Line audio CM4

The CM4 is a high quality cardioid microphone from Line audio, a small company from Sweden that has been making a few microphone models for several years. For a long time I had heard about line audio and their famous CM3 from different recordists in the world of field recording and I had always had an interest in getting one at some point to be able to experiment with recording sessions on my own. I like to go with smaller companies that offer good quality products but are less conventional like the big brands out there, you can often find rare gems. The CM3 is now discontinued and the CM4 is the current model which is its evolution.

One of the interesting elements of the CM4 is its very high quality in a very small and very light format, which makes it a good tool if you want to travel light for recording sessions. Their microphone works very well both solo and in pairs. Line audio does not sell a pair of microphones as such but the quality of their capsule selection have a low tolerance threshold.

Like the vast majority of microphones on the market, they are often sold for indoor recording, but for my part I was able to use it several times outdoors and obtained very good results. I was able to record in very variable temperatures, whether at peaks of -20 degrees Celsius in winter or in a summer heatwave at +40 degrees Celsius with very high humidity, the microphone always worked well, without any issues.

The fact that the microphone is very small, it carries well and can be placed in very tight places for recording. With good wind protection it does a good job outdoors. For my part I use the Rode Ws9 which work very well for the size of the microphone.

Here are some microphone specs:

Frequency response 20-20khz

Signal-to-noise ratio 78db

Microphone noise level 16db (A)

Size 77mm x 20mm

Weight 32g