Ken,
I've found the familiar blue fiberglass furnace filter material to be
pretty good for this. Furnace filters are not all created equal even
though they might look almost identical, so a little shopping around
might be needed. With a couple layers of this material inside the
screen mesh and a tube sock around the outside, I'm usually good up to
about 7-8 mph. Above that, I slip a stocking cap over the rig. At the
point where that's no longer effective, I usually find ambient noise
from the gale is enough to make recording almost meaningless anyway.
You're right about high-end attenuation. I haven't made any detailed
measurements, but in my own listening tests I find this fiberglass
furnace filter material to be very transparent. It's prickly to work
with, however.
Curt Olson
Ken Durling wrote:
> Hi all -
>
> I've accumulated a few hours recording in the field (my first for
> real) since last I wrote, and I'm wwondering if we could review a
> little wind screen theory. From my first questions here, I toolk away
> the idea that the main idea was to create a layer of still air around
> the michead. It's clear to me now that that's easier said than done.
>
> Here has been my approach. I'm using the Shure 183s in barrier arrays
> that I've already posted photos of, but here they are again:
>
> http://www.pbase.com/kdurling/183_arrays
>
> There isn't a good view of the windscreen I've been using, but it's
> based on Curt Olson's inverted wire mesh Post-It holder idea, except
> that initially I covered it with fake fur rather than a tube sock.
> You can kind of see that in the photo marked "Test Setup." The fake
> fur is backed by a loose weave fabric as most of you know, and in
> studio pink moise tests proved almost acoustically transparent. The
> wire mesh basket is about 3/4" deep, leaving that much space in front
> of the mic head.
>
> However, in anything above a 3-5mph zephyr this setup proved fairly
> ineffectual. My next measure was to put a layer of synthetic fleece
> on the *inside* of the wire mesh, loosely placed. This reduces the
> air space by about 1/4". The fleece produced a very small but
> noticeable high-freq attenuation in studio tests.
>
> This was an improvement over the fur-only set-up, but is still subject
> to low freq buffeting in real conditions. Most of it be filtered out
> in a DAW, but I would like to improve the source quality.
>
> What would you suggesta s further refinements or other approaches?
> Do I want to increase the distance from the screen to the mic? I.e.
> use something like a screen dome rather than the flat trays? Try some
> other materials? Any aspects of wind reduction technique that I'm
> missing?
>
> Thanks as always
>
> Ken
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