mic grip

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daplight

Well-known member
Maybe this should be addressed in the DIY forum, but has anyone built a mic grip using a standard pistol grip? I was thinking "Why not just use either a wood or composite pistol grip, modifying with a simple 3/8 inch screw to accommodate shock mount." Thoughts anyone? Thanks again for sharing experiences and expertise.
 
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I don't think there is a problem if you make a grip with wood or whatever provided it is light enough. However, the important part is the suspension holding the microphone. That shouldn't be a source of noise. And when there is wind, you would need wind protection. Am happy with the rycote full zeppelin. No idea about the quality of the new one they announced last year.
 
I built a number of pistol grips for some old Rycote Zeps that were missing the grips.

What is this for? If you are booming you would be better off skipping the extra weight. I made a grip replacement so I could loose the grip for booming.
If this is for SFX recording then you can do what you are talking about but it's all about the shock mount and you are not talking a lot more to add the grip. You can use ones designed for stands and add a grip but those tend to be heavier than mounts designed to be hand held.

And if you are hand held you will need to deal with wind protection.

Many moons ago I made a number of zeppelins from scratch. They worked pretty well but they never looked as "professional" as I would have liked and they were all heavier than I would have liked. About the time I got the two old Rycote's in a windfall I was looking at making an improved zep using plastic mesh and molding it. But got saved from that adventure.

In my experience you can make a quite good zeppelin on your own. But making one that works well and looks professional AND is light takes a lot of time and skills. With 3D printers today you might be able to do it with less in the way of fabricating skills and shop tools? Really depends on the material the printer is fabricating with. But it will still take some design chops and it might well end up costing more.

I did it because I was curious, only using it for SFX (so looks not so important) and I had 25+ years of fabricating things AND had a small wood and metal shop. What I really also needed and didn't have was a plastic forming set up. The last one I built used expanded aluminum instead of plastic, and I put the cloth on the outside rather than the inside. The last choice was really because I didn't have a good way to attach it to the inside, but it had the plus of not producing the whistling sound you can get from a Rycote (with out the fur) in a strong wind. Downside is it's very susceptible to wear, which I'm sure is why it is normally on the inside.
 
I agree with you statement "It's all about the shock mount…" Plan on acquiring a Rycote INV-7. Not looking to mount grip to boom pole, using handheld for convenience and mobility in getting SFX. Eventually would like a zeppelin once settle on newer shotgun (Sennheiser ME80 for now).
 
For SFX you might plan on two things. First You will probably do more recording with a Hyper and a stereo pair than with a shotgun. It depends a bit on your style and who you are recording for. You will need wind protection almost certainly, but a slip on fuzzy may well get you by for awhile.

Except for some small things we pretty much always recorded in stereo. You can always drop one channel (or mix down) to mono if needed. Exceptions are really small stuff where the shotgun can sometimes get you a bit more isolation, and as added coverage in some situations. For instance we were recording a football practice and used a stereo pair for the over all and a shotgun to get highlights, hits and calls etc. That worked really well. And there are some things you don't want to get too close to so it can help there also.

I'm not a big believer in high sample rates for most things but, again depending on who you are recording for, I would probably go to 96k. Not part of your question but I have noticed that SFX on most freelance sites get 2X - 3X for the higher sample rate sounds, even when it's silly.
 
At this point with all the extremely cheap handles for camera rigs available (and other options)
I think you're wasting your time to make someone that you can literally buy for $5.
 
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