Motorcycles and Wind
 

Hi there,

I will be going to Hawaii at the end of November for vacation. Part of my vacation will involve me and hundreds of bikers riding around Oahu.

I did the same thing last year and took my GL2 along. I got some great footage but the audio was so-so. I was using the built-in microphone on the GL2 last year.

This year I'll be bringing my GL2 but I'd like to spend a little money on a decent mic that I could mount on the camera.

Two main problems:
The motorcycles are LOUD and if I was any where near a running bike that is the only audio I heard. I was thinking a more directional mic might help with this.

Also wind noise. We will be near a lot of beaches and all the wind you normally experience at the beach. Not to mention when riding you obvioulsy will be dealing with wind noise as you are moving. I see there is a windscreen I can buy for the built-in mic but I'm not sure if that's the route to take.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

Charlie

You're probably going to need a full-blown zeppelin to get anywhere close, and even that might not cut out all of the wind noise. But maybe someone else has better ideas. :)

Maybe stuff your remote mic inside a sleeping bag and tie it across the handlebars (away from the exhaust)? It'd be pretty muffled sounding, but the only other thing I can think of is to mix the audio track really low, do a VO (and the theme music from Hawaii 5-0) on another audio track that's louder.

Other than that, allow 2 weeks worth of audio post with a good forensic audio editor like Sound Forge or Samplitude, using tools like multi-band compression and DNR... Steve

Choices vary depending on what you want.

If you're interested in getting human speech, then close-mic with a lav and protect it with a Micro Cat.

Otherwise you can test out a Lightwave Equalizer wind fur on a directional mic.

I did a few around-the-island rides a few years ago. Except the bikes we had were leg-powered. :-)

Charlie, I think you'd be pleased with a $150 Rode VideoMic and their $40 or so furry wind muff. I have both. The VideoMic is a directional shotgun mic of very high quality for the money. The wind muff will do a good job with coastal breezes, and at bike speeds it will certainly cut down on the noise. I'd say buy one and take it for a spin. It it doesn't do the job to your satisfaction, return it. But I guarantee that anything better will cost a LOT more.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

I agree the VM is a great buy.

But on the motorbike mounted issue, i think it will struggle mightily with wind noise. It's very sensitive to win-dnoise and i get (some) wind-noise on soundtrack using mine with Deadcat even at maybe 15mph winds.
So even travelling relatively slowly at say 30mph i think you'll get too much windnoise. But give it a go. You need to keep the Deadcat muffler hairs as "stood up" as possible but again they are fairly "floppy" and i think at bike speeds they will compress flat very quickly which substantially comprimises windshield performance. You could try putting one or two sports socks over the foam shield BEFORE adding the Deadcat and that may well help a lot. Certainly do a test and review footage/noise before doing it for real.

Right--flattening of the fur by air pressure will severely reduce its effectiveness. I'd try to jury-rig some kind of framed fabric wind screen ahead of the muff, maybe v-shaped so as to minimize any noise that it may generate itself. That's strictly conceptual...haven't tried it. But I'd try several things before I spent in the $1000 range for a mic and rycote system--which may still have an upper speed limit I didn't like.