In general... what kinds of mics do you want handy for capturing sound effects? Excluding field recording stuff, and strictly going for foley (in this case). What are some must-have microphones, and for what types of applications?
Cost isn't a huge concern. The question is more about what's industry standard, if there is a such thing in this field.
Thanks
Typically a shotgun mic, however I've seen/used all kinds of mics depending on the situation.
I've got one of those Zoom h4 recorders and while it's good in some situations, I find it's very noisy and the mics are just "ok". Certainly not bad, but if cost was no concern, I'd much rather a proper set of independent mics I could use with whatever recording setup. Any amount of hand movement or wind makes it unusable. I haven't tried it with external mics though- but that's not really the original question.
I don't have a ton of experience with different mics to draw from, but the flattest sounding (in a good way) mic I've tried to far is a CADm179. It's a very "boring" sounding mic, but has always done a good job of picking up whatever I'm actually hearing. I have some of the basic mics that bands tend to use (57, 58, etc) and some Rode mics, as well as I've rented a bunch for different reasons, but the CAD is the one I go to whenever I think "I want to capture the thing I'm hearing right now".
For any sort of acoustic source, I first try the Shure SM81. It has an extremely flat frequency response without the BS "enhanced" high end that most condenser mics have, hence its ubiquitous use for overheads/hi-hat, string instruments, etc. It will capture exactly what you are hearing without any kind of coloration. I'll use it over any high-dollar Neumann for this specific reason.
I wouldn't use the Zooms or other hand recorders for this - they're definitively biased towards stereo field recording, and I don't think foley is typically stereo in the first place. A shotgun is my first thought as well, but if you can get close to the source a cardioid condenser like the Shure above is probably a great choice.
On 10/4/2017 at 4:13 PM, Aressera said:For any sort of acoustic source, I first try the Shure SM81. It has an extremely flat frequency response without the BS "enhanced" high end that most condenser mics have, hence its ubiquitous use for overheads/hi-hat, string instruments, etc. It will capture exactly what you are hearing without any kind of coloration. I'll use it over any high-dollar Neumann for this specific reason.
???
Foley means sound effects recording. Of course you would use it over any other high-dollar Neumann. I have a closet full of 81's, and unless you're smashing a stringed instrument against the pavement or scrapping against a metal cheese grater, I'm not sure what the relevance of mentioning they work good on stringed instruments. Completely different question.
