--- In I wrote:
> [... some questions about K-Tek K-Zep windscreens ...]
Though it has been almost a month, I would like to thank everyone for
their responses! Most helpful indeed, so much that I actually bought
the "large" K-Tek K-Zep and have been using it over the last three
weeks. For a bit of give-back, here is a mini-review:
The unit works as advertised. I have uploaded a 30 second recording:
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/8FU3RudwmTGizWPzbnm6ned6hhKZlAOu45AJrV8z1OR1NZ=
TPtk-vv0qKRSYtHQ5DkkLPvEZYHqnFLijxJ4KcHso5WjQEOPw/howling-stays.ogg
(Or just look for 'howling-stays.ogg' in the File area of this forum
-- it's alphabetical). The sample was made in a 25-30km/h breeze, an
ME-66 fed into a 722 recorder, and me hand-holding the mic while
standing out in the open, being kicked around by the wind. Some minor
processing done: fade in, fade out, normalize.
Physically, the unit appears to be robust. The ability to field-strip
and reconfigure has proven useful. However, it's probably not as
smooth an operation as one would like -- perhaps doing this sort of
thing with the Rycote or Sennheiser are faster operations? The basket
(or cage) can whack against the shockmount, but you have to shake the
unit hard enough to do this. This may have implications for recording
in full-on hurricanes, as well as a possible long-term failure mode.
But as long as K-Tek is producing parts, repairs appear to be simple
and (hopefully) inexpensive.
Best of all though, I have found that you can shove two MKH-20 (or
ME-62) microphones into the single large enclousure! This was
actually done on a whim while in the field over the weekend. I was
standing just outside a small colony of Ring-billed Gulls, doing a
mono ME-66 recording of the screeching bird-scape. Inspired by the
idea, I ripped it all apart, put the two mics into each end of the
shockmount and re-installed. It's not entirely perfect, and you need
some foam to hold the mic's off the cage, but the it otherwise worked!
I have some recordings from this experiment, as well as a frog-scape
later that evening.
A better solution would be a kind of pipe shaped adapter, with XLR's
on each end and some pig-tail cabling arrangement. It looks like no
one makes something like this, so a DIY is needed. Regardless, it
means I don't have to buy a second windscreen ... I got
wind-protection for 1/4 the expected price!
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