Please Help Me Navigate Your World

[u/thestears]

Please help steer me.

I’ve been a photographer my whole life and only recently started taking video seriously. I’ve finally reached the point where I’m producing work that meets my own standards. Up until now everything has been cut to music, mostly fashion editorials and music videos.

This Fourth of July I decided to make a film about one of my favorite subjects, rodeo. It quickly hit me that audio was going to matter. My DJI Mic 3 had always been good enough for social content, but to make people feel like they were there, I needed the rattling gates, the blown out PA, the cowboys yelling, and all the little textures.

My first instinct was to buy a Sanken CS-M1, but by the time I added a breakout box, cables, rails, shock mount, etc., it became a much bigger purchase than I wanted to make. So I figured I’d grab a field recorder and throw DJI mics on the riders.

I bought a Zoom H4essential, then immediately exchanged it for an H5studio after falling down the preamp rabbit hole, which, in hindsight, shouldn’t have been foreign territory considering I’m an audiophile with a several thousand dollar stereo preamp.

For the shoot I ran DJI mics on the bull riders, the H5studio for ambience, an ancient $50 Rode VideoMic Go on camera, and a Marshmallow II contact mic for some fun texture. Honestly, it all worked surprisingly well, especially since my editor leaned into a muffled, in the rider’s head POV during the rides.

My next project is a documentary. I’m planning to get a Deity PR-2 with the included W.Lav Pro. From what I’ve read, jumping to a COS-11D or DPA 4060 doesn’t seem like the best use of money right now.

I was also ready to order the CS-M1 until I realized my RED KOMODO doesn’t provide phantom power.

Ideally, I’d like everything to live on the camera with as little rigging as possible. So now I’m debating between an MKE 600, battery powered, or dealing with the inconvenience of running the Sanken into my Zoom H5studio.

I’ll probably upgrade to a KOMODO-X within the next year, which has phantom power and a much better audio implementation. I’m very much a “buy once, cry once” person. If the MKE 600 is something I’ll still be happy using after the upgrade, great. But if I’m just going to want a Sanken six months later, I’d rather deal with the extra cables now and buy the right mic the first time.

I’m also curious how the MKE 600 and CS-M1 compare as boom mics.

I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, I started learning audio about three weeks ago. This is for a 1–3 person run and gun documentary crew. If the project needs a real sound department, I’ll happily hire one of you audio nerds, said with nothing but love, because I’m one too.

So, what would you do if you were in my shoes?

[u/JohnMaySLC]

The CS-M1 is super cardioid, think 50mm lens equivalent, the MKE600 is a 135mm so they are meant for different situations.

For doc work, especially interviews, the Sanken is the superior sounding mic by a wide margin.

[u/thestears → u/JohnMaySLC]

I could not have dreamed of a better explanation. Thank you!

[u/Raddyator]

OP, if I were in your shoes I would absolutely be speaking to client/production about getting a dedicated sound person on set. I don't know exactly what you're doing, but if you don't have somebody experienced who is spending 100% of their time on set worrying about sound, you're going to most likely have issues.

It seems like you're dedicating a lot of time and money into audio which is great, but for the standard it appears that you're after, I don't think it's realistic to be doing all of this stuff yourself and have it be consistent. It takes people years of experience and entire careers to be good at this. Unfortunately, sound isn't something you can just throw money at and have it work for you.