working in humidity

ScoobySounds

ScoobySounds

Well-known member
anyone had to deal with this?

was working in a hothouse on monday and a swimming pool today.

noticed that there seems to be a lot of noise coming from the mixer on empty channels and that the phantom power took ages to warm up the mic after turning it on.

i'm freaking out a bit that i've knackered my kit.

the hiss seems still to be there.
what can I do about noise in my mixer?
 
SD442 mixer.

my 744t seems to be ok when I put the mics straight to it.

i was using my 416 with full fluffy on, just to try and soak up some of the moisture, and now i'm not sure that the mic is ok either.
 
open the mixer and get it dry
check the inputs when they loaded
check if you have noise when you with line ins


the mic , does it sounds bad with 744 ?
 
i had audio ltd which was flying in to toilet ones - it contineu working another 5 years till i sold it
the regular humidity dont damege the equip badly , , its not like solt whater , dry it out , then check
 
the mic seems ok with the 744, sounds less noisy, but is there any chance the sensitivity has been affected? i'm comparing it to another mic and now the 416 seems different than it used to be.

open the mixer? should i be doing that? ok.... here goes.


yeah i've just flicked it on to line in and still the noise is there on an empty channel.
 
do they the same year - do you really think they where indentical before ?
open the mic as well , let it been dry ( i screw and pull the plug back )
 
cheers, will do now.
oleg, do you have your 442 there?

with your headphone level halfway.. how far do you haveto turn up an empty channel to hear significant hiss?

I realise that 'significant' is a subjective word, but I cant hear absolute dB's. I bet oleg can though ;)
 
Oleg 2 said:
do they the same year - do you really think they where indentical before ?
Click to expand...

no they are different mics, but I usually know what they sound like compared with each other if you know what i mean.
 
with the pot full clock wise( aditional 15db ) , the preamp around 35db
i start hear noise
but that is not the way you actually check the pramp as it with out the load
but my ears not what they used to be :-)
 
thanks for checking that oleg, i'm going to put it in for repair next week. I am sure i'm hearing more noise than that.

I think i'll have to send it to shure in london. hopefully on the production insurance.

I opened up the mixer but don't know what i'm looking for. I saw that it was full of circuits, which I was glad of, and there was one of my hairs in there for some reason, but apart from that, nothing to report.
 
Last edited:
get it dry , close and listen
i dont think that anyone exept ambient de doing any repair for sd in europe
better find another one and check back to back before you sending it abroad
 
I don't know about the noise but I work in extremely humid environments all the time and never had an issue with the mixer. My mics, otoh, will often freak out from humidity; Schoeps being the worse.

Dry it out (I throw the mics in a ziplock with some silca) and it should be 100%.

Cheers
 
just got back from mozambique last week for a doc shoot - 80% + humidity every day, temperatures around 30 degree's celcius. it was hell, but thats totally a different story.

my 302 died in the humidity. a few times. i was working cool until we hit super high humidity (maybe 90% plus), and then all the heat dropped and it rained. my suspicion is that all the vapour inside the mixer condensed when the temp fell, and that caused the mixer to freak out.

i opened it up, and applied liberal hair dryer, and it came back to life. no difference in performance as far as I could tell. it happened a few other times, but nothing drastic - it would just freeze for a couple seconds in start up, then kick in. since Ive been back in SA it hasnt given any issues though, so Im hoping its fine.

I also freaked out about killing my gear. Strangely enough, I was using a Schoeps 641 on the same shoot and it was rock solid - no issues at all. I did use the foam, a BBG and also a windjammer in order to try keep the humidity out of the inner air pocket. And apparently that worked.

I like the ziplock bag and silica idea wabbit, thats clever. where do you buy silica? and my condolences for having to work in humid environments. thats a tough job.
 
Extreme temperture changes would cause water to condense, possibly on your circuits and short them out so that makes sense. I have not experienced that situation. My suggestion would be to immediate shut the equipment down and dry it out before using again.

I can't take credit for the silica and ziplock idea but is does work quite well. You can find reuseable silica all over the internet: http://www.amazon.com/HYDROSORBENT-.../002-6198118-6624014?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods

or ebay, or other general retailers. I keep a bunch in our equipment cases for good measure. Needs to be recharged every couple of months.

Cheers
 
yup, that was exactly what we did. seems to be ok now thank god. i didnt feel like shipping it for repair.

im off to look for some silica to buy. :)
 
So just to update everyone, true to what everyone has said, my kit is absolutely fine. one for the archives though, if anyone searches about this and is freakin out about their kit after being in humid conditions, there's probably no need to worry, like me.

I feel really silly, but still glad I asked. Thanks Oleg! I was just thinking of the worst possible outcome, that all the circuits had shorted and who's insurance I was going to have to claim on etc.

A right little stress-ball, i was.

a bag of silica gel.. that is a good idea, If I ever get that attenbourgh jungle job i'll buy one! ;)
 
Good to know it turned out OK. I don't know about Scotland but here in the US it often is more troulbe then it's worth to try and collect on production insurance.

BTW, if the humidity was that bad how did the camera's tape heads hold out...or was it an HVX/P2 shoot?

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top