Mono or Stereo?
Stereo sound can add a lot to the vividness of your location recordings, but can be quite distracting during interviews. So you may want a stereo mic for ambience and demos and a mono mic for interviews. See the transom stereotypes column for details on techniques and two-mic arrays. The inexpensive stereo mics that are sold to go with consumer minidisc recorders can get decent sound, and may be more than sufficient to get some backgrounds for your piece, but they are not particularly durable, often made of plastic, and have limited bandwidth, reducing high-frequency detail. Better choices are the relatively inexpensive AudioTechnica 822, or the Sure VP-88.
