Quick disclaimer: I am not paid to write this. I’ve been sponsored by brands like Sennheiser and Rycote in the past (and by others too), but these sponsorships are mostly in exchange for testing kit on my expeditions and getting sound recordings, photos and videos of said equipment in the field. I was sent the MKH 8030 and the BD-10 but neither Sennheiser nor Rycote get to see this before it is released. I work as a sound designer and recordist for media and I don’t rely on revenue from brands to make a living. I use a variety of kit from many manufacturers.
I’ve been using Sennheiser MKH 8000 series microphones for more than a decade. The MKH 8020s have become my favourite omni mics, while the 8090s are my go-to (wide) cardioids. In 2016 I started to use Double Mid-Side rigs for compact surround recording, with a pair of 8040s or 8090s plus the old Sennheiser MKH 30.
I’ve taken that rig to the rainforests of the Congo, Amazon, Borneo and Costa Rica, to the highlands of Ethiopia, to the mountains of Transylvania, the savannas of Senegal and South Africa, and the list goes on. It is not exactly a lightweight rig, but if you combine it with a waterproofable Cinela Pianissimo rig, it is compact enough and can withstand serious downpours and extreme weather. The mics themselves are some of the sturdiest and toughest I’ve ever used.
The Sennheiser MKH 8030 has been the stuff of legends all this time. A miniature version of the much bigger MKH 30, it would allow recordists to have a very compact and lightweight Mid-Side (or Double Mid-Side for that matter) setup. Sennheiser have been tight-lipped about it and it seemed like it would never materialise, until earlier this year. A couple of months ago it popped up at IBC in Germany. Soon thereafter Sennheiser sent me a pre-production unit for testing, and I took it along on my recent Patagonia trip.
Completely separately from these developments, Rycote have been making microphones for a while as well. When I mentioned to them that I was testing the MKH 8030, they asked me if I was interested in trying their figure-8 mic, the BD-10 (BD stands for Bi directional as far as I can tell). Of course I couldn’t say no so I took one of these on my Patagonia trip as well.
Now, Patagonia isn’t exactly the perfect location for testing microphones. The weather was pretty extreme for the entire duration of my trip there. From heavy winds to hail, sleet and snow, there were a lot of challenges. For a couple of days it was suspiciously quiet and still, complete with enough sunshine to get sunburnt.
Between these crazy weather events we managed to find pockets of acceptable weather to work. I got some decent recordings of still nature, icy glacier lakes, wind in the mountains and a distant waterfall. I had both mics in MS setups with MKH 8090 mics as the mid channel in Rycote Nanoshields. You can download unprocessed snippets exactly as recorded by the Mixpre 6ii here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/pqf3eu1nj4c66lbtwtbt8/h?rlkey=qtebvzocmellgdd63aeb8t96k&dl=0.
As the title of this post says, this is only a first look and not a proper review. I will take these mics on more expeditions with me and I will post back once I’ve had a chance to test them thoroughly. What I can say at the moment is that both mics did a good job in Patagonia. I haven’t noticed any clicks, pops or other weirdness happening even when the humidity was very high. The sound was consistent throughout the trip regardless of temperature levels.
The MKH 8030’s profile is very similar to the one of its siblings in the 8000 line, including the HF noise above 25-30 kHz. Transient response seems very similar and very good. The tone feels pleasant, at least to my ears. The Rycote BD-10 is quieter and lacks the HF noise, although it doesn’t seem to reach as high in the frequency spectrum as the 8030. When you amplify its signal to match it with the 8030, it seems to have slightly lower levels of self-noise in the lower frequencies. They both pair well with the 8090s in MS and the decoded recordings sound excellent.
Birdsong recorded with Sennheiser MKH8030 MS rig
Don’t take my word for it though. What sounds nice for my ears might be too harsh or bright for yours. Download the files above, and listen to the decoded (and sadly compressed) audio in the videos embedded in this post.
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