e 945

RODE NT1 as main mic, Sennheiser E945 for traveling and less than ideal recording spaces. Disclaimer: I'm Head of Podcaster Support and Experience at Captivate.

Shure SM7b for most situations Sennheiser e945’s for hand held situations Sennheiser MD46 or MD42 for ENG Shure SLXD2-SM58 for wireless hand helds

People hate when I say this, but every time I've put an SM58 on a stand next to something else, it's come out on the bottom. Every single time. In a world where the Sennheiser e945 exists, I honestly can't imagine why so many people keep using them. I don't even own one any more.

It's true, and I totally get why someone on a budget would go with the Shure, but I see big names on TV using the damn things and the only thing I can figure is that they're used to it and have never really tried anything else. Sometimes in live settings big artists will spec certain gear and that's the end point of the discussion. The M80 is a great mic and I even own one, but for whatever reason I've never done a side by side with the e945. Maybe I should. I will tell my Sennheiser story though: probably 10-12 years ago I was playing with my band at some lameass little club. Three of us sang (me being distant third of the three) and we all used 58s. One night I showed up with an e945, just to try it out. At our first break, all the wives and girlfriends wanted to know why I suddenly sounded so much better than the other guys. They didn't know Jack about mics or gear and didn't even know I'd changed anything, but in the house they could hear the difference. I was truly surprised; no one in the audience ever pays attention to or notices stuff like that. The next gig, the other two guys arrived with spouse-approved e945s, and that's what I and they have used ever since.

I've never felt the need to try a condenser on stage, and ribbons are so finicky (although I love them) about what preamp they're sent to I've never even thought to try one in a live setting. The 945 IS a dynamic, but it's a super-cardioid, so a little tighter pattern than a 58. If a true cardioid is preferred, the e935 is pretty similar. Though similarly numbered, the e835/e845 are a solid step down from the 900s, although not terrible.

Sennheiser e945 is now my live mic of choice. Not to say there aren't other good options, but that's the one I use.

Okay so there's a few things here. You can't block out sounds past a certain distance, it doesn't work like that. What you can do is get a less sensitive mic, or a directional mic, or a less sensitive directional mic. A Dynamic(less sensitive) Cardioid(directional) mic would generally be your best option. There are a variety of options at various pricepoints. I have a Sennheiser E945 I use for this. With a directional mic you'd want to orient it so the pickup pattern is pointed at you, and not at the noise source. In most cases the perfect position for such a mic is in front of your nose pointed at your mouth or at your chest The polar pattern will matter more than if it's dynamic or cardioid. Mics come in a variety of shapes. You have to decide if you want a handheld mic, possibly on a stand, or a headset, or a pencil mic on a stand, or something else. Proximity counts for a lot. If you have an e945 tickling your nose you can turn the gain way down, and due to proximity your voice wil be louder than someone talking at the same volume across the room. If you want to combine the two there are a variety of earmuff with headset mics on them. If you go to an industrial safety supply shop they usually have a few options. The Remote Audio HN-7506 is a pretty common option for loud jobs. [https://remoteaudio.com/products/hearing/high-noise-headset/](https://remoteaudio.com/products/hearing/high-noise-headset/) Or you can even buy the same kind of headsets used by pilots. They're just usually expensive and need adapters. Then the software you use will often have additional settings like a noise gate. This isn't magic, it basically just says "When the volume drops below this point reduce it to silence" and it basically just turns off your mic unless it hears something loud enough. But this really only works when the unwanted noise is quieter than your voice. Like if your voice is at -6dbfs and the unwanted noise is at -18dbfs.

The best way I can answer this is that for live streaming I can use my scarlet solo studio mic in winter, but I have to use my e945 in summer. Winter my ambient sound is much quieter so I can have a more dynamic range of sound on my mic, but with three window units blasting at me, a directional mic is the only option unless I want clipping. Same thing goes for aesthetic sound when it comes to the way the microphones condense and process the wavelengths that enter them. No amount of EQ adjustment will fix the fact that some microphones do better in *picking up* low end or adding by warmth to the vocals through filaments. You certainly can fake some of these effects in post production, but it’ll feel inorganic in the same way that a photoshopped image feels off even when you can’t immediately tell it’s been photoshopped.