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Podcast with Schoeps 641 and CMIT?


wbrock001

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A client of mine who is a "speaker for hire" wants to do a regular audio-only podcast/blog to get a little more bang for his budget vs. shooting video at his office (I do not currently know how "live" his office is but I have a few refleksion filters I could use and sound blankets if necessary to lower the brightness).  There will be a guest, so I have a Zaxcom Maxx and one Schoeps 641, so was thinking this might be a good excuse to finally pickup a CMIT 5u, so I wanted thoughts on if you think booming my client with the 641 a bit closer, then perhaps a little more distant with the CMIT on the guest would give me consistent sound between the two mics?  I really want it to sound awesome.  I know I could probably just buy two much cheaper mics (I also have a AKG 414XLS, Blue Bluebird, and Rode NTG3)...or get a second 641, but due to the costs of the Schoeps, I figured getting the CMIT might be a little more useful to expand capabilities.  Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome?

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For this kind of thing it is handy to have 2 matched mics but not totally necessary as long as they are of more or less the same type.  If you want a CMIT for location work get one by all means, but this gig is not a good application for it.  The 41 will be great, maybe consider renting a 2nd one for that day?  You don't need to get the 41s right up on the people, you can position them overhead looking down at the speaker's forehead from a foot away or so, out of the air blast and less sensitive to people shifting around.   If you can, try to get some spatial separation between the two speakers, with the other person as much in the null of the speaker's mic as you can.  Room treatment will help you a lot, even if it is just furni pads on stands and on the table.  I would not bother with those goofy "reflexion" devices--to me they make the mic sound odd (esp something like a 41 that has a rear lobe) while not doing much of anything about the room reflections.  I have SM7s too, they've been good on guitar cabs and saxes and other loud sources, but I don't use them for voice unless the speaker is a professional close-talk DJ type, and that's they sound they want.  As soon as you back off the SM7 the low end goes away and the output drops to the point that the tracks become pretty noisy as you chase its very low output.  The beauty of Schoeps is that they sound great on almost all voice types.

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I certainly agree w Double P.  If a room sounds good, even a single 41 can be great, but they are not good as close proximity mic's. He also brings up the most important issue w the SM7's and that is the drop off of everything as the source changes away from the mic. But if 2 people are wearing cans and talking to each other over SM7's, such a system usually self corrects itself when the participants get going.  Obviously it "Depends"...

CrewC

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I dunno--I do a lot of this kind of recording with non-pros, and I can never get them to stay up on the mic like you need to for the SM7 to sound good.  Mostly we use 41s for this, 1 to 2 ft away and do what we can with the room and table top.  When I do this on location (ie lotsa HVAC) we often do it with CS3es instead, about 2 ft out, closer if the HVAC is really satanic, just for the reach.  The Schoeps thing seems friendly to a wide variety of voices, impediments, sibilance and all, but out in the world I need the reach of the hyper vs the regular cardioid.  We have some Neumann biggies that are great for QUIET studios, only, because they hear and resolve EVERYTHING.  Not good on location.

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Wow!  Some excellent advice, thank you so much!  Yes, the "talent" are not going to have much mic experience so the more dumbproof I can make it the better.  I too thought the 641 would be the best from my experience with video production.  And agree about not using the reflexion filter, its a pain to setup and pretty much completely will block eye contact etc...unless I have them off to the side, I have a couple of the smaller ones that fit the 641 perfectly and can double as an adjustable boom...I think they're the ones designed for drum mic'ing.

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Great!  Thank you John, no funky gadgets will be used then!  I found a local rental place that has the 641 for $25/day, so I guess I'll save myself $16XX.00.  Thank you to everyone for your input, I'm looking forward to making this a great product for them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have been doing this for the last few weeks!!! CMIT and 641 for podcasts, direct into Protools when in the studio, but out in the field with a zoom F8. They're great mics and will sound nice in nice rooms. Here's an ep I did in the studio, and here's one that I did in an office with some sort of anti-reflection panels for photoshoots (the male guest is on a wired COS11). In the last case, one of the female hosts was closer to the panels and it made a huge difference. I did some butchering with noise reduction to try to get out some reverb. But in both cases I way prefer Schoeps to lavs or even the classic SM7. :) 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Oh yes!  Thank you, that really shows the sound differences.  The lapel is so thin sounding in comparison.  Definitely hear the reverb but everything is very clear and easy to understand.  The lapel guy almost sounds far away.  Compared to the studio that has much more presence but the higher pitched lady seems to have a little more reverb.  All sound great!  Thank you!

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