Rode NT4 for Ambient Effects

[Joe Taylor]

Anybody have any experience or opinions regarding the Rode NT4 as a mic for gathering field effects-- wind, thunder, general ambience? I know there are better setups out there, but for those of us on a budget, how does the Rode NT4 stack up?

 

[David Peterson]

If you're on an ultra tight budget and counting your pennies, then Superlux makes their own spin on the NT4, the Superlux E524/D

Actually, Superlux makes a whole bunch of stereo mics at very low prices:

https://www.thomann.de/gb/superlux_stereo_microphones.html

I'm seriously thinking about purchasing the Superlux S502 myself, as I think an ORTF stereo mic could be handy for an upcoming film I'm doing which is almost entirely ambiance (almost no dialogue).

 

[Joe Taylor]

Thanks David. I'll see how they hold up in reviews!

 

[Marc Wielage]

Anybody have any experience or opinions regarding the Rode NT4 as a mic for gathering field effects-- wind, thunder, general ambience? I know there are better setups out there, but for those of us on a budget, how does the Rode NT4 stack up?

Those are noisy mics (in my opinion). My advice would be to rent a pair of Sennheisers instead, like the MKH40's or the MKH50's, and make sure you use really clean preamps (like those from Sound Devices, Zaxcom, Sonosax, or Cantar).

You may find that the field effects you're trying to capture may already exist in high-quality sound effects libraries, but it will take some research to locate what you're looking for. I don't dispute that sometimes, there are one-of-a-kind sounds that you can only get on location, but there's gotta be a thousand hours of ambience backgrounds available these days (even in high-res stereo and 5.1 surround). It might be more convenient to spend a few bucks and buy one of those, rather than sit in a swamp for a day and a half trying to get one clean recording without background noise or jets flying overhead.

 

[H Dewey]

Joe, I'm thinking the Ntg4 is probably just fine if I'm understanding what you are trying for. I don't have one personally but I do have a pair of Ntg-2s. My personal experience has been that a cardioid mic works best for something like distant thunder, especially if you are trying to eliminate off axis noise.

But for outdoor "room" I prefer an omni mic to give the feeling of being "in" the ambiance. I suppose one could point different cardioids around if you want to shape the ambiance in post, but I personally am content to use what an omni (or two) will give me.

Again, this is a personal observation, but I wouldn't worry too much about quality as ambiance isn't synonymous with total silence.

A further example of the total silence issue is when I see on screen, someone sneaking up on a person while walking through straw or dry leaves and there is no sound of the steps (unless they do a close-up of the shoe or boot.) I can hear changes of a slight nature of my own surroundings and am taken out of the movie when I see something like this that to me is just incongruous.

 

[Joe Taylor]

Hey Marc, I'm giving myself a week of so of research before deciding. This is a western film shot in some unique desert locations and re-recording the ambience out there will be too extensive for rentals. But I appreciate your input. By the way, I've been reading up on books by Bernie Kraus and Gordon Hempton and it seems the Sennheiser MKH series are the standards for pairing when capturing stereo ambience. They are pricey mics though. CHEERS!

 

[Joe Taylor]

Hi H Dewey. The Rode garners good reviews and is considered a good mic for the price. I hear that about a lot of mics it seems. But the NT4 is also faulted some by individuals who have a lot of experience so that gives me pause too. I'm thinking i might rent one and test it out for this weekend and so how it goes. Many thanks!!

 

[Hicham Chahidi]

Hi Joe,

Very good idea to rent the microphone and try it in real conditions. The NT4 is a good mic (not only for the price), I've used it for music recording sessions and it worked great in many situations (acoustic guitars, overheads..). If you are planning to record ambiances, it will be a good choice, keep in mind that it is very sensitive to the wind and to the hands movements too, so you will need to be careful with your movements and also a good windshield will save you a lot of trouble..

 

[David Peterson]

There are lots of approaches btw to recording ambiances & SFX.

And lots of approaches to recording stereo as well (X/Y that the NT4 does being one of them).

I am thinking when Rode starts shipping their NT-SF1 ambisonic mic this will put another interesting spin on this field as well, as it opens up the option to record "cheaply" (by ambisonics standards, the 1st sub US$1K mic, less than double the price of a NT4) ambisonic files. Which then gives even more options in post for how to handle it, you could for instance decode it down to 5.1 rather than just simple stereo.

 

[Hicham Chahidi]

Very interesting information! When we use this microphone for recording, do we need to setup several input audio channels (4 mono, 2 stereo..) ? or do we need a specific recorder to use it?

 

[David Peterson]

Ideally you would want a specific recorder that supports what is needed (specifically to set all the gains *EXACTLY* the same), such as the new Zoom F8n is what I'd personally recommend. (although no recorder supports B format decoding yet for the new NT-SF1, so we might need to wait a little while to see that happen)

 

[H Dewey]

...
I am thinking when Rode starts shipping their NT-SF1 ambisonic mic this will put another interesting spin on this field as well, as it opens up the option to record "cheaply" (by ambisonics standards, the 1st sub US$1K mic, less than double the price of a NT4) ambisonic files. Which then gives even more options in post for how to handle it, you could for instance decode it down to 5.1 rather than just simple stereo.

This sounds interesting. So are you saying ambisonic files from one mic can be presented at 5.1? This sounds like the perfect match to the audio playback on the HYDROGEN 1!!

 

[Hicham Chahidi]

Thank you for the kind replay David!