"Poor Man's" Microphone Wind Protection
Reduce wind noise without blowing your paycheck!
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"Poor Man's" Microphone Wind Protection Reduce wind noise without blowing your paycheck! |
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Field Recording - Problems With the Wind |
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| Record anything outdoors and more than likely you've experienced wind noise - anything more than a slight breeze has probably ruined your recordings at some point. Foam microphone covers hardly do anything to improve the situation and professional "Zeppelin" style wind protection systems can cost more than the microphone that it protects. Is there a cost effective way to reduce wind noise? My goal: effectively reduce wind noise on my Rode NT-4 stereo microphone by placing it in a screen reptile enclosure (Apogee Reptarium 38 - not the people that make digital converters). |
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| Even Better Wind Protection! A screen reptile enclosure that collapses down into a disc less than 2" tall. I put this one to the wind test too!  |
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| Right: I was able to greatly reduce the wind noise produced by a box fan by placing my microphone in a reptile screen enclosure (click the image for a larger view). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hear my wind test with the mic in the enclosure and out of the enclosure (headphones recommended - or a really good playback system). The image below shows the actual waveforms from the recording before mp3 conversion. You can easily see when the microphone was placed in the enclosure. You still can hear the fan, but the low end sound of the wind hitting the microphone is greatly reduced.
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| A reptile enclosure?! I just happen to have one lying around the house (since I have a pet mali uromastyx lizard). The Reptarium ($30 online) is a plastic cage with a nylon mesh cover that is made for letting your little critter get some natural sun and fresh air without being able to run away or get eaten by larger critters. Well, it seems reasonable to me, being an audio engineer, that it could also be used as a large pop filter! So, I tried it. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The test: This is what I used |
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Turn the average laptop into a brutal noise machine. This site explores the computers, software, performances, noise and experimental music artists. |
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| Field Recording Get out of the studio and record the sounds around you. |
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| Left and Above: Rode NT-4 gets a fresh breeze from the box fan (click images for a larger view). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Results: Funny you should ask. This works! As you can hear from the mp3 recording, the Reptarium does reduce the wind noise. It's not completely gone, but then, I believe, that it can easily be improved on. How? Just a few dollars worth of common screen from the local home improvement store should take care of things. I figure that a second (internal) layer of screen should reduce the wind noise even more (there are dual layer pop filters out there - I haven't tried this as of today - 08/14/2007). Drawbacks? Despite being very light, the Reptarium is bulky. It does break down, but not too quickly. Also, since the Reptarium is so light, it might move (or be knocked over) in stronger winds (careful out there!). I suggest adding some dead weight to the bottom of the enclosure even in moderate winds. I haven't tried this outside yet since it's been pretty still here. But as soon as a decent breeze gets going, this setup is headed outdoors for more testing. |
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| Mountain Streams and Waterfalls CD Expertly captured and presented in this 56 minute uninterrupted CD are the pure and relaxing sounds of nature's beauty. |
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| Radio as a Processor Give your music some amazing new character by transmitting it over the FM airwaves. I show you how. |
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Experience "the Difficult Listening Channel" podcast where the sounds in my head become the sounds in yours. |
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| Circuit Bending No instrument is safe. No toy left unbroken! Wires, resistors, guts, burned ICs, and soldering irons. The things we do to glitch. |
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Contact F7 Sound and Vision!
This site is designed and maintained by F7 Sound and Vision. Copyright © 2007 Michael I. Oster. All rights reserved. F7 Sound and Vision 17732 Nathan's Drive Tampa, Florida 33647 813-991-4117 |
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