo is also very transparant and gives more wind protection than the B5D. The Leo with fur is a bit bulky. I prefer the Cosi over the Leo with fur. I would be interested in a Cosi for indoor use only (same cover as the pianissimo) or a mini pianissimo .

Interesting new products:

Any update on the channel linking feature while using the faders to control the ISO levels? Quite annoying at the moment. Hopefully a firmware release will solve this soon...

The mkh-50 is also quite prone to handling noise (and wind noise) so you will need a good shockmount and hpf (you can work without a hpf if you have a soft touch) for this one too! I really like the osix mount (the soft version) with a leo which I preferred over the rycote options that I used. It's shorter and more efficient in reducing handling noise. But I haven't tried the latest rycote options.

I would recommend the mkh 8060 over the mkh 416 because the noise floor is lower and the sound is way more natural than a mkh 416. The mkh 8060 is not as prone to handling noise as the mkh 8040 and 8050. So with a good shockmount that should not be a problem at all. Regarding the sensitivity of the mkh 8050: It depends on the shockmounts you are planning to use. I use cinela mounts and can only recommend them. For indoor use you can use either the cinela minix (without the MZF 8000), which is a very small and lightweight shockmount. If you use the right HPF (40-60hz -18db/oct) you will not have much trouble with handling noise. The downside of this small shockmount is that you can only use a small schoeps B5D or rycote baseball (I prefer the schoeps because I found it to be more transparent), so you can't really move the boompole that fast. But you can of course use the dedicated cinela zephyx 8050 blimp. This one allows you to change quickly from outdoor blimp to and indoor one (a kind of minicx 8000). You can also use the cinela zephyx with the main cover in situation where you need to swing the boompole fast. If you use the MZF 8000 on the mkh 8050 you can use the Cinela MOD-OSIX-MKH8050 on an osix base. This option is a very "silent option" (no problems with handling noise at all, you will only need a very gentle hpf) and in my opinion gives the same result as a mkh 50 with an osix shockmount (also very good!). The advantage of this option is that you can use a cinela leo (you can add a fur for outside) which gives better wind noise protection (boompole swings) Another option would be a cinela pianissimo blimp, you can easily modify this blimp to use either with a mkh 8050 or mkh 8060. There is not much difference between the mkh 8050 and the mkh 50. If you like to work with a smaller microphone go for the 8050 and invest in good shockmounts.

The Zoom F4 and F8 have excellent ganging features too. It must be said that the Zoom F series are feature-wise more professional recorders than the mixpre series. But sounddevices can catch up with firmware, if they want ...