As a creator and a gear head, it’s easy to get wrapped up in constantly upgrading
your gear over and over.
The quest for the best possible quality through tiny little details that your average viewer
will never notice isn’t a very rewarding one, but it’s an addicting one.
But what IS rewarding is when the brakes get slammed on your gear quest and you find the
perfect piece of kit that satisfies your workflow needs and sounds pretty great in the quality
department, too.
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I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun and I’ve made some questionable
choices in the name of audio on this channel…
(Ever since the original Elgato Game Capture HD gaming capture card launched at a competitive
price....
I've reviewed quite a few expensive microphones on the channel, I'm even using one right now,
the ElectroVoice RE320...)
And I’m not going to lie, being obsessive about audio quality while being unhappy with
every solution I found was pretty stressful for a while.
Thankfully I finally settled on the ElectroVoice RE20 and the DBX 286s channel strip as my
primary means of processing desktop audio about a year ago, and have never looked back.
But it wasn’t until last fall that I finally found an on-camera mic to fall in love with.
But oh man, do I love it, and I kinda want a second.
This is the Sennheiser MKH-416, a short shotgun microphone that’s actually used on TV sets
and in many voiceover studios.
This was sent to me by Sennheiser for review and to use to produce my OBS Master Class
in fall of 2017.
With it, I purchased a SoundDevices MixPre-3 audio recorder and an Atomos Ninja Inferno
video recorder to optimize my workflow for such an intense shoot.
I’d previously been committed to using lavalier mics for my shoots and honestly didn’t expect
to use the MKH-416 much past this course, but I use it for every shoot I can these days.
This may be the last on-camera mic I need in my studio.
I’m almost tempted to get a second and replace my RE20 with it for my desktop shooting, too!
This is a sturdily-built matte black microphone that comes in a great case with a windsock.
Sennheiser boasts this microphone as having high feedback, immunity to humidity, and very
low self-noise.
Originally developed in the 1970s, this mic was specifically designed with RF modularity
in mind so that the microphone can adjust its impedance to match that of the audio cables
being used, to prevent significant self-noise.
This means it has become commonly used for films, TV shows, and even voiceover studios
due to its clarity and warm bass response without the boomy proximity effect of large
diaphragm condenser mics.
The off-axis rejection is very nice here and the sound….
Oooooh the sound.
I’ve been asked many times since using this mic for videos what kind of post-processing
I’m doing to my vocals to make them sound so dang good and for the first time in a long
time, my answer is “none.”
Yes - with the Sennheiser MKH-416, I perform zero post-processing on the microphone recording,
other than adding a little gain to bring levels up.
No compression, no EQ, nothing.
While I may find some light EQ or compression settings to keep things balanced in the long-term,
I am blown away by how great this microphone sounds right out of the box.
The mic works great with my MixPre-3, and I’ve been impressed with how little power
it requires to get good sound out of it.
It still requires 48v phantom power, but it doesn’t require anywhere near as much gain
as something like my Rode NTG-2 does, which further helps prevent system noise.
I primarily use this mic for on-set camera shoots, but it’s got quite the following
for studio voiceover recordings, as well.
To touch on that, here’s my buddy Mike from Booth Junkies to tell you what’s what:
[Mike clip]
While I’ll always try out
new
hardware and gear just for reviews and to expand my knowledge and experience base, I’m
fairly set on the Sennheiser MKH-416 being my primary mic moving forward.
Switching audio hardware all the time is very problematic for maintaining consistent quality
in videos, so I’m very happy to have this new setup that I can just turn on and go with
every time I record.
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