Slip over fur windscreen with shockmount

frazzywig

frazzywig

Member
Hi All,

I'm sorry if this has already been addressed in another thread, searched and couldn't find anything.

I just need to know if anyone has personal experience with using a slip over type fur windscreen like this "Pearstone Fuzzy Windbuster for Shotgun Microphones" and a shockmount. Specifically, I would like to know if anyone can attest to the ability to fit one of these over their shockmount. These things are designed to fit over the manufacturer included foam windscreen, but my shockmount is considerably wider around than my mic with the foam windscreen on it. I don't expect that it will fit, but I just wanted to know if anyone has any input or recommendations. If it doesn't fit, does it perform well by just leaving the back half of it open, draped over the shockmount, for example. Obviously I have a tight budget and would prefer to go with something like this as it's only $30, gets a lot of good reviews and I don't live in a very windy place to really necessitate a nice blimp system anyway.

One other thing that I had considered is getting something shorter, just for the front part of the mic that sticks out from the shockmount. This portion measures about 4.2 inches (10.7 cm). It was kinda hard to find what I was looking for in this specific size, but I was able to find these two sizes of Micover Puffin windscreens for about twice the price, a 10cm one and a 12cm one.The only thing about these two options that makes me worry is that the slots on the front portion of the mic take up about 10.4cm of the 10.7cm worth of room that I have to slide one of these things on. Can anyone comment on whether it would be better to have the 10cm puffin's rubber end piece covering part of the slots or have the 12cm puffin creating an extra centimeter and a half of space between the front end of the mic and the inside of the puffin, or even if this product is any good?

In the end, what I'd really like to know is, what would you do if you had similar budget constraints?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Here is a list of what I'm dealing with and a picture of my mic to illustrate the slots:
  • Audio-Technica AT875R shotgun
  • Pearstone DUSM-1 Universal Shockmount for Camera Shoes and Boompoles

AT875rSeven.jpg

Edit: by the way, not my picture. Got it from Kenstone.net.​
 
The furry goes up to, but not over, the shock-mount. The mic is placed in the mount far enough forward that the slots are completely exposed in front of the mount, then the windscreen and furry are positioned so that the slots are covered. The openings at the base of the stock foam windscreen and the furry slip-over will be just in front of the shock-mount. It is crucial to proper function of the mic that the slots are completely unobstructed by anything except the wind protection. If you use the Puffin instead of the slip-on fuzzy it looks like the 12cm version is correct for your mic. The Puffin looks like a copy of the Rycote Softie and the Rycote site lists the 12cm Softie as correct for the AT875
 
Last edited:
Great, thank you! I'll be sure that the slots always remain unobstructed. Just to be clear, does having the extra lenght of Puffin loosely hanging off the end not affect the mics ability to capture sound? Also, do you have any experience with these Micover Puffin's, or have you heard anything good/bad about them?
 
frazzywig said:
Great, thank you! I'll be sure that the slots always remain unobstructed. Just to be clear, does having the extra lenght of Puffin loosely hanging off the end not affect the mics ability to capture sound? Also, do you have any experience with these Micover Puffin's, or have you heard anything good/bad about them?
Click to expand...
The Pearstone seems to be too long for your mic and I haven't heard anything about the Puffins.
 
I have no experience with 'Pearstone' products.. which are made specifically for B&H, which has reputable positive business practices... I would choose an original manufacturer, if the price was relatively competitive though.
 
Last edited:
I use the Rode PG2 and ws/6 with all my AT 875R mics and they work very well, I also shortened one of the ws/6 to five inches for use on the camera.
 
Hmm, I hadn't realized that Pearstone was the B&H brand, good to know.

Thanks for the recommendations Gary. I've been using the Rode micro boom. The PG2 looks like a very good add on though, as I've already run into a few situations where I would just like to be able to take the boom out of the equation. I especially like the ability to just keep the mic on it and either take the PG2 off or put it back on the boom. I did already end up getting the windscreen that Micover provides. It's working ok but I've definitely already encountered some wind that it can't handle. Part of the problem, of course, is that I don't have a good frame of reference as to how well a good dead cat performs. I'll have to look at the ws/6 as an upgrade option in the future if I don't decide to just bite the bullet and go with a blimp system.
 
the key to any good slip on windscreen with fur is to have open cell foam on the inside and longer fur on the outside. open cell foam is acoustically transparent, blocks wind reasonably well for foam, and holds up very well over time.
 
davefisk said:
the key to any good slip on windscreen with fur is to have open cell foam on the inside and longer fur on the outside. open cell foam is acoustically transparent, blocks wind reasonably well for foam, and holds up very well over time.
Click to expand...

Agreed - but it is actually a lot more than this.

The foam is quite special as the sound defracts insde the foam and the foam should be of such a type so as to prevent wind noise without changing the sound too much.

The same with the "fur", the diameter and lengths of the hairs are very important - and how they are fitted to the backing. This all effects how effective the wind attenuation is and that the attenuation of high frequencies is minimal. Bad designs tend to attenuate the high frquencies more and can be less effective at wind attenuation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top