Topic: Taping outside in the rain- is it worth trying?

[acidjack]

I've even made one good pull where I had stealth mics on a hat and had to throw a couple of shirts over my head and make a makeshift hood around my head.... and it was POURING that day.

"Note to self: do not buy acidjack's mics."

That particular pair is no longer in my bag. But they worked beautifully long after.  They didn't get wet that day, and none of my mics ever have.

[stevetoney]

YES it's worth it.  In fact, if you tape enough, you WILL encounter rain so it's best to assume you'll be taping at some point in the rain.  Every real taper that I know packs the following into his taping rig...

- 2 or 3 plastic bags for your gear bag once it starts pouring...
- a collapsible umbrella for the top of your stand...
- either duct tape or clamp to attach umbrella to your mic stand...
- stakes to keep your stand in place when the wind picks up (and grabs your umbrella)
 
Optional
- hand towel or hanky to put on top of the umbrella to dampen out the dripping sounds as rain drops hit your umbrella
- clips to fasten the towel to your umbrella and keep if from flapping in the breeze

[mfrench]

BS,... I'm approaching 35 years of "real taping", and I've recorded boatloads of music, and never once encountered rain.

[cashandkerouac]

great thread, and great suggestions for mitigating risk in the rain.  so far i have not encountered rain that wasa bad enough to make me stop taping.  i've been in some pretty hard downpours, but a basic plastic trashbag around your gear bag does wonders to protect your gear from impending doom. 

on a side note i was taping this past weekend in the Sierra mountains and it was dry as could be.  there was dust everywhere!  after experiencing major dust for the first time i'll take taping in the rain over taping in the middle of a dust cloud anyday. 

[Gutbucket]

I've recorded boatloads of music

Boatloads taken literally..
Here's a few rigs that can handle damp. 
You want straight stereo or surround?

I'm wondering if these come with not-so teenie-weeni pokadot bikini storage covers.

2 channel stereo-







4 channel surround-





Polars for those giant APE-like sphere attachments-





Video and audio samples here- http://www.ambient.de/en/products/ambient-recording/underwater/sound-examples.html  I haven't had a change to listen to any of them yet.  Just came across this stuff this morning on the Ambient Recording website, makers of the Emesser fig-8 which drew me there.

[DigiGal]

[Gutbucket]

^^^
Mono close mic'ing!

Whale crooners were previously unable to get that intimate sound before 'Ping' Crosby revolutionized hydrophonic vocal mic techique.

BS,... I'm approaching 35 years of "real taping", and I've recorded boatloads of music, and never once encountered rain.

You must admit that maintaining that kind of record is far easier in the desert climate of SoCal than the Pacific NW or the SE.

[Fried Chicken Boy]

BS,... I'm approaching 35 years of "real taping", and I've recorded boatloads of music, and never once encountered rain.

Then I must be getting your rain juju 'cuz the vast majority of times I've taped outdoors (which, admittedly, isn't that often) it's been raining.

Some very good suggestions in this thread.

[darby]

as long as you get everything wrapped up tight
and keep your stand and umbrella low... go for it
once it starts raining, I wouldn't want to disconnect anything
http://archive.org/details/moe1997-07-27.akg451.darby.flac1644

[mfrench]

^^^
Mono close mic'ing!

Whale crooners were previously unable to get that intimate sound before 'Ping' Crosby revolutionized hydrophonic vocal mic techique.

BS,... I'm approaching 35 years of "real taping", and I've recorded boatloads of music, and never once encountered rain.

You must admit that maintaining that kind of record is far easier in the desert climate of SoCal than the Pacific NW or the SE.

I've travelled to New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Nor. Cal., and all over So Cal., for recording.  I've also spent considerable time in monsoonal flow weather patterns that create flash floods during our "dry season". Our outdoor season would typically kick off with Dead shows in the rainy season in so.cal., during the spring break time frame; outdoor concerts typically run from late march to early november here.  There has been plenty of exposure to rainy season possibilities.  In all of it, I felt like no less the real taper because I was missing out on standing in flowing muddy concert grounds. I did miss a few concerts because I didn't want to attend a soaking rain fest; but also feel that no concert is worth risking gear on. 
In addition: **Lots of expensive gear corrodes away just due to high levels of humidity, increasingly more now with micro-traces and integrated circuits. The old fashioned thick circuit traces were more easily replaced/repaired than the new micro-traces and IC's.  Its just not worth it to me to risk ruining gear for the noodley jam band du jour.  Y'all can have your rain and mud fests - I'll take a nice cushy theater seat to rest my heiner in when I'm recording, over a trickle of water running down my ass crack.

**  with the speed of changing digital technology, and immediate obsolescence of gear, this is likely a moot point.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

BS,... I'm approaching 35 years of "real taping", and I've recorded boatloads of music, and never once encountered rain.

The Hoff even scares the rain away.

[mfrench]

water parts itself in his presence.

[Chuck]

Like some of you, I figure it just goes with the territory to have to record in the rain sometimes. Actually my very first recording was of a Syracuse, NY rain storm when I was in my early teens. I just loved (and still love) the sound of rain. I had a small collection of rain/nature recordings. The first were made on my dad's 8-track recorder with a very cheap electret mic. I don't think I'd be a concert taper today if I didn't have the opportunity to record that nature stuff back then.

I was fascinated with the idea of making indoors sound like outdoors. It even sparked my interest in quadraphonic sound, which was big when I was a teen.

I never fully realized my dream of having ground sounds played through speakers on the ground and air or trees sounds playing through speakers position up high in my room. Mostly because of money. I had to cut quite a few lawns just to get the money to buy my first Radio Shack "stereo". Real quad was out of my reach then.

Anyway...

As everyone else said, heavy ply plastic bags, an umbrella, big windscreens and a plan to keep water away from the recorder is what is needed.

[Gutbucket]

I was fascinated with the idea of making indoors sound like outdoors.

I've made a few surround recordings of the frog chorus in the backyard that congregates after a good rain.   If I play it back inside immediately after with the windows open they get all riled up out there and turn it up a notch.  Played back some similar circadia and cricket recordings one night at extra volume and the whole block seemed to come alive. he he.

Choir simulated rainstorm (1:03!)-
http://youtu.be/Aj7DPK1C500

[bryonsos]

OK, now that the Hoff has made his appearance, I'll show you the most ridiculous way I tried to deal with rain. Hypnocracy and I got staff upgrades in exchange for taping the entirety of a local fest. 800 attendance. We got free food and booze for our taping efforts. It was forecasted that there would be a really good chance of rain the 2nd and 3rd days of the fest, but not much chance the 1st day. Well, the voodoo practitioners of meteorology got it wrong, it situationally rained like hell each day. Since I thought I was OK for the first day, I went ahead and ran spread omnis. Turned out to be a bad choice. During the last act of the day, it started to rain a bit, so I needed a mic protection solution quick. I ran to the hospitality room thinking I could at least get some Saran Wrap (remember, we got a pretty good incentive to tape everything) or a couple plastic bags, but all I could find quickly were some surgical gloves. I grabbed a couple and put them over the mics. The next day I/we were more sensible and ran closer mic patterns so we could be under an umbrella. This wasn't perfect the 3rd day, but that's another story.