ORTF recording, set of Sennheiser 8040's. Nowe Kramsko in Poland.
Recorded as 48khz, 32 bit float, no processing.
EBU T128 Loudness normalization.

MKH 8040 pair Village life with tractor passing by, train in the background, skylarks.

The first eleven minutes of the recording document the gradual approach of the storm from the northwest; the remainder of the recording, its arrival and passing overhead, travelling towards the southeast.

2023.11.28 Thunderstorm (from a Balcony)

The Indian Pacific is an Australian passenger rail service that operates between Sydney, on the Pacific Ocean, and Perth, on the Indian Ocean, with Adelaide, on the Southern Ocean, as a midway station: a journey of 4,352 kilometres (2,704 miles) and four to five days. This recording was made at night, at around 23:30, in the countryside, one to two hours out of Adelaide: here, the Indian Pacific is en route to Perth. Traversing a long stretch of straight track, the train was travelling at a fairly brisk pace.

The recordings were made with microphones that I've been using for years: a pair of MKH 8020 omni microphones in AB 63 cm (i.e., parallel to each other and spaced 63 cm apart) and a pair of MKH 8040 cardioid microphones in ORTF (i.e., divergent at a 110° angle and 17 cm apart), all mounted on the same mic support bar, at a distance of 9 steps (approx. 5.5 - 6 m) from the railway tracks, simultaneously recorded the passing of the train into a MixPre-6 II. The preamp gain for the 8020s was 35 dB, and for the 8040s it was 40 dB. Even so, the signal level of the 8040s was far below that of the 8020s. Not surprising, given the omni polar pattern of the 8020s, and their greater sensitivity.

The comparative sensitivity of these microphones is as follows (according to the manufacturer's specifications): MKH 8020s -30 dBV/Pa, MKH 8040s -34 dBV/Pa. Although fairly close, the very different polar patterns (omni vs cardioid) of the two microphones make this small difference in sensitivity quite significant. ['Sensitivity' refers to the amount of output that a microphone provides for a given input. Microphone sensitivity is typically measured with a 1 kHz sine wave at a 94 dB sound pressure level (SPL), or 1 pascal (Pa) pressure. Thus, a -30 dBV/Pa output is a more 'sensitive' (and 'louder') response than a -34 dBV/Pa output.]

No processing has been used on the samples presented, other than the following simple adjustments: both samples were normalised to -1.00 dB, and then precisely the same gain envelope adjustments were made to both samples to rebalance the overall temporal gain levels after normalisation. The original files are 96 kHz/32-bit float; the resampled version presented here is 44.1 kHz/16 bit.

The most evident and most significant point of difference between the two recordings, from the recordist's perspective, is that between the stereo imaging/spatial staging of the same event as recorded from the same position. Of course, it would be quite meaningless to suggest that one image is 'more true' or 'more faithful' than the other. There are also some more subtle differences in the timbral detail and texture of the two recordings, due to the subtly different frequency response contours and polar patterns of the two types of microphone. It would be very interesting to make further comparisons with reference to a parallel binaural recording rig.

Track image: Comparative spectrograms of both clips at 96/32. Drone aerial photograph of Indian Pacific from https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/indian-pacific/.

2025.01.30 Indian Pacific Transcontinental Train: MKH 8020s and 8040s Parallel Samples.

Walking back to my car through tall and wet grass and gravel. 
Sennheiser MKH 8040 pair in NOS stereo array. Sound Devices Mixpre 6ii

Cookham Common - walk to the car. Pair of MKH8040 in NOS.

ORTF pair of MKH 8040, Mixpre 6ii, Rycote Nanoshield AB


Tractor pass by

I am a London based sound recordist, voiceover actor and dialogue mixer.

𝔈𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤, 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔢𝔯, 𝔞𝔰 𝔞𝔫 𝔈𝔳𝔢𝔫𝔱, 𝔞 𝔐𝔬𝔡𝔢, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞 𝔇𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔅𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤.

New tracks tagged #mkh 8040