Let's find the best wind protection .

[Matt Gettemeier]

Dan, you got a price on the Windtech's that they aren't going to give anybody else...

Since my US-2's still haven't arrived... and it's over a week later... and I called the CO office and got an answering machine that says "I'll be gone till the 23rd"... I figured I'd just order the pair from your TX office and return the other ones when they finally showed up.

Well I called the TX office, and spoke with "Dianne" and she said, "Sure, you want two of those. Ok that's $32 each... How do you want to pay for that?"

So how you got 'em for $17.50 is a mystery... but I don't think anybody else should expect to get that price.

[Matt Gettemeier]

The Windtech US-2 windscreens showed up today. They actually look pretty good for the money. I was a little surprised at how "finished" they look.

I think they'll be a satisfactory solution for 90% of your indoor situations with the Oktava's... Outdoors may be another story.

Also of note is that they don't really lock onto the mic very tightly.

When you put on a Softie you know it's not going anywhere. On the Oktava this windscreen feels as though it could be sucked off and away in the right circumstances. Basically it takes ZERO effort to slip it on... and that's not really a good thing... but as I said, indoors it works perfectly.

[Leigh Wanstead]

May I ask how diy job in 007 film compare to rycote in normal wind situation?

What is the advantage using silk instead of fake fur?

TIA

Regards
Leigh

Originally Posted by Carlos E. Martinez

The round "cages" used by Rycote, Schoeps and others are the best in achieving that. The best I have seen was probably a DIY job, even if being used for location audio on a 007 film. It was made of balsa wood sticks forming a large cage, with silk on the outside as windshield, and a 416 floating inside.

Carlos

[George Ellis]

I use a Mikemuff over my AT 835-ST. It fits over the stock foam and works in gusts above 20mph on a Shure 15A mast. The only mod I had to do was a rubberband on the velcro to get a tight seal as that was my only source of wind noise until I figured it out.

[Leigh Wanstead]

Is there any disadvantage to use foam? I thought foam can at least protect the microphone. Will the foam degrade sound quality compare to no foam?

TIA

Regards
Leigh

Originally Posted by George Ellis

I use a Mikemuff over my AT 835-ST. It fits over the stock foam and works in gusts above 20mph on a Shure 15A mast. The only mod I had to do was a rubberband on the velcro to get a tight seal as that was my only source of wind noise until I figured it out.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Generally, foam does little in windy or fast moving air. Depending on the density and quality of the foam, it may or may not cut the higher frequencies, or muffle the sound a bit. Sometimes you'll need to add high end back in to the mix in post. Dead cats, zepplins, foam covers all vary in quality, you might want to experiment a bit with various tools to see what works best for you.

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Douglas,

May I ask how to experiment?

What I am planning to do is to use a white noise generator to generator test sound, and use microphone to receive the sound and record to minidv tape and import to computer. Then use spectrum analyzer to analyzer the frequency to see the difference between with/without foam or whatever I put on the microphone effect. Will that work? I think that will be scientific way to test.

Another way is play some music file instead of white noise generator, and use my ear to hear the difference recorded by the microphone, but that is very subjective, and depends on each different person.

Regards
Leigh

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

Generally, foam does little in windy or fast moving air. Depending on the density and quality of the foam, it may or may not cut the higher frequencies, or muffle the sound a bit. Sometimes you'll need to add high end back in to the mix in post. Dead cats, zepplins, foam covers all vary in quality, you might want to experiment a bit with various tools to see what works best for you.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I'd recommend getting out in some wind, and recording. If you want to go the science route, that's fine too, but somewhat useless for what you're wanting to know. Scientifically, HDV isn't a viable video format (nor is DV) but our eyes all know better. What do your ears tell you? Science can confirm or dispel numbers, but at the end of the day, we listen with our ears, not our brains.

http://www.vasst.com/files/product/MiniFuzzy.wmv has a bit of a high wind shot, mic is about 20 inches from source. While not an experiment, it might inspire something.

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Douglas,

Thanks for the advice. ;-)

Regards
Leigh

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hello everyone,

Here is my diy silk wind screen. It cost me zero money.
I am very happy that I can get same configuration as 007 movie windscreen setup. I guess that silk won't cut high frequency sound which thick fake fur will do cut high frequency sound. I also found that the trick to further the benefit of using silk is to use some slightly heavy material hanging on the silk to stop silk free moving. I think if I allow silk to free move, the defence against the wind might greatly reduced. The time I spent on this tiny project is around 8 minutes. That is a free bargain. ;-)

Here is what I did.
I attached two wooden stick to Rode-SM3 On-Camera Shockmount for Shotgun Mics and sew silk cloth from my 10 years old T-shirt to hang on the microphone. The microphone has the default foam on. The shockmount was attached to my diy microphone stand which is pretty stable. The microphone point around 45 degree downward which is the best configuration I have known of.

Here is my diy silk windscreen test.

Here is the test configuration
jvc gy-dv5000 minidv camera
Audio-Technica AT4073 kit
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

I can't find big wind as the day was not so windy. Pretty sad ;-)

The jvc gy-dv5000 with AT4073 seems very sensitive to the level. I have to lower the level setting way down to get good sound.

Sorry about the not so professional appearing in my film. I am not used to stand in front of the camera.
In the last 20 months, I was always behind the camera.

Here is the video. The file size is around 47mb and is encoded as wmv file.
Click here

Enjoy ;-)

Regards
Leigh

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Leigh Wanstead

Here is what I did.
I attached two wooden stick to Rode-SM3 On-Camera Shockmount for Shotgun Mics and sew silk cloth from my 10 years old T-shirt to hang on the microphone. The microphone has the default foam on. The shockmount was attached to my diy microphone stand which is pretty stable. The microphone point around 45 degree downward which is the best configuration I have known of.

I think the original "007 wind-screen" might have been misunderstood. The guy didn't use a foam inside the windscreen. The silk was supposed to take care of of everything.

The original Sennheiser "zeppelin" also used silk on the inside, behind the plastic mesh. But it was rather heavy. By being the "007's" silk farther from the mic (diameter was around 8" wide), the slowed wind affected the MKH416 very little. And by being made of balsa wood it was very light.

The silk shouldn't flap or mode, but being too tight isn't too good either.

Though the main thing is that the silk be "sound transparent". You should try the type you are using by talking to the mic through it and without it, to see what changes. And you should blow through the silk to see how much the silk stops.


Carlos

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Carlos,

Thanks for clarification.

I will try to remove the foam which is very easy.;-)

Regards
Leigh

[Carlos E. Martinez]

Originally Posted by Leigh Wanstead

The jvc gy-dv5000 with AT4073 seems very sensitive to the level. I have to lower the level setting way down to get good sound.

Be careful with that. Doesn't the 5000 have some sort of attenuator?

A mic pot should be around the middle as a routine. If levels are higher or lower you should use some help, from an attenuator cable or a preamp.

With digital audio, sometimes higher levels can be worst sounding that low levels increased during post.


Carlos

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Carlos,

Thanks for the advice.

One cameraman Case told me to buy AT8202 Attenuators several days ago. I was just thinking to save some money and omit that one if I can. Now I think that I have to get one.

Regards
Leigh

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Carlos,

May I ask if a cheaper second hand low end multi channel simple mixer will help the situation? i.e. this one Click here

TIA

Regards
Leigh

Originally Posted by Carlos E. Martinez

Be careful with that. Doesn't the 5000 have some sort of attenuator?

A mic pot should be around the middle as a routine. If levels are higher or lower you should use some help, from an attenuator cable or a preamp.

With digital audio, sometimes higher levels can be worst sounding that low levels increased during post.


Carlos