Sounds like I need to take trip to the fabric store to check out this
plastic canvas material. Not sure I want to mess with a class of
twenty students with painting/heat guns etc, but if its strong enough
for the NT4's, might be worth it. Nylon panty hose stocking might
work best for the inner mesh. I'd also like the mic to be quickly
accessible so one can change the 9 volt battery without taking the
mic out the suspension.
I hope the O ring company will offer a kit with suitable rings to
experiment with. Their chart doesn't provide much sense of the
elasticity/stiffness.
Incidentally, I finally realized a MHK 30/40 backpack-mounted mic
mount that I can hike/walk with almost no handling/jostling sounds.
The mics are attached to each other and they are floated in a loose
rubber band suspension. The pipe stem holding this suspension (w/zep)
slips inside of a large block of foam rubber. Another stem sticks
through the foam coming up from the back pack. It makes a flexible
coupling that provides shock absorption between the
backpack/footfalls. Sort of conspicuous but its the first time I've
had a rig for clean recording while walking/moving around with this
M-S pair. Rob D.
= = = =
At 11:18 AM -0500 12/19/04, Walter Knapp wrote:
>From: Rob Danielson <>
>
>>
>> At 11:12 PM -0500 12/17/04, Walter Knapp wrote:
>>
>>>I would also get a layer of wind stopping fabric into the mesh. In
>>>addition to the furry outside. You have only a single layer of protection.
>>
>>
>> that would be good to try. Do you have a source for this?
>
>Rycote's liner looks nonwoven, like polartec fabric only very thin. The
>source is your local fabric shop. You can find many suitable fabrics
>there. The thinnest of polartec, various of the fill fabrics, or flannel
>would be where to start.
>
>Sennheiser uses a very fine mesh on theirs. Kind of like the nylon panti
>hose that Lang uses on his windscreens. Look in fine lycra fabric for that.
>
>It's not clear if Rycote uses glue or heat to bond that layer. They, of
>course, describe it like some very special process, but it's probably
>some common industrial practice.
>
>>>You might also look at craft shop "plastic canvas" for the mesh.
>>
>>
>> I should compare these sonically. The gutter mesh is really cheap--
>> when we make up 20 mics it adds up.
>
>Plastic canvas is not a expensive product. It's advantage would be in
>it's greater strength allowing for less supporting structure. And you
>can mold it to a shape with heat as it's a thermoplastic. They do have
>ready molded 3" globes and egg shapes available as I reported earlier.
>Before I went with getting zepplins off ebay I'd experimented with
>molding it and had some success making the end domes for zepplins. At
>the time I was using boiling water for the heating, but it would work
>better at a temp a bit above boiling, like you could obtain in a regular
>oven.
>
>Eventually I'll get back to all that as I need some zepplins that are
>not standard shape.
>
>Note one zepplin I have shows the genesis of the zepplin material. It's
>a shaped cotton mesh that was then paint coated to stiffen it. For this
>material look for latch hook rug making backing in the craft shops.
>Soaked wet it can be molded to shape. Then paint coated to fix the
>shape. Modern zepplins still are molded with the sort of pattern that
>results even though they are straight thermoplastic.
>
>>>I favor o-rings over rubber bands. You can get all kinds of different
>>>types in bulk here:
>>>http://www.allorings.com/material_selection.htm
>>>
>>>I prefer the Silicone ones in my SASS as they don't tend to stick to the
>>>mics over time. That's the same as Rycote uses I'm pretty sure. I have
>>>some of the Rycote ones and they look the same. You have to check the
>>>sizing chart to understand the ordering page.
>>
>>
>> Great idea. I asked them if they'd consider a $10 sample kit for
>> microphone applications.
>
>Good luck on that, they seem to be a industrial supplier. I expect you
>will have to come up with sizes at least. I've been slowly accumulating
>a bunch of sizes of the smallest diameter silicon o-rings. Each time
>I've ordered I've added a few extra sizes to the order. I should look
>into the feasibility of getting the material in bulk and bonding custom
>size o-rings as needed. I know that's possible with the plain rubber
>ones, don't know how it's done in silicon.
>
>Note I have also used fine bungee cord elastic. Mostly to rebuild some
>basket suspensions. It's easy enough to work with.
>
>Walt
>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
--
Rob Danielson
Film Department
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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