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Hey Guys,

I'm curious about microphones which feature a wide frequency response, ie. over 20kHz, for recording SFX at 96 or 192 and later pitching down.

What's out there?

What have you used/own?

What do you think of them?

Thanks in advance!

Jo

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Sennheiser MKH 8020, 8040, and 8050 record out to around 50kHz. They are outstanding, quiet mics.

Schoeps MK capsules with CMC-6 XT bodies record out to 40kHz. Also amazing mics. A little more self noise than the Sennheisers, but they sound great and handle mid range frequencies very well.

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  • I hear that the SM 57 does a great job for high frequencies too :P – Stavrosound May 28 '13 at 4:03
  • Thanks @Justin! @Stavrosound, I'll have to give mine a test :P – Joseph Dutaillis May 28 '13 at 8:54
  • MKH 416 can record over 20KHz too. – Luca Capozzi May 28 '13 at 14:08
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The Sennheiser - MKH series are analog-boost-eq inside the mic preamplifier in order to get an extended frequency response. I used MKH - 8020 @ 192kHz for slowed down fx and I get high frequency noise. Neumann mics don't have this eq boost, the highs may be more natural and less noisy. I don't know for Schoeps and DPA.

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I have Sennheiser MKH 8040, but after slow down from 192 to 48 there are much more hi frequency noise, than signal, so this trick don't work well with this microphone.

UPDATE: Just try other recordings at 192 with 8040 and found that they quiet!!! I will make more research with other recorders, it looks that I am wrong about 8040 and this problem in my SXR4 or I have defected mics.

EXAMPLE OF MY SITUATION:

ORIGINAL: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6674991/example.wav

SLOWED: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6674991/example%20to%2048kHz.wav

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  • It could be the preamp! This is very audible on portable equipment, where the internal voltage rails may have high frequency noise (40khz and above). Sony PCM-M10 does this, although a gentle high frequency roll-off fixes it. – georgi May 28 '13 at 14:50
  • It could also be misinterpreting the product specifications. Just because it says "frequency response 20Hz-50kHz" doesn't necessarily mean that 20kHz-50kHz will be usable, just that "it's captured" (you can google for how the specifications are specifically determined). The noise may also be induced by another piece of gear that doesn't have "usable range" over 20kHz. One ought to also know about the real frequency range of the sound one's recording, because if there are no high frequencies present, then of course it will be masked by any kind of gear induced noise – Internet Human May 28 '13 at 15:06
  • en-uk.sennheiser.com/downloads/… has the response curve at the end. it's within 4dB for up to 50kHz indeed. – georgi May 28 '13 at 16:43
  • I use Sonosax SX-R4 - it have bandwidth up to 72kHz (-3dB) and extremely lo noise preamps. sonosax.ch/recorders/sxr4/… Of course, I speak about sounds with rich hi frequency spectrum. My opinion - 8040 is typical modern, mass product - do not expect anything special. They are unstable in the parameters. I have 3 items, 2 - from Stereo set and all have "visible" difference in sensitivity and lo end spectrum. – Pavel Doreuli May 28 '13 at 21:01
  • good to hear a fellow sxr4 user onboard! regarding the 8040 have you been able to compare it to other microphones? my mkh50 goes a long way up into the 30 khz and dpa 4060 are also very nice in the upper range. was wondering about the schoeps XT preamp.. – Arnoud Traa May 29 '13 at 20:04

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