Potecting mic & audio from rain

K

Kugar13

Well-known member
What is the best way to protect your mic from the rain that allows you to record in the rain and not sacrifice the audio. Is a blimp w/ muff sufficient? I am worried about using something that is loud when rain hits it (like an umbrella). Does anyone have any ideas, especially DIY ideas that are affordable for someone with limited funds?

Thx
 
A sheet of hogshair (a coarse matt of wirey hair used as a furnace filter) can be used to break up the sound of rain hitting the zepplin. It'll eventually become saturated, so you may have to swap out a dry one before too long. That, and they tend to smell a bit funky when wet.

This setup will also get pretty heavy; an MKH816 in a rycote covered in hogshair on a 17 foot boom is a bit of a challenging.
 
Questions

Questions

Would you wrap that about the blimp or suspend it from something?

Where can you get hogshair?

Is there a DIY alternative?

Thank you!


SMuir said:
A sheet of hogshair (a coarse matt of wirey hair used as a furnace filter) can be used to break up the sound of rain hitting the zepplin. It'll eventually become saturated, so you may have to swap out a dry one before too long. That, and they tend to smell a bit funky when wet.

This setup will also get pretty heavy; an MKH816 in a rycote covered in hogshair on a 17 foot boom is a bit of a challenging.
Click to expand...
 
Is there a DIY alternative?



die hard alternative ,
you will need some better then regular **** people usually use here
 
uh, that IS a DIY alternative. You can tie it over the top/sides of the zep. Dont cover the front. Not really a very good solution, rain is a really crappy thing to try and deal with for sound.. c'est la vie.
 
Oh, ok

Oh, ok

I didn't realize it was. My research yielded the same results for what the big boys do. If not, what do they do?

Thx!


timapter said:
uh, that IS a DIY alternative. You can tie it over the top/sides of the zep. Dont cover the front. Not really a very good solution, rain is a really crappy thing to try and deal with for sound.. c'est la vie.
Click to expand...
 
Yup, thats cuz that IS what the big boys do! :) pretty much the only high budget solution for protection of gear from rain is ADR.

Hope that helps. Hogs hair is pretty useful stuff sometimes.
 
Oh, also big emphasis on what SMuir said about changing the hair out frequently - when it gets totally saturated with water, two things happen: first, the rain muffling effect ceases to exist. Second - water leaks into the zeppelin and you kiss your mic goodbye. :)
 
Wow, thanks for the advice.

I was thinking about making a light weight frame that can suspend over the mic. The bottom layer is plastic and the top layer would have the hogs hair. Build it at an angle so the water will run off the back (away from the mic). Using the hog hair to buff the sound, not so much as an absorbent to retain water. Make it light weight enough, and put it on a clamp that will allow me to attach it to my boom, or on it's own pole for an alternate person to maintain.

I am just brainstorming ideas....

Thanks again!
 
You can buy cut-to-fit hogshair furnace filters at most large hardware stores. Some experimentation may be needed to find the ideal model for your purposes.

Trim the hogshair, wrap the hogshair over the top of the windscreen, and secure it underneath. If you want to get really fancy, attach eyelets to the edges of the hogshair and use releasable cable ties to secure it.

Another thing about recording in the rain: bring a spare mic. Even the MKH-series mics will eventually run into humidity problems, so you should anticipate having to swap in a dry mic. Ideally, you should also bring a spare dry high-wind cover in addition to the spare mic and hogshair.

That, and record plenty of wild takes somewhere dryer. Even without the sound of rain bashing into the mic, the sound of the rain hitting everything else may be too loud, making ADR the only acceptable option.

I haven't used it myself, but I understand that the DPA Windpac is water resistant.

In the past, I've rigged a hogshair-covered canvas shelter for the mic, but it had to be attached to a mic stand. Not useful for dialogue, but great for effects recording.
 
I havent used a DPA, but a friend of mine in the US has one, and she let me check it out, give it a bit of a swing etc. That thing is incredible... But, water resistant as it may be, I dont think it would be any better in the rain than any other system - it might just be lighter. You'd still need hogshair to dampen the drops hitting the zepp itself.
 
kugar, not bad ideas... let us know how you do if you make em. You might find that the hair straight on mic is perfectly adequate, but hey, you also might invent something way better.

I almost never shoot in rain here in SA, so I dont have to worry about this stuff. :)
 
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