Sanken CSS-50 Stereo Shotgun Microphone Quick Demo

The Sanken CSS-50 is a professional grade stereo shotgun microphone. This is a rather unique design in that the mic has 3 square capsules. I was pretty impressed with the sound it produces and it also stood up well to a key jangling test where we stress the microphone's transient and high frequency capture abilities. This is not the one microphone for everyone or every occasion, but it is a nice option, particularly for those who do a fair bit of stereo recording.

Gear used/covered in this episode:

Sanken CSS-50 Stereo Shotgun Microphone

Sennheiser 5-pin to Dual 3-pin XLR Adapter Cable

Rycote Softie Wind Cover (good for light wind)

Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro Camera

Panasonic GH5 Camera (behind the scenes wide shot)

Panasonic 12-35 f/2.8 Lens (original mark I version)

Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd

Upcoming Reviews: Panasonic GH5 XLR Audio Adapter, Sanken CSS-50 Stereo Shotgun Microphone, RODE iXLR & Reporter

We've got some new gear in for testing and review. First on the list is the new Panasonic DMW-XLR1 audio adapter for the new GH5. This allows you to record two XLR microphones to your GH5. Panasonic seem to have taken the feedback they received on the interface for the GH4. Evidently the feature people most wanted was the XLR inputs and they were very turned off by the fact that the GH4's interface needed to be powered either by an AC adapter or a big 14V battery like a Sony V-Lock. This time, the interface connects to the top of the camera via its hotshoe and is powered by the camera. That's good and bad. I cannot keep my GH5 in its Varavon Zeus Uni cage when I need to use this. But it is also good as it is a much more compact and lightweight solution than the previous GH4 interface. We'll put it to the test to see how it sounds...

B&H was kind enough to send over a Sanken CSS-50 stereo shotgun microphone for testing. Sanken is a rather interesting company and their tagline is "World's most innovative microphone company." It has three different modes: Mono, stereo, and wide stereo. So far I'm impressed and expect to hear this one along with my test results and impressions soon as well.

This year at the National Association of Broadcaster's show I'm planning to do some interviews with manufacturers at various booths on the floor but wanted to keep the recording rig very light. So, our plan A is to use my iPhone 7+, RODE iXLR microphone adapter, and the RODE Reporter microphone. This will be the ideal solution because post/editing will be pretty straightforward with no need to sync. But I need to do a little more testing to be sure everything works as planned. And I'm not sure how well the iPhone will do in the NAB lighting. So our backup plan is to use the GH5, either with the Panasonic audio adapter, or record audio separately with the RODE iXLR and Reporter. I'll be interested to see if we can pull this off with plan A.