Kampar, Perak, Malaysia,
They announced inter-district travel allowed from Friday, so I will be able to go around Perak. However still can’t cross state. It’s good enough for now, the state of Perak is big.
I received an email from a reader of my blog, I am impressed to see there are actual followers that read my posts. haha, I should be more careful about what I say. Well there was many questions from this reader. I will paste my answer at the end of this post.
Yesterday I finally started a long due task, that is to update the theme use on Articulated website. This theme is 5 years old, it is cumbersome, and many functions are depreciated; so I absolutely need this update. However it is a tricky task as I have to not break anything on the website, also I will make for some refreshment of the design, I need to make sure everything still render pretty neat.
So here is the email I received and its answers:
Hi Stéphane
When I browse your blog or your journal, I always think it would be interesting to learn more about your recording setup and “reductionists approach”. On day 50, for example, you used the MikroUsi and not the 8090s. I wondered why. Maybe you have abandoned your more complex 8090 kit? I have a lot more questions, e.g.:
- How did you connect the conbox to the preamp and how do you power it?
- How effective are the Cinela Leo compared to a real blimp?
- Why have you chosen the MKH 8090 and not the 8020 or 8040?
Maybe one day, you find some time to write a new blog article and answer some of these questions. I think many others, mainly field recording beginners, would be interested in it.
Thank you & all the best,
David
Hello David!
Thank you so much for reading my blog! I am impressed to see there are actually someone reading and interested!
About Mikrousi versus 8090, it is simply more easy to bring along with me. I have not abandoned the 8090 kit, but most of the time when I go visit around I bring only Mikrousi, that I find good enough, and it makes it less risky as they cost less ( the loss will be less damaging if something happen ). Also I don’t stumble across incredible sounds everyday, so it really make no sense for me to bring the 8090 all the time. I am also in the midst of improving the kit, right now I find it fragile, mainly on the way the mic are attached. I will do more proper recordings with this kit for sure. Also I have now the clippy mics, and I am due for a comparison between Mikrousi and clippy.
- How did you connect the conbox to the preamp and how do you power it?
I have customized the cable with a mini xlr 5 pin, so I can connect to the preamp. I have also customized the preamp alimentation, which was previously a hirose connection is now directly a usb that output in 9v so I can plug in any usb power bank
- How effective are the Cinela Leo compared to a real blimp?
I found them very effective, particularly if you add the fur, I didn’t directly compared with a ‘real blimp’. But I would say the most challenging is more about the cable noise. This is why use a connbox. I have been using a Rode blimp in the past but I found it pretty cheap and had trouble with cables. With the Cinela Leo I was able to record wind, as it sustain pretty good amount of it.
- Why have you chosen the MKH 8090 and not the 8020 or 8040?
I like the spectrum of omni for ambience but I still want to be able to point the mics and choose a perspective, pretty much like the ears.
and cardoid is too narrow for lush ambiences in my opinion.
the 8090 comes nicely in between these 2 mics patterns, I believe they are good versatile tools.
Hope this answer your questions.
Also I would not recommend my setup for beginners, because it is very customized for my own needs.
It would be unnecessary very difficult to replicate my setup. Also I believe it’s all about sound not gear.
The focus of any recordist should be on sound not gear.
It sadly is not the case now in the consumerism kingdom we live in.
I wish you good day, very good recordings,
Regards,
stephane