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Dear JWsoundgroup, first of all, this forum has been an amazing source of information for me in the past months - really the best forum I know on the web, so thanks to all members for that first time posting here so bear with me I'm checking options for a portable/sturdy surround/multichannel recording setup. I have an ORTF Sennheiser mkh8040 setup with a rycote, and 2 DPA 4060's that I have been using until now as a guerilla/far-from-perfect quad setup, in which the 8040 pair is the front pair, and a spaced array of the 4060's as the back pair using a thin metal bar that's screwed to the boom pole. I've had some decent results with this setup, but it's a cumbersome setup to carry around and not exatcly according to the book... As I see it now, there are two options to attain a portable surround recording setup which I can afford : either purchase a Rode's SF-1 soundfield microphone, or add a small figure-8 mic (like the kortwich figure 8 mic) to the 8040's that would fit into the rycote to create a double M/S setup. It's important that the whole array can fit in a single windshield. Now I have two questions : 1)what are your experiences with Ambisonics vs Double M/S? Both in terms of specific gear /setups/protability/sturdiness and in terms of its sound quality & flexibility of the recordings in post. The advantage of the Rode SF-1 is that it is very flexible in terms of mixdown formats and practical/small to carry around. However, I'm a bit concerned though that it would be a large step backwards in terms of sound quality compared to a stereo 8040 pair... I don't work in VR, my field recordings are mostly used for my own work, art installations, or for no-budget films, so I am not obliged to go down the ambisonics route. The advantage of the double M/S setup is that I keep a setup based on the 8040's, but I am a bit concerned with phase issues and I am unsure how to intergrate a figure-8 mic into the windshield (also: which figure-8 mic to use for this purpose?). I've done some stereo M/S recording in the past and I've had the impression one has to be so precise to make it work (mic distance etc.) that I am unsure about how reliable it is for field recording? 2) While doing research online, I found one review on thomann.de where the user described experiencing serious hum using the SF-1 in damp weather. This is something I have read also on this website (https://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/topic/31493-abisonic-microphones/&page=3) Has any of you experienced similar issues? I've done some field recording both in very cold, and very damp/tropical environments, so i can't risk bringing a mic that can't handle such weather conditions. Thank you in advance for any thoughts andf help Best regards, Sonnenstudio

Hi. I am using SENNHEISER AMBEO for now. However, Characteristics and S/N ratio are not perfect. Is there quad-microphone that like Neumann KU100 sound character. Anyone have a recommend? During this time, I bought pair of BLUE HummingBird. Character is far from the Neumann KU100 but it has quite good S/N ratio and transient response. I might buy two more of this and operate those as Double-XY. Just like him.

Hi everyone, Searching about amabisonics microphones I found 3 good choices for ambient tracks recordings: Soundfield ST-450, Soundfield SPS200 and Tetramic. For those who experienced this type of mic, the question is: 1) which one has the lowest self noise (considering nature recordings). 2) which one has the best worflow (handling noise, weight, cabling and wind protection) My recorder is a 788T. Thanks for your help. Best, Paulo Ricardo Nunes