Topic: Rain, rain go away... Or what do with the sound of rain hitting an umbrella...

[adrianf74]

Hey everyone,

Got to see Dire Straits Legacy last night in Toronto at the CNE during a literal monsoon.  Jake Clemons did a late soundcheck (see the picture attached) and then about half-way through the first song, lightninh struck a couple of times nearby so he did the first song and then had to stop.  Felt bad for him (he and his band) got to do about 5 minutes of a 35 minute set as they had to stop for at least a half hour.  At least we got to chat with him for a few seconds once the rain cleared.

Dire Straits Legacy (https://dslegacy.com/band-lineup/) took the stage a little early and played 9 songs in about 75-80 minutes (they dropped four songs that they had been doing on the tour including "Telegraph Road" which was a terrible bummer but back to the question at hand:

What can do you do to lessen the sound of rain hitting an umbrella?  While trying to protect the mics in my hat, and keep myself somewhat dry but during a song like "Private Investigations," the rain noise sounds like a really worn, scratchy record at times?  I have access to most of the usual tools (Audition CC 2022, iZtope RX 9, etc.) so that won't be an issue.  Would love to share this one because it was really good.

Thanks in advance

[seethreepo]

A towel will certainly deaden any noise but depending on how much rain there is the towel may get too heavy too fast. Otherwise I think it’s trial and error positioning far enough to avoid noise while still covering the gear.

[adrianf74]

A towel will certainly deaden any noise but depending on how much rain there is the towel may get too heavy too fast. Otherwise I think it’s trial and error positioning far enough to avoid noise while still covering the gear.

Not a chance in h**l that would've helped yesterday; the towel would've lasted a minute, tops, before killing my umbrella. My jeans gained about 8 lbs in water weight. I draped them over the top loading washer last night and they finally finished drying out this evening.

It was torrential downpours last night; might just have to call it for what it is: Great performance lost to weather.

[nulldogmas]

My first step would be RX de-click to see if it can at least soften the loudest pops.

[phil_er_up]

See this thread:
https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=200009.0

Go down to Gutbucket post.

[Gutbucket]

My jeans gained about 8 lbs in water weight. I draped them over the top loading washer last night and they finally finished drying out this evening.

Could throw them in the washer and skip to the spin cycle to wring most of the water out

[adrianf74]

My jeans gained about 8 lbs in water weight. I draped them over the top loading washer last night and they finally finished drying out this evening.

Could throw them in the washer and skip to the spin cycle to wring most of the water out

Thanks Gutbucket -- appreciate the humour, as always, on that one.

Suffice to say, that recording is pretty much toast.  It was close to being Noah's Ark out there at points but at least I got to enjoy it -- the MK41's that were running next to me under the umbrella have a short in one of the cables.  The MK41's were more forgiving with the rain than the CA-14's were but such is life.

We were simply concerned with trying to keep the gear dry first and then ourselves. 

[Gutbucket]

Yeah, to my mind there are something like four stages of rain with regards to taping:
1) No rain!
2) Methods that accommodate light rain and still make a good recording.
3) Methods that protect the gear without breaking down (waiting for it to pass), but any attempted recording will be rain dominated.
4) GTFO!

[adrianf74]

Yeah, to my mind there are something like four stages of rain with regards to taping:
1) No rain!
2) Methods that accommodate light rain and still make a good recording.
3) Methods that protect the gear without breaking down (waiting for it to pass), but any attempted recording will be rain dominated.
4) GTFO!

I was thinking #4 for quite a bit on Monday.  There were like two 10-15 minute heavy downpours.  The first one during the soundcheck (just after 7 PM) was pretty bad and then there was a second downpour that opened up just after DSL went on stage.  It lasted most of "Private Investigations" (which is like 10 minutes long) and during the quietest points, there's constant rain hitting the umbrella.  The gear was safe from harm; the humans mic stands not so much.

Then got a little more rain mid-way through the show as well.  Downtown Toronto was supposed to be in the clear and the rain was supposed to pass 30-45 minutes to the west; the exact opposite happened.

It was what it was.

[jnorman]

Rain can be much like like HVAC noise - a steady-ish background with fairly fixed frequency response curve.  I work in Reaper for post processing, and use the plugin Reafir, set to subtractive mode to eliminate such background noise.  In subtractive mode, you play a short clip of just the rain noise (or hvac noise, etc) and let the plugin build up a frequency curve, and then the plugin will invert the phase of that curve and subtract it from your recording.  If it interferes too much with the recording, you hold the cntl key and drag the whole curve down a bit until you get the best balance of reducing the noise while keeping the recording as intact as possible.  This trick also can help reduce ambient crowd rumble, etc.

[Gutbucket]

Found the preliminary component of the "duck-back" individual mic rain protection prototype system I was working on last summer.  See photos below.

This part is intended to from the core component of the "duck-back" - the droplet impact diffusing part on top, that also serves to grab onto the mic via the tubular foam's internal spring tension.  This is large-cell open pore pond pump filter material I bought at HomeDepot or Lowes.  It comes in tube form and is flexible.  I cut it lengthwise across the bottom and on a diagonal at either end to form a small "roof overhang" at each end.  My intent was to bond cheapo dollar-store umbrella fabric to the underside and out to the outer edge of the lengthwise cut using HD 3M spray adhesive to channel water off to either side.  In use, the "duck back" would be spread (more than shown here) and fixed atop the windscreen, clamping onto it by the spring tension of the open cell foam, further secured with pins or an integrated cable velcro tie if necessary.  This was originally designed with big ass Shure windscreens in mind (further treated with Never-Wet hydrophobic water repellent to keep the undersides dry from humidity and indirect rain) yet should work similarly with Movos.  Needs to be long enough to cover the full length of the mic and connector plus sufficient overhang, and wide enough when spread to extend probably half-way down over the wind-screen or a bit more.

Need to get back on this project again.

[if_then_else]

Found the preliminary component of the "duck-back" individual mic rain protection prototype system I was working on last summer.  See photos below.

This part is intended to from the core component of the "duck-back" - the droplet impact diffusing part on top, that also serves to grab onto the mic via the tubular foam's internal spring tension.  This is large-cell open pore pond pump filter material I bought at HomeDepot or Lowes.  It comes in tube form and is flexible.  I cut it lengthwise across the bottom and on a diagonal at either end to form a small "roof overhang" at each end.  My intent was to bond cheapo dollar-store umbrella fabric to the underside and out to the outer edge of the lengthwise cut using HD 3M spray adhesive to channel water off to either side.  In use, the "duck back" would be spread (more than shown here) and fixed atop the windscreen, clamping onto it by the spring tension of the open cell foam, further secured with pins or an integrated cable velcro tie if necessary.  This was originally designed with big ass Shure windscreens in mind (further treated with Never-Wet hydrophobic water repellent to keep the undersides dry from humidity and indirect rain) yet should work similarly with Movos.  Needs to be long enough to cover the full length of the mic and connector plus sufficient overhang, and wide enough when spread to extend probably half-way down over the wind-screen or a bit more.

Need to get back on this project again.

Just bear in mind that there must be some "overhang" at both ends. I was told by the makers of the Reinhardt "Rain Shield" that ~5cm would be fine.
You can glue some polyethylene wraps (usually used to protect TV screens or computer monitors) to the under-side. They should be acoustically transparent and (to some degree) water-resistent.

[Gutbucket]

Yes, agreed.  Thanks for that Reinhardt "Rain Shield" ~5cm overhang figure.  I ball-parked the needed overhang at around 7cm or so as likely to be about right. Even with that amount of overhang I would want to make sure the windscreen underneath was treated hydrophobicly to reject moisture uptake as much as possible. I tried the NeverWet stuff on a pair of BAS a few years ago and it worked well with regards to indirect water/moisture application, but was not sufficiently hydrophobic enough on its own to resist water intrusion from direct physical droplet impact to the windscreen.  The fabric cover of the Movo's is probably superior to the foam exterior of the BAS somewhat in that regard, but would still need the top cover and impact diffuser.

The umbrella fabric to be glued to the underside is intended to serve as water barrier same as the polyethylene wrap you suggest. Either should work in that role I'd think.  Advantage of the umbrella fabric as I see it is that it is thin, pretty tough, and black.  Should probably do some tests of audible transparency, but would certainly be less reflective/blocking than the Reinhardt plastic shingle.  The fabric should extend to the outermost edge of the overhangs, and form an outward lip along the sides to the outside edge of the foam to form a drip edge.

Edit- Note that the pond pump intake filter stuff I used for this initial prototype is probably not long enough.  I ideally need to find the same stuff in longer lengths.  About half of the length of both overhangs in the photos above are separate pieces of the same foam material pinned on (pins are visible in the photos).  However if I can't source that I can probably glue two sections together with a nearly invisible seam in the middle, or better, maybe 3/4  of the way back but before the overhang angle cut, which would be well behind the mic diaphragm.