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Sennheiser MKH-418s


Winter

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Hi!

I've noticed that this mic is never mentioned by the people here.

Personally I use one from time to time and I find if a very useful tool when i wanted ambience AND dialogue, when I have to record groups of people and for atmos too.

Anybody uses it?

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For getting wild sound ambience at a sports event (in the middle of the players) maybe, but on set a stereo shotgun mic moving around could have some issues. Dialogue is a mono source, reflections can always be an issue, with a stereo mic my guess is that they would be worse. Fixed, picking up music may be a different story .

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A classic mid side setup would be a cardioid and a figure of 8 on the same axis and it is an interesting way to mic a room

I once recorded a band using this MS setup with 2 U-87s

it sounded great though the guitar player wanted the guitar louder

I suggested he turn it up and record it again

drummers - try this mic setup at home

For our kind of work MS recording using an interference tube mic and a figure of 8 seems a bit ambivalent to me

note: I have never used a 418 though I would trade my MKH 70 for one

al

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Just tried a search for 418s, got 17 results. The search is screwy sometimes but is still useful.

Funny, try a search for "Sennheiser MKH-418": 0 results

In any case from the 17 results, well..one was this thread and the vast majority were in the wtb/wts section. I can still say that this mic is not very used or discussed by the people on this board.

Probably the majorty is working in movie area, where it's hard to find some use for an m/s shotgun.

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For getting wild sound ambience at a sports event (in the middle of the players) maybe, but on set a stereo shotgun mic moving around could have some issues. Dialogue is a mono source, reflections can always be an issue, with a stereo mic my guess is that they would be worse. Fixed, picking up music may be a different story .

It depends from what you want, and you can always separate the M track in post (I do post myself 99% of the times, I guess this is an important consideration) and you can also decide how much S and M you want to blend.

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I do have one and i regret it...sometimes...

Heavier and longer than a 416, the 5-pin cable is a bit unhandy when you want to change your microphone in a 'run-and-gun' situation, you lose 2 channels because both the M and the S microphones need phantom and the S-microphone is quiet noisy!!

...but...

It's just like a 416 (a great allrounder), stereo is always a gigantic 'pro' and you've him always with you (it was my first shotgun), great for loud ambiences of crowds and scènes with cars involved!

I'd recommend using an ambient emesser with a regular 416 or other microphone for a cheap M/S-solution...

Jeroen

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...but...

Hi Jeroen,

I guess that "but" is the word with that mic: it has cons BUT it has a lot of pros...

I've thought about selling it sometimes, but (again "but") when I need it is too handy and useful to be without :)

For docos (what I do mostly) is a great tool to open the sound stage in general shots and increase the sense of ambience in a controlled way.

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I use it sometimes.But I don't think that's a great mic. The m mic sounds good but the s sounds bad. If you want to buy this kind of mic you have to try the audio technica equivalent: it's really better.

For ms booming I prefer Schoeps hyper plus figure of eight or sometimes mkh 416 plus Schoeps figure of eight.

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  • 11 years later...

I have a 418s in my "run & gun" kit. For 80% of my recordings, I simply use the output of the MID capsule (pins ⅔ of the XLR5 connector) with results equal to a 416p. I have built the appropriate adapters for my kit.  For MONO operation, the 418s does not require 48v phantom to both channels. I doubt I'd use the full capabilities of the 418s for a serious music recording. For these sessions I rely on my AKG C34 or a pair of brass ring C414's. Spot mics on music recordings are Sennheiser MKH435T modified for p48 operation.

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