Microphone Shoot-Out: Sennheiser ME66 versus Sennheiser MKH416 versus Trams TR50

Let the battle begin!  Today I am going to demonstrate the difference in audio quality between the Sennheiser ME66 and MKH416 shotgun mics, as well as the Trams TR50 lav mic.  I took all three microphones out of rental stock and went to visit Connie Terwilliger, a local voice over professional.  I had her read a script with all three microphones recording at the same time.  Also, all three microphones were plugged into my MOTU Traveler, so the recording pre-amps would be equivalent.  The Trams TR50 was additionally run through a Lectrosonics wireless system, as you would expect on any professional set.  No adjustments were made to the audio, not even volume.  What you hear is exactly what we recorded (minus Vimeo's compression of course).

---

Microphone demonstration: ME66 vs MKH416 vs Trams TR50 from Video Gear on Vimeo.

---

Conclusions?  You certainly hear more low end and sibilance on the MKH416 than the ME66, which is expected for a microphone that costs twice as much.  In my experience with the ME66 I always have to re-equalize it in post to make the audio sound "good" because straight out of the mic it sounds a slight bit thin and dull.  The Trams mic is very popular with audio professionals because it's easy to hide in clothing.  I haven't had any experience in post with Trams TR50 recorded audio, but from this demo it too sounds like a microphone that requires tweaking in post to sound "OK" - same as I've been told by full time audio people.

Hope this helps you select the right microphone for your production.  If you want to know more information about any of these items please call the shop and we'll help the best we can.