microphone storage in the field?

M

matthewd5

Veteran
what do you guys and gals, use to store your mics when you are working out of a bag or even out of a cart?

i mean they all come with some sort of case but they are too bulky to use for field use (imho)

i've played around with pelican cases and taking foam from a hardigg stormcase and cutting out the outlines of the mics but that is a bit of a pain.

has anyone come up with anything handy?

i am speaking of mics like the sanken cos-11, cub-01, oktava mk-012 and the schoeps mk-41/cmc6

matthew
 
Good topic. I would be interested in knowing what solutions other's have come up with. I made a nice little holder from PVC pipe cut to size and then stuffed with foam. It is pretty heavy but compact and fits neatly in my bag. Not ideal and I would love to hear some better suggestions.

For lavs you can get little toiletry, sewing, or pill boxes to hold your mics and accessories.

Cheers
 
Mine pretty much never leave their zep, but I'm do ing FX 99%. A friend who needed to pack a new pricey mic needed something though and what we came up with was a stiff plastic mailing tube. She rolls it up in some bubble wrap and slides it in with a bit of foam at either end, pops the caps on and away she goes. We cut the tube to size so it's not too long.
 
i'm mostly looking for ways to have the mics close at hand on location for when i'm trying to decide quickly what to use and then to mount it.

my 416 lives in its zeppelin (btw i've been thrilled with my new ktec zeppelin)

the mics i'm trying to organize are all small ones like the sanken cos-11, sanken cub-01, oktava mk-012 and oh yeah...today i got my first schoeps!

i got the cmc6 with the mk-41 capsule.

i have a couple of the smaller pelican cases and with one of them i got some of the pretty rigid foam and i cut out the outlines of my two oktava mk-12's and i also cutout the circles for both of the mk-12 hyper capsules and the two -10 things just in case i ever needed them.

i have the two lav's (cos-11's) in a small pelican case and i put a small piece of the divider stuff that portabrace gives you to keep them from rolling around.

i have a really small pelican case that is square with a clear lid, and i keep the cub-01 in there.

stormcase just came out with a nice new case that is small but unlike most other cases its nice because the lid is rather small so the case itself is a lot deeper than most.

http://www.hardigg.org/StormCase/sellsheets/2075.pdf

i have my mic mounting stuff, mainly stuff like my lav kit and double sided tape for mounting mics in cars etc.

so when i have to put a mic somewhere weird i just take this one case with me over to the person to lav or the car etc.

in my lav kit i have all of the rycote stuff (double sided sticky for skin or fabric, tiny fake fur etc) and it all fits in a nice little plastic thing i got from gotham sound.

they don't have it on their website but trew audio has the same case

http://www.trewaudio.com/catalog/items/item742.htm

if you cut up the rycote double sided stuff you can fill the big cavity in the case with those and then in the smaller ones you can put the white, grey and black thin fabric covers and there are two compartments left for the mini fur windjammers.

i also got a new clamp that i'm really happy with, its super flexible in the many ways you can rotate all of the various angles etc. plus it comes with an adaptor that can go from 1/4 20 to 3/8 and then up to 5/8

http://www.trewaudio.com/catalog/items/item791.htm

i used it a LOT on a recent project and i ordered a second one because i liked the first one so much.

matthew
 
matthewd5 said:
in my lav kit i have all of the rycote stuff (double sided sticky for skin or fabric, tiny fake fur etc) and it all fits in a nice little plastic thing i got from gotham sound.

they don't have it on their website but trew audio has the same case

http://www.trewaudio.com/catalog/items/item742.htm
Click to expand...

You can pick up that pill box for $.99 at a drug store or Walmart (if you don't mind giving those greedy pigs your support).

If you are talking basic carrying cases then Pelican is the way to go but I thought we were talking about ENG kits where you have to have everything handy and portable.

That mailing tube idea is interesting. Perhaps with a couple of layers of duck/gaff tape around it to prevent it from being trashed by moisture or someone sitting/stepping/etc on it.

Cheers
 
the case i got from gotham, the one that i posted the link for at trew, is a lot more compact and really fills the niche for me as far as lavalier mounting.

in about the same space as a deck of cards i get to store all my rycote double sided stickies, plus i have separate compartments for the felt covers and separate compartments for the lightweight furry things.

the ones you see in the drugstore etc. are usually the size of a big bar of soap and they are either closed or come apart in two interlocking pieces.

being able to open the lav kit up and still have everything stay in its own neat little section unless i open up that inner door is very useful.

i have a ton of stuff available in one tiny package.

well worth the extra $3 over the $ .99 bar of soap holder.

and i do have a couple of the bar of soap holders for holding rolls of medical tape for taping down lav's or lav wires.

the 3m transpore is what my wife recommended because it breathes so it shouldn't ever fall off if the talent should sweat.

they use that to hold in iv's.

they sell it for a lot at audio specialty stores but i got a 12 roll pack through the hospital pharmacy for very little plus then i got my wifes discount :)

originally i did mean more the eng style of neatly packed away but available immediately or nearly immediately.

i use the small pelican cases like the 1060 (typically with a clear lid and a colored rubber insert) to hold my mics in transit.

on my last project i was lucky enough to be able to work from a cart.

i haven't taken pictures of it yet but i basically built my own sound cart with a "rock n roller" r10 cart as the skeleton.

i added a top and bottom shelf and used some bins from ikea with these little adaptors that made the top shelf also have two drawers mounted underneath the shelf.

this worked well as i had my mics in the right drawer and mic mounting stuff in the left drawer.

i even mounted a row of hooks on the left and right ends of the cart.

on one row i had hooks for all my xlr cables which were sorted by length of cable and on the other end i had my duplex cable with the boom op box and my 10 pin hirose cable that goes from the mixer and terminates at the camera in a left and right xlr plus a headphone cable that feeds the return signal back to the mixer.

this all worked out pretty well and the only missing piece was to be able to grab what i needed to go mic someone or something.

i have a pretty decent working solution for now. i'll have to take some pictures tomorrow of the cart and of the sound kit i put together for quicker more organized setup.

matthew
 
No, the EXACT box that Trew is selling, compartments and all, I have bought them at Walgreens. I remember the price because it was at that "trial" section where you can get travel toothpaste, travel shampoo, pill boxes, etc. They came in multiple colors so you can color code what mic goes in what box. I have seen them at other stores like Walmart from time to time. Suffice it to say, they were not designed for professional audio but the pros saw a great product they could mark up a few bucks. :) Like Topstick that cost twice as much to buy at the pro audio stores.

Your cart sounds tricked out (or pimped as the kids say now-a-days). I look forward to your pictures.

Cheers
 
Yeah, mic carrying and switching when doing ENG is quite an interesting topic. I usually keep the lavs on the Tx's in the detachable pouches of the petrol bag im using, and then i keep my 416 on the boom in its rycote softy (good protection). i also keep my oktava on standby in the bag, with foam cover on for protection, stuck into one of the pen holders in the 302 bag. its quite isolated and protected away from any possible disasters.

for formal transport, im doing the same sort of stuff you guys are...

what Im looking for at the moment is an all in one sort of holder that i can put my entire ENG bag into for day to day transport...
 
A poss upgrade to the mail tube is the triangular mail tubes. They come in very strong plastic and you could stack them or glue them together and they don't roll. If you made some inserts for them they might work well.
 
I just noticed I'm the only one on this thread with less than 800 posts... I'm feeling young again. Or is that senility, I can never remember.
 
I always keep my mics in their softies when not in use. I cilp my COS 11 to the very end of my french flag until action and if it's not in use for the shot, then clip it to myself. I wear two hip (fanny) packs and stash the MKH416 in its softie in a hip pack compartment. I feel the softies are pretty good protection.
 
i was never naive enough to think that hardly any of this stuff other than like the rycote double sided sticky stuff, but then even that is sheets of a 3m double sided tape that is die cut into the teardrop shape and then sold as a rycote thingie with some felt die cuts added.

its just that from your original message it really sounded to me at least, that you were just talking about the generic cases to hold soap etc.

my wife is always checking out the travel size stuff and she know what cases i'm looking for and what i have and has never found anything like that.

up until that case the best really small ones that i had found were at ll bean in their fishing department.

i'll make an extra effort to check out walgreens and walmart.

if you come across them again get me two of each color!

i have the one now full of the rycote stuff and i could find uses for a few more.

right now i'm playing around with some of the accessories that come with the kata camera bags that have a lot of potential for holding small microphones in a state of being instantly ready vs. having to forage through a couple of small pelicans and trying to unsnap them and get the stuff together.

the cart thing is really neat because it has a very practical footprint, it is only 18 inches wide and right around 3 ft. long.

on a recent shoot i was able to easily get it through this tiny hallway in a garage and then turn it so i could be behind the camera and still see the scene, but when actors/crew/mechanics needed to get by i just rolled it over out of the way and then back again when it was time to shoot.

plus i have a jeep wrangler and with this cart i can put it upright in the back and still have more than half of the cargo area free.

once the cart is in the vehicle i put my porta brace production bag on the bottom shelf of the cart so there is virtually no wasted space.

having the hooks on the sides for xlr's and camera/boom cables is damn convenient.

i didn't get to take pictures today, i spent a lot of time at the hardware store getting hardware to update my baby dolly so i can just set my hi-hat right on top of it and just spin some wingnuts.

baby dolly is 12 inches square and i stretch it between c stands so the setup time is next to nothing.

with the addition of the hi-hat easy on easy off it will be at least twice as useful.

matthew
 
I bought a strip of foam pipe insulator ( Home Depot). Cut them to length and glue one bottom. I happen to have spare folding umbrella nylon cases, and the foam case fits well inside.

So my Oktava, Rode NTG-1, ME64 is well protected in each's custom case!

Delfino
 
as for a great case to put your sound bag in...i did some research and although my favorite hard case maker doesn't have an equivelant model out yet there is a pelican line of cases called the "cube"

they come in 18"x18"x18" and 19"x19"x"19 and 20"X20"X20"

it comes in three sizes and i measured my sound bag + my storm case 2075 (which i highly recommend for storage of smaller mics like the mk-012, cmc6/mk41, cos-11's and cub-01

i can put both the sound bag which is a pretty well loaded petrol eargoizer 2 plus the above mentioned small hardigg stormcase and still have room for my 416 in its ktek zeppelin.

i haven't ordered the case yet but i am 99% sure i will be ordering it this week.

b&h has it for under $200 which includes the removeable caster wheels so if your flying with it you can take off the wheels before you check it.

one feature i really liked is that it has multiple places in the case to put a padlock and the area around those holes has a stainless steel reinforcement.

i worry about parking the car to/from shoots with the gear in the car but with the pelican i can put two good padlocks on it and then run a kryptonite cable through the handles on the case, plus loop one of the padlocks around the hardened cable and then lock the cable around a hard mounting point in the back.

plus i have an alarm so unless someone is a pro and has a chainsaw it would tame them way too long.

also the pelican cube case has an available optional lid organizer in case the 18"x18"x18" isn't enough space for you!

matthew
 
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