Fixed omnidirectional mic for interview

[narcossintese]

I'm doing an interview radio program that is a host and a band around a small roundtable. We are using 3 supercardioid AKG D5. While they work extremely well on eliminating the background noises, it has some downfalls, like having to speak really close to it (the guests always forget), having to pass the mics around when there are too many people talking, a bunch of cables and, the worst one, the intimidating "studio feeling" instead of the "friendly bar chat" that we aim for.

I was wondering if a single omni mic fixated on the center of the table could do the trick here. Guests would be ~50-70 cm from the mic. Sound fidelity don't need to be great as it's just spoken word and probably will go to a truckload of compression. I have zero experience with omnidirectional mics. Never had one and never needed one, so I'm clueless here.

Do you think this would work? Not sure if the sources are too far away from the mic, or the background noise will be overwhelming after compression.

 

[Mago]

Depends on the roomsound.

If it's a "real" omni, so a pressure mic, you won't lose as much bass as with a pressure gradient mic (like a 414 for example).

You could try micing them from above, hanging the mics from the ceiling if possible, see if you get closer and if it sounds ok that way.
No need to passing around a mic, and its also not that visible for them (again depending on the studio) and intimidating.

Or you have someone else with a shotgun mic trying to follow the speakers. But an omni in the middle of the table would be my best guess, apart from something like this
http://de-de.sennheiser.com/schwanenhals-mikrofon-konferenz-meg-14-40

or fixed ones at the collar.

 

[narcossintese]

We record on a narrow medium sized non-treated room. I don't record it on my studio because they are always smoking, dripping beer and making a mess.
I guess I could hang the mic on the cellar, but I already own a table stand mic adjusted to the mouth level height. My main concern is how well an omni mic would perform at this distance from the sources.

 

[Uros]

Dunno if it's still relevant to the OP, but anyway, I work at a TV station, and we often use a PZM as a backup in talk shows (lavaliers mics being the main mics). It would be a rather good solution to your problem.