I think he just did you a big favour, most likely he would have been trouble for you further into the contract/shoot. Do you really want to work for people like that?

rambo is correct, he did you guys a favour. sue him for shits and giggles and move on =) the "secretary" did sign off on it.

im sure he wouldnt know tit for arse if he was to listen to audio from one or the other.

DITTO for @Rambo. And @gameb made a very good point.

It could be anything really. Not about the mikes at all. They might not have liked the way you walked, the color of your shirt, or they may have recently lost a contract themselves. Some “important” people don’t like being bothered with technical details, so checking and double checking, which is important to us, may be seen as a sign of insecurity to them. And they may HATE insecurity! They may have been testing you. Intimidation may be their only real skill. Money doesn’t make the world go around, psychopaths do, unfortunately! If you Harvey Weinsteined them back, went ballistic and nuked them to ashes psychologically, reminded them they are insignificant nobodies without you, they might even respect that. A fighter just like them. Or they could have killed you!

Maybe their brother in law was waiting outside to do the job, with a $10 Chinese shotgun and they needed to ditch you pronto! Anywho, it can drive people nuts trying to figure it out, so the best thing maybe is, don’t bother trying to figure it out! Although shrinks do make a good living with this stuff!

The MK416 is still listed by Sennheiser and is described as “venerable”

venerable |ˈvenərəbəl, ˈvenrə-| adjective accorded a great deal of respect, esp. because of age, wisdom, or character:

@acuriousman

I'll tell you right now you did nothing wrong. The contract doesn't need to state what equipment specifically is being brought unless there is a clause in there that states specific equipment is required to be listed.

Your company was hired for it's service to create a product using the equipment they saw fit to complete the project the best way they thought.

If the person who hired you knew what he was talking about he wouldn't have hired a production company to do the shoot for him.

You're in the clear as far as I know so don't worry brother!

There is no standard for videographers to always bring THE BEST equipment because they were hired.

They are being hired to do the project using whatever equipment is going to do the job they were hired to do. If the client isn't happy with the final product, THEN they can choose not to pay for the final product but they still are required to pay whatever deposit was agreed upon.

Best of luck!

Dude, chill. If that's their stance you all are good. There's pages and pages of preoffesionals in Hollywood and around the world that still rely on that mic.

BTW, they CAN say anything they want....it's America. It's just what happens after is what counts :)

Might be best to just walk away. You all will never work for them again. And again, what city is this in?

I would guess you'll be fine. Sounds like guy who flipped out is being erratic. For starters, who asks a secretary to google "best mics" and then trusts her idea over the sound experts they've hired. Secondly, if contract didn't stipulate which mics, that goes in your companies favor as selection would be left to your company...and in no way seems to legally imply/require "the best mic" to be used.

I think this is just a case of an erratic guy either flipping out as he's under pressure, or as others have said, some kind of oddball way of him trying to get out of the contract he signed with your company. This happens occasionally in all businesses. You've done nothing wrong, and as many with professional experience have said in this thread, that particular mic is a standard used in professional work.

U-87, are you crazy? Those pre-date Woodstock! Who in their right mind would still use those?

First of all, if you have not encountered total freaks in the business before, consider yourself lucky. Most ppl are cool to work with, some are totally picky, and some are just impossible. As others have noted, you are better off, way better off, to just walk away from the crazies.

Having said that, I always buy mics in threes, and I always bring a bag of mics to a gig. There's no one perfect mic, some are good in some locations, some are good in others. The third mic is the matching spare, in case something happens to the main pair, or any pairs of spots.

Just forget about it--there is no point in pushing it, through a lawyer or otherwise.

I think they were looking just for a reason to back away from the deal; maybe from their point of view they got a "better offer" and believe me if it wasn't the Mic it would be something else. It was the best thing that could happen, rather sooner than later. The My Secretary crap was just BS, both idiots work for a Studio an they don't even "know" basic equipment information.

I knew a professional photographer who has a lot of experience and also a lot of equipment and he takes all kinds of jobs, but he told me that he chooses the equipment based on the salary of the job. He always make the customers sign a letter agreeing to the equipment that he will use before the shoot-out... of course his customers complain a lot because they argue that he has better equipment and that they saw his website, portfolio etc etc and that he's not using it only because he doesn't want to and that it cost him nothing to use it if he already has it =/.

BTW - I would always choose a guy with a 20, 30, 40yr old microphone who knows every little detail about it and has the best experience with it ,than someone with a High-End Mic $$$$$ just released.

I would assume it's what @jleo said

I've seen this game before in my early days, as in actually been on a productions (as a DP or DIT) where they pulled this on someone because they either had someone cheaper, or realized they didn't need the person but didn't release them the night before.

Once you get to a certain level, you're less likely to witness it because Producers have a list of people they use ritually, and never really go outside of that bubble.

You're fine, but I could see how it would be a really unsettling experience. If you're new to this, welcome.

Don't know about the mic, but I think the phrase "I had my secretary look up that mic" (on Google I presume) says it all ...

U-87 not my favorite mic for Stradivarius, but it depends on the Strad. Some are brighter than others. But this is not about mics, it is the fact that there are some difficult clients. You can make a good recording with an SM 57.

No one that I know would argue that the 416 is not a fine mic, it is a fine mic.