Audio Equipment

Omni-directional

Even though omni-directional microphones pick up from all directions, they can provide excellent results when used in the right situations. For example, positioning an omni near a bird's song perch can yield fantastic recordings, in part due to the close proximity of the microphone to the bird (greatly reduces ambient background sounds), but also because it doesn't matter too much whether the bird is singing directly into the microphone or changing directions on the perch. The detail captured will be amazing. Other applications for omni microphones include using them in a parabolic reflector, or in stereo pairs for undertaking acoustic census work and general environmental recording.

The Sennheiser K6/ME-62 ($360) omni-directional modular microphone system is a relatively low-cost option. This is especially true if one already owns a K6 power module from the Sennheiser modular shotgun system. An accessory windscreen MZW-64 is recommended.

The high-end omni-directional microphone is the Sennheiser MKH-20 that sells for about $1,170. Just like other members of the MKH series, the MKH-20 is almost totally immune to high humidity related problems. They also exhibit extremely low self-noise, and offer very flat frequency response over the usable bandwidth. Their high sensitivity will require special shock-mounting and wind protection to make them suitable for handheld field use. 48-volt phantom powering is required.