From: Ken Durling <>
>
> OK, I'm back from my first attempt at this. There's one question that=
> clearly needs to be cleared up first before moving onto more refined
> things: what's the best way to deal with wind noise? I may be able to=
> shelf EQ some of it out of these recordings, but how do you folks deal wi=
th
> it? Are the mics you use more resistant to it? Granted I only had simpl=
e
> foam screens over mine, but they had little or no effect, although I
> didn't try it without them. It wasn't all that windy even, but when
> there was anything more than a faint waft it zeroed the meters. Clearly I=
> need more sensitive mics for distance work, but wind noise might be even=
> more of a problem then? About the only thing I can think of right now is=
> to have the mics sheltered somehow, which could interfere with their patt=
ern...
>
> You all are way beyond this I know, so if there's a FAQ somewhere feel fr=
ee
> to give me steer.
Mic sensitivity and wind sensitivity don't relate that closely. There is
also the claim that omni are less sensitive to wind, but in my
experience that difference is minimal.
Don't even bother with the foam, it's designed to be a pop filter for
vocal use inside. It actually conducts the wind to the mic, sometimes
making it worse than without.
You need layers of still air around the mic. The king of the hill on
that is Rycote, very expensive (as in you can end up paying more for it
than the mic), but it works. At least up to the point where the natural
wind noise around you is more of a problem than the direct wind noise.
I prefer the very similar Sennheiser version, the zeppelin from
Sennheiser is stronger than the Rycote by quite a bit and the suspension
system is simpler. With Sennheiser stuff I can fit the M/S into a mono
setup, it's much tougher to do that with the Rycote. You can see the
setup on my M/S page:
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/docs/my_ms_setups.html
I dig the parts off ebay. Takes lots of watching, most auctions for this
stuff go way too high. Off ebay, each complete setup cost me between
$100 & $200 a few years ago. Generally I got it in separate pieces. You
have to watch that you are getting pieces that are compatible.
Note this is also a suspension to take care of handling noise. The
zeppelin alone is enough to handle the light stuff, the fur stronger
breezes. I also slip knit baby socks right on the mics now, which is not
shown on that page. The three layer combo is quite effective.
You can hand make something, but I've never seen any handmade that
worked better, or was near as easy to set up. If you want to go that
route, look for fur in the fabric shops that has long, irregular length
hair and as open as possible backing. You can get a plastic mesh at
craft shops to give a start on the supporting zeppelin layer, it's
called plastic canvas. Remember, whatever you use it should not generate
noise from the wind or increase your handling noise problems.
Suspension is fairly easy to build using a piece of PVC pipe and cutting
most of it away. Leave some projections to attach rubber bands, o-rings,
or thin bungee to suspend the mic.
For the SASS I use Crown's wind cover, which is a combo lycra and foam
cover that slips over the whole mic. For higher wind a fur cover is
needed over that.
Walt
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