Sennheiser ME66 Short ShotGun mic advice

[Jarvis Alston]

Hello All,

Just considering purchasing a Sennheiser ME66 Short ShotGun mic that is part of a kit that includes a SD MixPre. I will also be recording on a SD 702T. Any advice you can give me on this mic? Or is there a reason they are getting rid of them as part of a package? I have read good things about Sennheiser.

I also would like to have a mic that can pick up some ambient room noise along with dialogue as I will only be shooting with a very small crew and will not have the resources to be able to capture ambient noise as well. Another concern is that because the mic is so directional, I'm worried that an inexperienced person may have trouble following the actors speech direction and being able to pick up the dialogue (with the boom). Is this a problem with really directional mics or is there a margin for error?

Also, would this mic be able to be used for recording sound effects and dubbing/narration etc in post?

Thanks a lot for your advice. Much appreciated.

Jarvis

 

[Dave Blackham]

Hello All,

Just considering purchasing a Sennheiser ME66 Short ShotGun mic that is part of a kit that includes a SD MixPre. I will also be recording on a SD 702T. Any advice you can give me on this mic? Or is there a reason they are getting rid of them as part of a package? I have read good things about Sennheiser.

I also would like to have a mic that can pick up some ambient room noise along with dialogue as I will only be shooting with a very small crew and will not have the resources to be able to capture ambient noise as well. Another concern is that because the mic is so directional, I'm worried that an inexperienced person may have trouble following the actors speech direction and being able to pick up the dialogue (with the boom). Is this a problem with really directional mics or is there a margin for error?

Also, would this mic be able to be used for recording sound effects and dubbing/narration etc in post?

Thanks a lot for your advice. Much appreciated.

Jarvis

Sennheiser MKE66 is our standard entry level hire mic. However also check out the Audio Technica range of mics too. Id not use it for narration, use a large Capsule mic so it has some seperation in its character for that. My first choice would be a Microtech Gefell M70 capsule mic but dependent on the narrators voice. Its the real or origional Neumann.

 

[Alexis Hanawalt]

Exactly what Dave said about the Mic - it's what I've got and it always gets the job done - if I need a better mic, it means I need a dedicated sound guy who's gonna have 10 better mics. I also have the MixPre and it's a dream to use.

 

[Sean Solowiej]

Jarvis,

About 3 years ago I had the ME66 and my friend had an AT 835b, so we did a side-by-side comparison. Just plugging in both mics to a mixer and fading between them, there was quite a difference. It's possible that I simply had a bad example of the Sennheiser, but the noise floor on it was incredibly high compared to the 835b. The 835b sounded far better to me even indoors, seemed to pick up voices much more clearly and didn't have nearly as much self-noise. I was disappointed, thinking that the name Sennheiser should have somehow guaranteed against that - but it is their bottom-line shotgun. I also thought the k6 modular system made it much cooler, but in reality I never changed the capsules. It was always just used with the ME66. And the AA battery vs. phantom power is not so hard to overcome, even with a basic kit. So for my money, if I was back to buying entry-level shotguns, I would not hesitate to go with the AT 835b. But I wouldn't buy anything without testing them first side by side. Maybe you can order both and return your least favorite?

For what it's worth, here's a good comparative review:
http://www.lafcpug.org/reviews/review_shotgun_mic.html