DanieldH

I've dug through the Shure lines and ultimate ears offers, but ended up with the cheap consumer JLab Fit Sports (cabled version obviously, unsure what generation) and I am pretty happy with them. My main spec was an "earhook design" with the cable running behind the ear. The actual hook is a piece of bendable wire in some skin friendly elastomere, and they come with quite a bunch of silicone earpieces in different sizes/shapes. On set I wear them on my ears, rather than in my ears. I can stuff them in my ears, when I need to get rid of surrounding noise. When booming scripted fiction stuff, isolating earbuds prevent me to hear what is going on around, something the director tells the DOP, or an oncoming plane/garbage truck, set commands/people talking, whatever. From what I believe, that is the main task for my pair of ears, close to set within the sound department. There is another pair of ears, further away, that deals with quality signal monitoring. I need a rough idea about the signal and intercom/private line perception with a flexible compromise to what is going on around me. The Sidekicks have the satellite eartips, that come close to my demands. But the overall product is build for on camera applications. it is flimsy, tiny, stealthy and expensive. I prefer something visible for everybody trying to address me, that there may be some issue to get through. Apart from that, the Sidekicks have a rather high impedance that may cause issues with other consumer devices. Overall, in case I don't bring mine, I would prefer some cheap "walkman" style headphones the location sound person provides for script, director, etc to something "special".

Not my preferred way of booming interviews, but whatever floats your boat. I know the effect, but an upright boom, clipped on a resting bag, would not affect my choice of boom length or mic for interview situations.

Some tv news soundies carry ultra small poles just to have one and mainly use them as a grip or weight. The show/journalist does not demand booming, but some office person thinks a pole is obligatory.

I suppose, such a small boom is for 1hand operation. What Mic+suspension+wind protection do you want to mount on it? Do you want it to be internally cabled, and if, coiled, or straight, removable or not?

I want that for Røde and Rycote, plz 😄

Settercoly, to sum this up, my understanding of your situation is rather poor from the information you give. Where are you situated, someone here situated close to you may even have stuff to demonstrate or rent. When I asked about head worn mics, you reply with hands free needs. That is confusing to me. From what you write, I can only suspect, that a mic in the video is not acceptable for your video product. Yet, you stated, you are in the documentary realm of things. Are visible mics out of frame a necessity? This is a lot more relevant for sound-for-camera-ppl than e.g. a male or female voice. What sort of lab has security regulations regarding lavs? How many people shall be in front of camera? Been answered Besides... what camera?

In a perfect room with zero or near zero reflection, and only one source of sound, any decent mic will produce... decent results from 10 Meters away (self noise aside). Schoeps, Neumann, DPA, SennheiserMKH are the BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Porsches in the mic world. They may be nicer, more enjoyable, but they don't make freezing rain less slippery. A shabby Skoda will get you home just as well if you drive carefully and put your mics close to the source.

Special order a matched set in white finish from Schoeps and put some lab equipment manufacturer logo on it. 🙈

I never used an 8050. It is in a decent midpriced range and generally nice to have. It may or may not produce satisfiable results for your lab shot. I am not protecting anything. There is no "right" tool, besides lavs/headworn mics. Anything else is try and error.

Yes the ME66 has an ugly hiss. This can be compensated to a degree in post by a deesser filter. It is in the lower price range. MKH416, MKH60, CMIT, DPA4017, KMR81, CS-3e all those workhorses do not have this hiss. The first, MKH416 is rather unforgiving off axis but in the mid price range. It will still tell you, if a shotgun in this room at whatever distance is an option for you. The others are high priced, try any of them. If you get acceptable results, then, you could think about what model you could actually buy at what budget.

You already mentioned a few MKH Models, that are of interest to you. Besides that, ask the rental house what they would advise and have available. The model is less relevant than the pattern, the pattern less than the distance and direction to the voice. You may want to try some cardioid and supercardioid, like you already suggested in the MKH lines. Besides that, try a shotgun on/above the camera axis pointing in the middle of the "room of action" at various distances.

If you want to record a moving voice, you want to do it with a moving mic. Anyway, before you buy some MKH or other condenser mic, rent one, or a few with various pickup patterns and test yourself, it it meets your needs.

Wear them all day, let the recorder run and run a camera mic for sync reference. Sounds like a job for the new deity trx, if they are on the market soon enough (or multiple of them charging). Otherwise the Tascam DR10 and a midpriced lav/headset would meet your budget. Edit: Assuming you mean 2 persons by "we".

Difficult to imagine, especially when mics may be visible. But may be. What about headset mics?

What sounds are of interest during the experiments? If It's people talking, I'd suggest lavs and body worn recorders.