Sennheiser MD46 Microphone

This is a solid dynamic reporter microphone, great for capturing dialogue in a relatively noisy environment.

BUILD QUALITY

Build quality is solid, all metal, and reassuring. It's not too heavy either. The XLR connector is good quality and solid too.

The handle of the microphone is smooth and long enough to slot a 'microphone flag' onto the handle, leaving enough room to hold the handle.

IN THE FIELD

I've been testing this in some challenging situations, like a coffee shop, with lots of background noise, clattering, talking, etc. For these situations its cardiod dynamic response is a great choice. This allows you to capture dialogue clearly, by placing the microphone quite close to the person speaking. The cardiod response will still pick up background noise, but to a lesser extent than an omnidirectional mic.

There is some noise handling if you excessively move/drag your fingers over the smooth microphone handle. However, if you're using it normally and not deliberately trying to create handling noise, it's fine. The handling noise is predominantly low frequency and you may reduce much of it with a high pass filter in your recording. This may be a consideration if you're passing the microphone to a person unfamiliar proper handling.

As is standard for this type of dynamic cardiod microphone, there's a pronounced 'proximity/bass response' as the microphone is brought closer to a person's mouth. This increases output levels too. This is a point to note when interviewing others especially if they try to push their mouth very close to the microphone.

If you're trying to capture the ambient sounds of a location, this is probably not the microphone to use. For that, an omnidirectional microphone may be more suitable.

You'll need to buy a foam/pop cover for this microphone, to prevent P and B plosive sounds from spoiling your recording.

FEATURES

It's a cardiod dynamic microphone, so doesn't need phantom power. Just make sure your recorder/system can provide sufficient gain for its output level (check the technical specs to be sure).

Note: it doesn't have an 'on/off' switch on the microphone body, so that's one consideration if this is important for your application.

I bought the mic for location interviews for a podcast. I've done a fair few interviews over the years with a variety of mics and chose this mic because of the handling noise, build quality, wind resistance and pattern.

Most locations I interview in are noisy- very occasionally I interview someone in a quiet sitting room, and in these occasions have turned to a small omni condenser, or occasionally a cardioid condenser. The cardioid condensers I've used have been susceptible to handling noise and are often too sensitive- and pick up external noise in quiet spaces and mouth noises, clicks etc and so need very careful positioning.

I have just made a few basic tests with the Sennheiser and here are my subjective thoughts-

Build quality- great, built like a tank- nice balance in the hand

Handling noise- compared to the cardioid vocal dynamic I was using- substantially better. I find that stage mics do not do that well for handheld location interveiws and I usually have to revert to a shockmount, but the Sennheiser seems to have very good dampening of the capsule. You will still get noise if you move your hands/fingers a lot

Background noise:- I live next to a fairly busy road, I find that if I move a little away from the window, that the mic does a very good job. It still picks up some noise but you can mitigate that by positioning. If I'm going to interview on the street for example- I try to avoid main thoroughfares and tend to try recordings in side streets. If you wanted a completely sterile environment with no location sound- you'd work in the studio I guess.

Vocal quality:- I will only use this for interviews so I can't comment on other uses. Speech clarity is excellent. I used to use a reporter omni mic- won't say which brand, and while it picked up the voice ok in very close micing situations, it always imparted a slightly harsh tone in the mid to high frequencies. The Sennheiser gives a nice full (rounded?) tone with great clarity but no harshness.

Wind resistance- you will need a pop filter - I've found foam ok indoors, you'll still get plosives if you position directly in front- but less than my aforementioned stage vocal cardioid dynamic. Outdoors- I tried when the wind was about 7km/h in various positions, I needed a Rode dead kitten which dampens the highs a little, but a little EQ sorts that.

You will probably need a preamp of some kind. I tried the mic with a Tascam DR 100 MK III and the gain was close to max, with a little hiss- not much- just there, and tbh if you're interviewing with background noise you probably won't even notice.

For ENG, location interviews- highly recommended, a little care in positioning but you should be ok as long the interviewee is not completely turning their head away from the mic