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Sennheiser ambeo VR and Sound Devices


Mark

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Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with one of these microphones?

in particular with sound devices plug in.

Also, it appears that the plug in is only for use with the mix pre series, as opposed to the 8 series.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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Hi Mark, I have experience with various ambisonic microphones such as the Ambeo, several SoundField microphones , the Røde NT-SF1 and the lower-end Zoom H3-VR and H2n (I mainly work on VR, 360 projects). I used to use a MixPre-10T with my SoundField SPS200 so know the plug-in well.

 

Good news is you don’t need it! It actually has some limitations (or at least used to, I haven’t used it recently) such as locking out other tracks for other inputs when in “ambisonic mode”. When using an A-format mic like the Ambeo you really should just record the microphone signals directly (and gain-linked which you can do without the plug-in of course) and then do the A to B-format conversion in post anyway using the manufacturer’s (or good 3rd party equivalent) DAW plug-in. The reason is that the algorithms are sometimes updated and - as happened with the Ambeo plug-in early on - can have bugs. I found the SD plug-in hindered more than helped so I stopped using it other than very occasional binaural monitoring when I was bored.

 

The SD plug-in on the MixPre’s is nice to have for binaural monitoring on location, but, you can always listen to the front two capsules anyway or solo through each capsule. In my experience with typical location headphones it is sometimes better to avoid the binaural monitoring processing anyway and I didn’t think the binaural decoding in the SD Ambisonic plug-in was very good actually.

 

Oh and if you don’t already own the Ambeo, I recommend the Røde NT-SF1 as a better alternative in that price bracket.

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  • 4 months later...
On 11/10/2021 at 10:19 PM, Tim Bishop said:

Oh and if you don’t already own the Ambeo, I recommend the Røde NT-SF1 as a better alternative in that price bracket.

Hi Tim,

I have had a look online at that Rode NT-SF1 and I learn that Rode has bought the company Soundfield. This mike body really looks like the Soundfield SPS200. How do they compare in term of sound?

Thanks

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On 3/15/2022 at 1:42 PM, Fred Salles said:

Hi Tim,

I have had a look online at that Rode NT-SF1 and I learn that Rode has bought the company Soundfield. This mike body really looks like the Soundfield SPS200. How do they compare in term of sound?

Thanks

They dont!!

 

The SOundfield is still superior. The Rode is fine for the money.

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