The Quiet Before The Storm

[Bitstream]

Does anyone have any bright ideas for recording wind?

Apparently it's going to be really windy this weekend, gusts of up to 70mph.

I want to record the storm outdoors but recently had no luck stopping pops in the mic.

One suggestion was to put the mic in a box, but sure enough this sounded like wind in a box! Any ideas?

Edited November 24, 2006 by Bitstream

[john]

Hey

ok dig out a microphone, a miscrophone stand, a pair of tights (nylons), and grab two wire coat hangers and some sticky tape. Best results if the microphone attachment is a suspension cage, rather than a direct clip.

Bend each hanger into a diamond shape, one slightly smaller than the other. Fit one inside the other art right angles with the one hook wrapped around the other making sure that at least one hook has enough free length to create a hoop. If you want to make it a bit stronger you will need to attach something between the spars, corner to corner.

You should now have a wire box. Pull either one, or two legs over the wire box at the end opposite the hooks, so that the box is inside the leg, with the opening at the hook end.

Insert the microphone, on it's stand mount, into the box. Unwind the microphone clip, a bit, from the microphone stand so that some the metal adjuster can also be unwound, allowing enough space for the hook from the hangers to fit around the thread. Tightend the adjuster and microphone clip, so that the hangers are held tightly by the stand, with the microphone inside. Bend the wire frame so that the microphone head is as close to the center of the wire box as possible, make sure the microphone is not in direct contact with the wire frame, and preferably not the nylon.

Your microphone is now surrounded in a giant pop blast screen. You can adjust the de-pop by adding layers of nylons. You can of course also use an on-microphone pop blast screen.

Even better results will be attained using a separate stand for the wire frame, so reducing any mechanical coupling between the microphone and the wire frame.

Another possibility is to use a directional microphone inside a short tube, or open ended box. You can reduce the tube sound by treating the insides of the tube with something that absorbs sound. Even a soft material can help. Yet again, the end can be left open or covered with nylons.

Place the directional microphone at right angles to the general direction of the wind, or pointing slightly downwind.

Ultimately you are trying to reduce direct blasts of air onto the microphone diaphram, without colouring the sound. It does take a bit of experimenting. One thing to thing about is location. WHat you hear iin a high wind is in part the sound of the air on your ear, but it is also the incidental sound such as whistling as air is forced between buildings etc. As you reduce the direct air sound using pop screens, you may need to improve the location to pick up sound created in the surrounding area by the rushing air.

Let me know if this helps.

Cheers

John

[ATom2]

...or you can take a mic and place it around the corner of a building on the non-wind direction side. Place it as close to the corner as possible without the wind actually hitting the mic. You should get the sound of the wind blowing by the wall around that corner.

Tom

[john]

I just had to make it complicated, though in built up areas, finding windless locations isn't that easy when streets can act like wind tunnels

[Bitstream]

I just had to make it complicated, though in built up areas, finding windless locations isn't that easy when streets can act like wind tunnels

Great! Thanks, John. The tights method is a great idea; they even have grades of thickness for them. Anyway, these winds are really quite gusty and can come from all directions, so hiding round the corner is not an option. And since I want to capture all of the wind's attributes, I will be out in the open completely.

Incedently, I will be recording 4 to 8 tracks of the wind real-time, so I really need a low cost solution.

Thanks again.

[Donna]

What a cool thread!

[tgrover]

bizzare thing to do but i have done this..

Open a window where the wind blows past and not into. Just record the wind as it sails past.

[Bitstream]

Unfortunately, this is too easy

I will be using 3 mics and triangulating over a distance of up to 10m; this will allow me to add dimension to the wind effect after much processing.

[Donna]

1) Tgrover way

2) Bitstream way

Ying and the Yang