Fireworks Microphone Comparison (MKH8040 CCM41 CCM8 CO-100K NTG3 NT5 4061)

During the day of new years eve I set out to record some fireworks. With me I brought the following setup:
Sennheiser MKH8040 ORTF Stereo in Rycote Blimp + Furry (25m)
Schoeps CCM41 + Schoeps CCM8 M/S (Mid Side) Stereo in Rycote Blimp + Furry (25m)
Sanken CO-100K in Rycote Cyclone Blimp + Furry (40m)
Rode NTG3 in Rode Blimp + Furry (40m)
Rode NT5 in Rycote Gag Ball + Furry (mid range 60m)
Rode NT5 in Rycote Gag Ball + Furry (far, 90m)
2 x DPA 4061 Lav Mics in A/B Stereo with Rycote Furries (15m)

The pair of MKH 8040 and Schoeps CCM41 + CCM8 recorded at 192 kHz 24 bit to a Sound Devices 788T SSD

The Sanken CO-100K + Rode NTG3 + Rode NT5 recorded at 192 kHz 24 bit to a Sound Devices 633

The other NT5 + pair of DPA 4061 mics recorded at 192 kHz 24 bit to the same Sound Devices 633 but via a Sound Devices 442 mixer.

In the video I compare the audio of the different microphones. I also start the video off with the Canon EOS60D built in microphone sound as a reference.

To finish off the video I also included pitched down versions of the audio just for fun. It's the 192 kHz audio being played back at 44.1 kHz which effectively pitches the audio down by a little more than 2 octaves. The slowed down footage is from a GoPro Black 4 in slow motion.

Unfortunately I ran the levels too low on the pair of DPA 4061 mics so they have an unfair amount of noise. I still decided to include them in the video.

I used some -10dB and -20dB pads on some mics and all mics apart from the DPA mics recorded peaks at around -6 dB to -10 dB so there was no clipping. Also, I did not record with limiters enabled as I didn't want the limiters to reduce any of the echo following directly after the bang.

In post processing I normalized the audio and then I ran a hard limiter and raised the volume a whopping 35 dB. The reason being that without raising that much it probably won't sound much in most computers and I would expect comments asking why it sounds like popcorn =)

The distant noise comes from a road about 2 kilometers away. I was not able to scout a better location. I'll be able to crop the noise away from the recordings as it can't be heard during the actual fireworks going off.

This audio will be available at http://www.universalsoundfx.com - partly in the game-ready sound effects in the Universal Sound FX library, and later on also as a 192 kHz 24 bit package for sound designers.

Lessons Learned:
1. I had purchased 2 lighters to set off the fireworks with the day before... but I did not test them. Believe it or not, none of the lighters had any fluid in them so they did not work!! I had to leave the location to buy another pair of lighters as the daylight was quickly fading.

2. Do not set mics right by the recorders so you have to run back after lighting the fireworks. I struggled to make it back and settle quiet before things went off. Alternatively, have a friend that sets of the fireworks that don't need to run as far...