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Hey! Any recommendation for a MKH 8040 + MKH 30 Mid / side rig?? (preferably cheaper alternative then the rycote Stereo Cyclone MS Kit 16) Any suggestions is appreciated. thanks

Hi, I did research quite a bit but did not find anything close enough. Here's what I want: I'm a cameraman mainly doing documentaries. Rarely, there's a dedicated sound person/operator on set. Usually, there's me plus the director occasionally booming or recording additional non-sync sounds. I have a very simple AT875R mounted on my lightweight Pansonic AU-EVA1 setup. Audiotechnica calls it a ine + gradient pattern short shotgun mic. There's barely much low frequency response below 80 Hz. http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/cae8c23cfe000574/index.html I tested dozens of other on camera mics over the years on different cameras. In the end, I always returned to this dead cheap mic again. The simple reason is that I like its pretty natural, mildly warm sound and it's ruggedness. If there's a talent talking there'S of course another technique involved. Let it be booming or lav, depending on the situation. This is not the on-camera mic's duty. Now, I did work with other very nice cardioid or hyper cardoids like the Schoeps CCM series or Sennheiser MKH-40/50/60, MKH60. Yesterday I did some tests wuth a very interesting setup on camera. The CCM MK4 as mid plus a Kortwich Acht http://www.filmtontechnik.de/en/products-from-kortwich/microphone/ on top as side. I was never listening to such a natural and balanced Stereo on-camera setup. It is small and lightweight, too. I also have a AT BP4029 M/S shotgun, which i s often used for a wide atmosphere when the camera is on a tripod. I like it for what it is, but I thought I could have a better noisefree and more natural sound without a shotgun as mid signal. I thought of having a Sennheiser MKH 8040 incl. the MZW module as a mid/main mic adding a Kortwich Acht or Ambient Audio Emesser208 as side signal, when needed. Later I'll buy another MKH capsule with longer reach - be it the 8050 hyper or 8060 shotgun. Would this make a good combination for my needs and be a substantial upgrade from the A/875/ AT BP 4029 combo? Can it be handled on camera well enough?

Hi, hope this topic is more than a double from what I already read from other threads... Working on a documentary for the next month, I want "better" sound in many ways. Since today, we use a Sennheiser MKH418 on a boom plugged into a SD702. We only used the mid, when voice was on the important side but mostly used the side signal for enhanced room experience. We already did two feature length films with this setup and liked the handling very much. The sound was always nice, but not breathtaking. We always found the stereo experience to be somewhat limited and "tight". When recording very quite environments I didn't like the noise floor, too. FYI: We use lavs for interviews, too, when needed. I was using a Schoeps CMC6/MK41 combo lately and used them instead the mid signal of the MKH418 in a M/S test setup. I was really impressed with the low noise and much better off axis response. What a difference especially in quite environments! I tested the Sennheiser MKH 8060 lately with a comparable experience in terms of noise and off axis response, but a much narrower/more distorted stereo image of course. Here's what I want now: - MS setup with low noise and "switchable" mid signal (e.g. cardoid indoors, shotgun outddors) - stealthy setup in a small rycote stereo shockmount/windshield - price should stay around 2k... I found some possible setups: - Sennheiser MKH8060/8040 for the mid signal (can buy them used at an attractive price) >> seems to be sensitive to handling/wind noise (MZF8000!) but is small, leigthweight and has a very nice sound, high sensitivity + low noise !! - Schoeps CMC6/MK4 + MK41 for the mid-signal >> silky sound, low noise, small + leightweight, mid sensitivity, no shotgun available, expensive - Ambient Emesser ATE208 as figure 8 >> I have never used this personally, but this seems to be the only small single diaphragm figure 8 beside the expensive Schoeps MK8 - Kortwich 8 as figure 8 >> double diaphragm figure 8, there is zero experience with this mic, kortwich told me that they tried to match the MK8 with a better noisefloor and therefore used a double diaphragm, they developed this as Sennheiser has no figure8 for the MKH8000 series, kortwich will send me one for test purposes Any input welcome, as there seems to be very limited experience in such a specialized tool... THX