Sanken - CS-3e

The best professional quality? That would be a current Lectrosonics, Zaxcom, Sound Devices, or Wisycom wireless system. There are many models of transmitters and receivers, but for argument sake let’s say Lectro DBSM and DCR822. As for lav mics themselves? DPA 4060, DPA 6060 or Sanken COS-11D. All great. (There’s tonnes of other options top, those are just too of mind). Boom mic will sound better in general though, and best would be a Schoeps CMIT5U or miniCMIT or SuperCMIT for exteriors, Sanken CS-3e for very noisy locations that need a laser-like focus, and a Schoeps CMC6 MK41 or Sennheiser MKH50 for interiors. Best would be used with a plug-on transmitter like a Lectrosonics DPR-A or HMa, and the paired receiver running into either a Sound Devices, Zaxcom, Sonosax, or Aaton recorder with maybe a Sonosax or old Cooper 208D mixer in front of it. (Again there’s tonnes of somewhat equivalent options for mics, transmitters, and mixers, I’m just illustrating a point.) Then presuming that’s all utilized properly and recorded well (meaning proper wirelesss signal distribution and power distribution and proper gain staging), it would be a matter of taking the best of both worlds, the open natural sound of the boom and combined it with the up front body of the lav, using Auto Align Post 2 to phase align the two. Then some in depth editing of cut/fill/fade, layer in additional ambience, foley, library effects, sound design, etc. and mix using EQ/compression/reverb/etc.. with a high degree of automation across many parameters written in through a physical control surface for fader moves. Listening while moving a physical control gives way better and faster results than drawing automation lines and curves on with a mouse. or wait… did you not actually mean THE BEST MOVIE-LIKE QUALITY for realsies? People seem to get okay results with the DJI for a cheap, social-media-quality, streamlined, user friendly system. [If you learn](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk55CEmjflkbEK-P8jag5pqZ1CpbjaVwZ&si=5dkXp77d7NCOQdaG) how to do a half decent job in post production you could probably squeeze a lot more life out of it too. Or if you can tolerate a little more complexity in operation, a Sennheiser G4 system would probably sound better. Best upgrade you could do for it is to replace the kit mic with something better like a Sanken COS-11D. Just gotta make sure it’s wired correctly. Recording separately from the camera and syncing up afterwards also will help since camera audio inputs typically have terrible noise floors. A cheap entry level recorder like the Sound Devices MixPre series would be where to look for that. Again increasing complexity. Sorry, didn’t mean to be snarky at the start, but it’s extremely unrealistic to expect the BEST or MOVIE-LIKE out of inexpensive consumer/prosumer grade gear. The truth is that there is an unbelievable amount of cost and skill that goes into getting that movie sound you’re talking about. There’s a reason it’s a whole department.

Cool, just curious. I’ve counted on the MKH50 for 3 decades of features and episodic as the primary choice for my booms. Post loves my tracks. I stopped using the Sanken Cs3e completely and bought more 50’s to put in Zeppelins for outdoor work. So it’s 50’s all around for me.

A couple things to add to the comments. I have the CS3e and it can be very useful indoors for noisy locations. However it’s a bit hard to manage in a low ceiling space and its very narrow pattern can be a problem if the subject moves around. However, it can be moved quite far back to account for narrow pattern and still give very nice results. At the other end, I also have the Neumann KM/A body with a few different capsules. The KK184 essentially provides the same pattern as the KM184 but with MUCH better EMI noise rejection. Anyhow, the point is that the wide cardioid pattern is often helpful in reducing the room reflections. I was amazed at the results when I used on a boom in a corp board room with glass on 3 sides and hard surfaces throughout. The down side is that any other sounds get picked up more easily. So crew need to be quiet and chairs can’t be squeaky etc. And you have to be close to the source. If the lighting fans are consistent then post should be able to minimize. Just get room tone. And a carpet under the interview area would help. So a “wider” mic is worth considering. I wouldn’t jump in without some experimenting first though. If it’s your only mic it has to be predictable. Cheers

Sanken CS-3e seems to get more and more popular every year. Insane rejection and sounds good enough.

It definitely feels wrong, lol. But yeah, I would give it a shot. It really doesn't behave like a typical shotgun. I've done an entire episode of tv on a cs3. Fields, to bathrooms, to dining rooms. It's a magical little piece of gear.

If you ask me, a Sanken CS3e if you can get it and good wind protection. It will work in challenging room environments, shots where you have to have it a bit further, and in nature especially it has some special features - a bit of a laser beam, no/way less of the typical rear lobe of shotguns.

Just want to throw in the Sanken CS3e as a great alternative to the 416 for outdoor work.

FWIW, I’ve been getting away with incredible results from my CS3 indoors. Normally, I wouldn’t use it indoors, but the specific circumstances of my most recent gig sorta forced me to have it for both indoor and outdoor situations. The result is certainly a bit “unnatural”, but I’ve found for doc and commercial work this sound is exactly what post is looking for.