Topic: Fave shock mounts for your SDC mics

[John Willett]

My two nominations for audio products of the decade would be Rycote's InVision shock mounts and Neutrik's "EMC"-series XLR connectors; I fail to see why anyone would choose anything else.

This is exactly what I use. 

[waltmon]

http://www.fullcompass.com/product_image.php?imageid=145510


INV stereo kit  (139.00 with T-bar

[tgakidis]

Cheap and reliable...
http://www.joemeek.com/accessories.html

[voltronic]

Even cheaper ($16 shipped):
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=166001.0

It's 22mm, but I added a few self-adhesive felt buttons to the cradle and it holds my 19mm bar nice and snug.

Never having seen the Meek in person though - what's the size of the cradle?

[DSatz]

Shure rubber donuts are nice as far as they go; for wireless microphones they'd probably be just about perfect.

But for microphones that are used with cables, a shock mount should isolate some length of the cable along with the microphone. And the foot or so of cable where it enters the microphone needs to be fairly slack, so that it doesn't become a conduit for vibrations. It also should not restrict the freedom of the microphone to move within the range that the flexibility of the shock mount allows.

There seems to be a lack of awareness about this among live sound engineers, unfortunately. It's common to see a microphone sitting in a shock mount, where the cable comes out of the microphone without a slack loop being "pinched off" at any point--and the cable is then wrapped around the boom arm. This defeats much of the purpose of the shock mount, unless you think of it mainly as a fancy decoration.

--best regards

[cashandkerouac]

where can i get one of these?

[tgakidis]

Never having seen the Meek in person though - what's the size of the cradle?

Not sure but they fit 21mm akg 480's perfectly.

[F.O.Bean]

A lil bigger than normal, but IMO the AT 8415's with the K-Tek K-SUS Heavy Duty rubber mounts have the best shockmounting. Period! The newer Rycotes are damn nice tho! I used the 8415s on a shure vert bar and it folded up really nice

[John Willett]

Shure rubber donuts are nice as far as they go; for wireless microphones they'd probably be just about perfect.

But for microphones that are used with cables, a shock mount should isolate some length of the cable along with the microphone. And the foot or so of cable where it enters the microphone needs to be fairly slack, so that it doesn't become a conduit for vibrations. It also should not restrict the freedom of the microphone to move within the range that the flexibility of the shock mount allows.

There seems to be a lack of awareness about this among live sound engineers, unfortunately. It's common to see a microphone sitting in a shock mount, where the cable comes out of the microphone without a slack loop being "pinched off" at any point--and the cable is then wrapped around the boom arm. This defeats much of the purpose of the shock mount, unless you think of it mainly as a fancy decoration.

--best regards

I absolutely agree.

I use the Rycote S-series XLR tail on all my microphones and tie the far end to the stand via the clip on the InVision mount or tied to the stand.  This decouples the microphone from the cable.

In fact having a thin and flexible XLR tail is more important than the shockmount.

[DigiGal]

Shure rubber donuts are nice as far as they go; for wireless microphones they'd probably be just about perfect.

But for microphones that are used with cables, a shock mount should isolate some length of the cable along with the microphone. And the foot or so of cable where it enters the microphone needs to be fairly slack, so that it doesn't become a conduit for vibrations. It also should not restrict the freedom of the microphone to move within the range that the flexibility of the shock mount allows.

There seems to be a lack of awareness about this among live sound engineers, unfortunately. It's common to see a microphone sitting in a shock mount, where the cable comes out of the microphone without a slack loop being "pinched off" at any point--and the cable is then wrapped around the boom arm. This defeats much of the purpose of the shock mount, unless you think of it mainly as a fancy decoration.

--best regards

I absolutely agree.

I use the Rycote S-series XLR tail on all my microphones and tie the far end to the stand via the clip on the InVision mount or tied to the stand.  This decouples the microphone from the cable.

In fact having a thin and flexible XLR tail is more important than the shockmount.

It should be noted however that adding a tail does add additional connectors which effectively breaks the twist and opens up the shield near the mic with a balanced cable.

[silentmark]

I've used just the STH100 & 120 mount & the overpriced schoeps a20 with kwon bars on the same bouncing floor and frankly never heard a difference, YMMV of course ...

[John Willett]

It should be noted however that adding a tail does add additional connectors which effectively breaks the twist and opens up the shield near the mic with a balanced cable.

Not necessarily.

I use Neutrik EMC XLRs and these do not open up the shield and keep a good RF shield throughout.

[DigiGal]

It should be noted however that adding a tail does add additional connectors which effectively breaks the twist and opens up the shield near the mic with a balanced cable.

Not necessarily.

I use Neutrik EMC XLRs and these do not open up the shield and keep a good RF shield throughout.

I also use neutrik EMC connectors, most people don't though. I actually edited my post to add opening up the shield since most people don't use these connectors.

Regardless the cable twist is lost in the added connector even if you twist the signal conductors internally. It is not necessarily wise to add connectors near the mic, it is after all a mic level signal. 

[John Willett]

It should be noted however that adding a tail does add additional connectors which effectively breaks the twist and opens up the shield near the mic with a balanced cable.

Not necessarily.

I use Neutrik EMC XLRs and these do not open up the shield and keep a good RF shield throughout.

I also use neutrik EMC connectors, most people don't though. I actually edited my post to add opening up the shield since most people don't use these connectors.

Regardless the cable twist is lost in the added connector even if you twist the signal conductors internally. It is not necessarily wise to add connectors near the mic, it is after all a mic level signal.

Personally, I think it preferable to add the connectors and properly decouple the cable from the mic., rather than having a cable direct to the mic. that transmits handling noise to the mic.

I have never had a problem with daisy-chaining mic. cables if I needed a longer length - but I do use good cable and god connectors.

[vwmule]

Just ordered a Rycote INV-6, based on this thread. So it'll hold a delrin active bar? I see a reference to the INV-7. Did I order correctly?