• Re: why the faux fur on microphones?

    From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to albertano@aol.com on Sat Nov 27 22:46:05 2021
    In article <snuaqu$udk$1@dont-email.me>, Albert A <albertano@aol.com> wrote: >I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have. I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt,
    foam, and then a final layer of faux fur. I was able to make everything
    from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise. Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all? Why would it work better than the foam? Thanks.

    People think that it works better than foam because it slows airflow. It's still turbulent flow, but it's slower. Juerg Wuetke at Schoeps did some research in the nineties and you might find a paper from Rycote on the
    physics in the AES database.

    Personally I find that an open-cell foam ball of six inches or so diameter
    like the Olsen windscreens works almost as well as the dead cat screen,
    with slightly less effect at high frequencies. Mike Rivers and I did a
    test on the Olsen windscreens compared with the baby ball gags and one of
    the dead cat screens (a cheap Rycote knockoff that a friend got somewhere) at Washington Folk Festival one year and the differences between them were
    clearly audible but they were all effective and which one you preferred depended on how much wind reduction you thought necessary and how much top
    end loss you could tolerate.

    But... as always... the mike pattern has more to do with wind sensitivity
    than anything else!
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From Albert A@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 27 17:18:05 2021
    I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have. I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt,
    foam, and then a final layer of faux fur. I was able to make everything
    from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise. Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all? Why would it work better than the foam? Thanks.

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  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Albert A on Sun Nov 28 12:59:07 2021
    On 28/11/2021 11:18 am, Albert A wrote:
    I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have.  I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt,
    foam, and then a final layer of faux fur.  I was able to make everything from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise.  Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all?  Why would it work better than the foam?  Thanks.

    AKA 'dead cat'.

    geoff

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  • From geoff@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sun Nov 28 12:58:45 2021
    On 28/11/2021 11:46 am, Scott Dorsey wrote:
    In article <snuaqu$udk$1@dont-email.me>, Albert A <albertano@aol.com> wrote:
    I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have. I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt,
    foam, and then a final layer of faux fur. I was able to make everything >>from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise. Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all? Why would it work better than the foam? Thanks.

    People think that it works better than foam because it slows airflow. It's still turbulent flow, but it's slower. Juerg Wuetke at Schoeps did some research in the nineties and you might find a paper from Rycote on the physics in the AES database.

    More random, and 'softer'. Foam itself is fairly rigid in comparison,
    and wind 'resonates' on the surface. A different effect to
    plosive-filtering for which foam-ball filters are intended for.

    geoff

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  • From Liz Tuddenham@21:1/5 to Albert A on Sun Nov 28 09:42:07 2021
    Albert A <albertano@aol.com> wrote:

    I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have. I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt,
    foam, and then a final layer of faux fur. I was able to make everything
    from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise. Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all? Why would it work better than the foam? Thanks.

    The theory is that the long hair of the fur produces a wind speed
    gradient between the free air and the surface of the material. This
    results in less turbulence than a sudden change in speed if the wind
    hits something more solid such as short hair fur, silk bonded to gauze
    or foam rubber.

    The base of the fur material is dense enough to only allow the air to
    move through it slowly, but a large air space is necessary between the underside of the fur and the microphone capsule to allow the internal
    air currents to circulate gently without causing a pressure difference
    across the capsule. Open cell foam usually performs this task and
    supports the underside of the fur. It does not need to be as dense as
    the foam used for 'pop shields', although similar foam is often used.

    As others have said, the type of microphone also makes a big difference.
    A pressure capsule (omnidirectional) is least susceptible to wind noise,
    a pressure-gradient capsule (bidirectional 'ribbon') is most
    susceptible. Cardioids and hypercardioids are intermediate, the more directional they are, the more susceptible they are.


    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk

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  • From Albert A@21:1/5 to Albert A on Sun Nov 28 10:58:22 2021
    On 11/27/21 5:18 PM, Albert A wrote:
    I'm in the process of doing a DIY windscreen for an old Zoom H2 recorder
    I have.  I followed some instructions I found online, which uses felt, foam, and then a final layer of faux fur.  I was able to make everything from materials I had on hand except the faux, which I had to order.
    Quick tests with just the original foam-felt-extended foam still allow
    wind noise.  Will the faux around all of this curtail the wind once and
    for all?  Why would it work better than the foam?  Thanks.

    Thanks for the response and my apologies as I just found out that I unfortunately posted this in error on an existing thread. Was tempted
    to start a separate thread, but since there have been responses here, I
    guess I'll continue.

    My Zoom H2 is being used to capture nature sounds outdoors. I did a
    twelve hour audio capture overnight with the dual foam cover in place as
    the faux won't arrive for a few days. The results were good, but I
    noted a drop in the high end. Not much, but I did a comparison this
    morning using a white noise source I use to help me sleep both with and without the filters. It wasn't much of a drop and I tried to best
    adjust EQ of the white noise to compensate as best as I could. I mainly
    used the spectrum display over the speakers as my speakers are not pro
    and have a lot of coloration in the low end. However, this is what I
    was able to come up with:

    https://i.imgur.com/7evLt5q.jpg

    It's fairly gentle and I don't think much is needed for compensation
    anyway. Would this resemble an approximate compensation curve for this
    sort of set up? I welcome suggestions for better refinement. I have Audacity, but am currently evaluating a demo version of Audition and
    that's what was used to create the curve shown. Thanks.

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  • From Liz Tuddenham@21:1/5 to Albert A on Sun Nov 28 17:47:16 2021
    Albert A <albertano@aol.com> wrote:

    ... I did a
    twelve hour audio capture overnight with the dual foam cover in place as
    the faux won't arrive for a few days.

    The most suitable type of fur has mixed-length fibres, including quite
    long soft ones, so that it produces a gradient effect. Short, bristly
    fur, with all the fibres about the same length, won't be as effective.

    --
    ~ Liz Tuddenham ~
    (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
    www.poppyrecords.co.uk

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