Topic: Microphones and weather extremes?

[Roving Sign]

Which is worse...hot or cold?

I've let my mics get pretty hot in the sun before(black bodies)...they seemed to work fine...althgough I thought maybe the output went down a bit while they were hot(maybe)...once cooled they seemed fine/normal...

How about the cold? I know sometimes in the post show craziness stuff can get left in the car...etc...is this bad?

One concern about the cold is condensation...perhaps best to warm cold mics up slowly...??

[ho]

not an answer to your question, but,..
I've had a problem once with a pair of B&K's not liking the blazing sun. The output of a pair of matched mics started to run out of balance, until it cooled down again.

I took my mics down at show because I forgot my umbrella and it was 100+ degrees out. They burning hot in 15 minutes. No damage, but I wasn't going to take any chances.

Cold, I live in south so it doesn't really ever get to that point.

[rowjimmytour]

I was just recording a show up in Yosemite in late October and the second night it got pretty cold outside but they did have a tent overhead. I don't believe it effected the sound or did any damage to the mics but it is always better to be safe then sorry.
Peace

[bconnolly]

I've always wondered about how bar smoke affects mics more than heat or cold so I'll just use this thread for a quasi-threadjack.  Does bar smoke affect mics in the long-run? Will it render mics unusuable after a few years?

[Bdifr78]

In July at the All Good Festival there was basically a monsoon for about 3 hours.  After that it was extremly humid.  One of my C4s card caps suddenly became far less sensitive than the other, I'm talking like a ten decibel difference out of the blue.  And there were sets that I set them up at the beggining of the set and they seemed fine but halfway through the set that one mic would get all fucked up again and I lost a few good recordings that way.

[OFOTD]

I ran my 480's in Oklahoma City for Panic in late October.  Tempature was in the mid to high 30's.   When we were leaving after the show the temp in my car said 34 degrees. 

The mic bodies were cold as hell for sure but I think they were my best tapes of the year.

Now at Austin CIty Limits Festival this year we had tempatures up to 108.  In between sets we would lower our stands and throw shirts or bandanas over the mics to get them out of direct sunlight.  Didn't notice a drop off in signal.

[Evil Taper]

those crazy guys who made March Of THe Penguins were using booms in the -70 temp range...I wonder what the hell kind of stuff they used.  They were recording to 1/2" reel too....or that's what you see them playing back with during one scene....which seems insane to me.

[terrapinj]

In July at the All Good Festival there was basically a monsoon for about 3 hours.  After that it was extremly humid.  One of my C4s card caps suddenly became far less sensitive than the other, I'm talking like a ten decibel difference out of the blue.  And there were sets that I set them up at the beggining of the set and they seemed fine but halfway through the set that one mic would get all fucked up again and I lost a few good recordings that way.

the C4s are extremely sensitive to humidity, the problems that people (including myslef) have posted about them are a result of one cap being overly sensitive to the humidity, often adding what sounds like wind noise/rumbling, thus the recommendation to bake them in the oven that PMI Audio suggests

[bagtagsell]

thus the recommendation to bake them in the oven that PMI Audio suggests

crazy

[it-goes-to-eleven]

FWIW, a local taper buddy recently had some wind/noise rumbling in his earthworks mics. I told him about the C4's and he called earthworks. They confirmed that similar symptoms could be expected.

So definitely watch out for condensation and humidity. Even if the cap/body feel warm, the inside may still be cold.. If they get cold, I'd keep them bagged until they warm up.

[Kyle]

I taped Phil at the Greek in 2001 and the sun was blazing during the day - super hot. The Schoeps have a Nextel grey finish and after several hours in the sun they did not even feel warm - the finish must be somewhat relfelctive or heat resistant or something...

[Bdifr78]

In July at the All Good Festival there was basically a monsoon for about 3 hours.  After that it was extremly humid.  One of my C4s card caps suddenly became far less sensitive than the other, I'm talking like a ten decibel difference out of the blue.  And there were sets that I set them up at the beggining of the set and they seemed fine but halfway through the set that one mic would get all fucked up again and I lost a few good recordings that way.

the C4s are extremely sensitive to humidity, the problems that people (including myslef) have posted about them are a result of one cap being overly sensitive to the humidity, often adding what sounds like wind noise/rumbling, thus the recommendation to bake them in the oven that PMI Audio suggests

Well, I had never read about this.  That is the problem I have had exactly.  Do you know anyone who actually put them in the oven. 

[terrapinj]

In July at the All Good Festival there was basically a monsoon for about 3 hours.  After that it was extremly humid.  One of my C4s card caps suddenly became far less sensitive than the other, I'm talking like a ten decibel difference out of the blue.  And there were sets that I set them up at the beggining of the set and they seemed fine but halfway through the set that one mic would get all fucked up again and I lost a few good recordings that way.

the C4s are extremely sensitive to humidity, the problems that people (including myslef) have posted about them are a result of one cap being overly sensitive to the humidity, often adding what sounds like wind noise/rumbling, thus the recommendation to bake them in the oven that PMI Audio suggests

Well, I had never read about this.  That is the problem I have had exactly.  Do you know anyone who actually put them in the oven. 

Alan said that he has had similar issues and putting them in the oven at a very low (135 deg or so) temp for about 5 minutes will take care of it. If it doesn't he said there is a bigger problem with the cap. i tried out with the contingency that if it didn't work they'd send me a new cap. supposedly you can breathe into the cap to create some humidity to test if the problem is resolved. i baked mine for about 5-6 minutes around 140deg and after they cooled I breathed into the caps lightly and immediately the one cap began adding crazy noise. he is sending me a replacement. so whether or not it truly works I don't know because he said that mine was a special case and he would need to disect the cap to figure out the problem.

[cleantone]

I've always wondered about how bar smoke affects mics more than heat or cold so I'll just use this thread for a quasi-threadjack.  Does bar smoke affect mics in the long-run? Will it render mics unusuable after a few years?

I am very scared of extreme tempatures with my gear. I don't have much for answers though. As far as smoke, I always used windscreens before they banned smoking in my area. There is definitly an effect of smoke gumming up diaphrams. LDC's  from studio's where there would be alot of smoke need professional cleaning now and then. In some ways we are nuts for lugging these high(ish) end studio mics to concerts. A guy who has worked for Neumann for years repairing mics told me this summer that just moving a U87 too quickly indoors can fuck up the plates, or somesuch thing. He said SDC's are less suseptable but LDC's are more sensitive than you might think to things like that. Scared the shit out of me. I immediatly assumed my U87 probably had damage that I don't even know about and you would need lab equiptment to find. I knew ribbon mics could be damages by movement but not LDC's. Bugged me out.

[kidtexas]

those crazy guys who made March Of THe Penguins were using booms in the -70 temp range...I wonder what the hell kind of stuff they used.  They were recording to 1/2" reel too....or that's what you see them playing back with during one scene....which seems insane to me.

Sennheiser MKH's?  The nature recording guys seem to regard them as extremely weather proof, especially with regards to humidity.