Going to be recording F1 race cars. The real work will be done as per usual but we want to roll a couple of track MS just for fun. Since it is just for fun I'm wondering what the least expensive decent mic with a figure eight pattern would be. Thanks in advance.

The CAD M179 has a switchable pattern, including figure 8. It's 199€ here in germany, but as with almost all modern mics you will probably only have to pay half the money in the states...

I got mine used in very good condition for about 90$ from the classified section here on GS.

I already had a couple of Oktava MK-012s & so recently got one of these for $200:

Oktava Figure 8 Adapter (Silver) at FrontEndAudio.com


Must say though it reminded me that I dislike MS for sound FX, and especially for car bys.

I would say the Ambient ATE 208 EMESSER

I wouldn't call 800$ a "very small budget" price though...

Used MKH 418, never popular, but do not ignore.

It's the cheapest of all the single diaphragm fig-8 condenser mics. and equal to more expensive ones.

Needs careful use - the fig-8 is back-to-back cardioids and should (according to the designer) be 6dB lower than the mid mic.

Yes, but honestly, just for "experimenting a bit" with M/S while recording cars, i personally would go for the CAD. If 800$ is within his "very small budget" and he wants to get seriously into M/S later on with that mic, your suggestion is probably the better one.

Of course it will sound bad, because the capsules aren't coincident. It's a very poor implementation of a Bi-Directional.

Wow. Neither would I. Seriously. This mic may very well be destroyed during the day. It's an experiment, you know, a couple of sound guys, professional though they are, who want to geek out soundwise on what will be a very slow day at work. In our world MS stereo isn't implemented on even a semi-regular basis but if the opportunity ever comes up we need to have done it before. On that day rental cost for the appropriate, industry standard, mics to do it at the same level we do our regular work will be picked up by production as per usual; tomorrow ain't that day.

I should add that none of the MS tracks will be turned in at the end of the day, only the regular production tracks recorded using the usual Neumann, Sennheiser or Schoeps options we have on hand.

So I ended up buying an inexpensive multi-pattern Chinese mic for $100 to go with one of my other inexpensive Chinese "crash" mics. I'll also be bringing an AKG D112 and AT ATM25 for some low frequency fun and games. Did I mention that the cheap Chinese mics may well be destroyed at some point during the day?

Anyway, thanks for the input.

If you want decent results with MS you will need a mic with a uniform fig-8 pattern otherwise you will get weirdness in the stereo field caused by the mic. A cheap fig-8, is just that and the results will be proportional.

Also, ideally, the fig-8 has to match the main mic tone wise to blend in. So you will actually need a "matched" pair to get results that would mean anything.

Since you are already renting Schoeps for the mains adding a fig-8 capsule to the rental may be your best option.

Good luck,
Baithak

The Shoeps aren't rentals and probably won't come into play, I mentioned them to make a point, I guess. I imagine we will use a Sennheiser MKH60 for the day, maybe a 50. It will never be in harms way, physically or with regard to SPL. For the record I think it would be irresponsible and unprofessional to put expensive mics in harms way and risk the potential for production having to file an insurance claim due to negligence on the sound department's part. That's not how I roll and I don't work long with department heads who do roll that way.

The Chinese "crash" mics may very well be put someplace I would only put a disposable mic, actually, I know they will. If they are damaged I'm out around $200.00, a little less. The price of doing business as they say. Again, this isn't to hand off to production. Also, the "budget' I mention isn't the production company's budget, it's mine. The sound department is not getting paid to set up any kind of stereo mic arrangement but it's going to be a slow day and we'll have the time. I'd certainly rather play around with sound stuff than stare at my smartphone in between setups (I miss the old timers, their newspapers and daily crossword puzzles).

One of the things I'm interested in is determining the amount of time to set these up on location, the type of rigging needed for mics not meant to be in this kind of environment; how it all can fit into the workflow on set, how much of a POS is it, how much extra time do we need if asked to do this for real in the future, would we need a pre-call and if so, how much? It's all practice for the big game.

I simply don't expect the type of flawless sonic performance from these crash mics as I do from our usual compliment, that would be ludicrous.

Thanks for the good wishes. It's going to be a fun day for the sound department no matter what. Race cars! Zoom zoom.

Have you considered using some cheap ribbons?

Here in Germany the bigger online sellers have their own brands of chinese ribbons, which go usually for less than 100 € (http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_rm700.htm); maybe you can find something similar in the US?
There you would have your disposable figure of eight then, I'd say - they are noisier than condensers, but you were talking about race cars & high SPLs anyway ... :-)


Cheers

Felix

That's what I'm talkin' about! Thanks, Felix, I'll definitely look into these.

BTW, by the time we got to the drive-bys the wind was kicking up so hard that our M/S rig was useless. Nevertheless, it was a good day, our Sennheiser MKH60 came through as always, and and we got to meet one of auto racing's true legends.