I presently have a matched pair of Schoeps CMC6 with the MK5
omni/cardiod capsules. I have used them extensively for around a year
and have gotten the excellent results one would expect on all manner
of recitals, concerts, etc.

For a recent organ festival, I rented a Royer SF-12 and used it to
capture both front and rear balcony instruments from a single source.
Using the microphone schooled me in a few particulars: The Blumelein
pair imaging is excellent, the SF-12 is a wonderfully natural sounding
microphone, a single point stereo mic is particularly convenient, and
you can't have too much clean gain in your mic pre!

Knowing what I've got, and assuming a wide variety of church, choir,
solist and small ensemble jobs in the usual assortment of poor to
excellent spaces that these things happen in, which of these would you
pick?

1. A really nice stereo mic (Brauner VM-1S, AKG 426, Neumann SM-69)
- I already have an omni pair in the Schoeps and this would make all
coincident stereophony simple and accurate, especially for Blumelein -
a pattern I will use again for sure.

2. A pair of Sennheiser MKH 800's - small diagphram for better
off-axis, a better low end extension than the Schoeps fig-8, and
switchable patterns. Maintains flexibility of separate use compared
to the fixed stereo mics.

3. A pair of CMC6/MK41 hypercardiods and either a Royer SF-12 or a
pair of Coles 4038's. Same rough price as other options above, but
adds 4 mics to the collection.

4. Spend the bucks and get the Soundfield MK V system. I understand
that it is a coincident only type of system, but I have the ORTF and
omni situations covered - I have a Jecklin disk, etc. Possibility of
doing audiophile surround sound releases is intriguing.

I can and will rent the Neumann SM-69, Royer SF-12, Coles, and
Sennheiser to check out the sonics. I'm more interested in your
perceptions of overall usefulness and value in adding to the
capability I have. Clearly, there's not any "bad" mics in the bunch.

Thanks,

Nathanael