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Windshields for a mid-side pair? Comparing the Cinela Zephyx and Pianissimo with the Rycote Cyclone

November 25, 2024
The Cinela Zephyx (left) and Pianissimo (right) enjoying a sea breeze.

Introduction

One of the beauties of mid-side recording is its suitability for stereo recording outdoors, with the pair of mics fitting into a single windshield. This, and the fact that the fig 8 side mic can be omitted and just the mid mic used, has meant it has become a common tool for production sound recordists who occasionally need a stereo capability. But mid-side rigs are often a good solution for others recording outdoors too: those recording effects, sound libraries, ambiences, nature and, even, music. Over the years I have used a variety of windshields for mid-side recording, including the humble Rode mk 1 blimp (very flexible in terms of different mic combinations), the Rycote Nano Shield (a bit of a squeeze to get two mics inside), and, for LDC mics, my massive DIY blimp. My default windshield for mid-side recording of late, however, has been the Rycote Cyclone: more particularly the Stereo Cyclone Kit 5, which is configured for an MS pair of 19/20mm mics. And there are new compact options on the horizon: Radius Windshields is nearing production of its mini-ALTO and then ALTO windshields, which will have dedicated MS clips as options, and in Sept 2023 Cinela showed its prototype Cosi windshield for the MKH 8030 MS pair, although its production remains uncertain.

For this post I am focusing on three of the most popular options, and ones that are of a sufficient size to promise reasonable performance outdoors in more than a gentle breeze: that is Cinela’s Zephyx and Pianissimo, and Rycote’s Cyclone. I often read on field recording and similar forums how some recordists, not always beginners, consider just how good a small windshield to be, but, while there is a place for compact protection when wind is light, there is no getting away from the physics. If you need a solid introduction to that, I suggest starting with Bleazey, J.C., ‘Experimental Determination of the Effectiveness of Microphone Wind Screens’, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (Jan 1961, vol. 9, no. 1), 48-54. Indeed, it is worth remembering that the windshields considered here are themselves compromised on the size front so as to be able to be used on a boom-pole or easily deployed in the field. And if you don’t believe me and the engineers, then keep on reading since, by way of an example, further down the post I do include a test of the Pianissimo vs the diminutive Rycote Nano Shield NS1-BA: not least because I have posted previously on my blog showing how you can squeeze an MS pair into the latter, and it is important to understand the limitations of such small rigs.

A few of the windshields that I have used for mid-side (MS) recording: some designed for it, and some adapted. The photo gives a useful sense of the comparative sizes of the three purpose-designed MS windshields considered here: the Cinela Zephyx, the Cinela Pianissimo and the Rycote Stereo Cyclone (which uses a Cyclone small basket).

The Cinela models tested are recently released variations set up for the Sennheiser MKH 8030 + MKH 8000 mics, and have dedicated MZL connections. As I began these tests, Rycote put into production two new MS Cyclones dedicated to the same mics (one with MZL connectors – the Stereo MS Cyclone Kit 17 – and one with XLRs – the Stereo MS Cyclone Kit 18), but I am using the older Cyclone Kit 5: it uses the same small Cyclone basket and I have set it up similarly as the new models in terms of lyre positions. With the tests relating to mid-side recording, the three windshields see a focus on aspects that might not be as relevant to, say, a shotgun mic: erratic off-axis response is typically a feature of such highly directional mics, whereas the sideways looking fig 8 mic of a mid-side pair demands much more transparency from the sides of a windshield and, therefore, this is examined closely here. That said, hopefully many aspects of the tests should be relevant to those thinking of using the Zephyx, Pianissimo and Cyclone for other mic configurations.

Design and construction

Before getting stuck into testing the three windshields, it is perhaps worth writing a few words on their design and build, not least as there isn’t a lot out there on the Cinelas in particular. Obviously, there is little purpose in repeating what is on the manufacturers’ websites, so do go and look at those: rather, I will cover the main points that have interested me from having the windshields in my hands.

Zephyx: The basket’s overall dimensions are a maximum of 175mm W; 257mm L; and 179mm H. The shape is better appreciated in the photos, and we should be grateful to Cinela for leading the way with the non-cylindrical approach. Weightwise, this version is 405g with the fabric cover only and 588g with the fur added. The grey injection-moulded vertical (longitudinal?) and horizontal ribs interlock and are glued, and there are additional small straight struts top and bottom. The basket comprises two parts, with the smaller rear part attached with lugs/clips (and this is easy to attach and remove). Removal of the rear part allows access to the interior, but this access is principally to allow the user to loosen the screw that holds the shock-mount in place: fitting and removing the mics (at least with this MS version) is not really possible unless the shock-mount is removed from the front basket part too. Even after several weeks of use, I didn’t grow to like the screw fitting of the shock-mount to the basket: it is fiddly. The mic shock-mount attaches to the four-armed suspension, which connects to the front (or main) part of the basket: the independent basket suspension was a revolutionary approach when first introduced with Zephyx in 2007. When whole, the basket has plastic rings top and bottom: the top one provides a fixing point for the vertical, or longitudinal, ribs, while the bottom one also houses the round plastic bellows that provide a flexible air seal between the basket and the shock-mount (allowing some independent movement). The ribs have T-shaped sections, 5mm wide and 8mm deep, so are quite chunky (more so than those of the Pianissimo). Although the ribs are doubled where the two parts of the basket join, this is to the rear of the mic capsules and, thus, this suggests that they are not too large an acoustic issue for MS mics: of course, in a basket designed from the outset for MS, this is perhaps to be expected. The version of the Zephyx for the MKH 8030 + MKH 8000 MS has a double-mic clip, top and bottom loaded, with elasticated ties to hold the mics in. Such ties were new to me, but, as long as access is good (i.e. out of the basket), they are easy enough to use and I like the fact that they are gentle on the mic bodies. The two elliptical E-OSIX (hardness grade 00) shock-mount isolators are canted in at the sides, supporting the mic pair at the middle of the MS clip. This is a quite different configuration than for earlier MS options for the Zephyx, and looks to be an improvement. In short, I am impressed by the design of the MS shock-mount from the bar that holds the suspension hoops upwards: I am a little less enamoured with the design and materials of the section below, with the screw fixing to the basket, the conn box (a little homely, but usefully smaller than the Rycote ones), the bellows, the XLR holder and the 3/8″ mount. Not to say that I had any problems with these lower parts, other than the fiddly screw, and that they aren’t all robust enough and effective: just not entirely what I expected on a relatively expensive windshield.

The Zephyx shock-mount removed from the basket.
The Zephyx with the basket attached: the rear cap has its small piece of fabric covering attached at all times.
Underside of the Zephyx showing the thin rubbery bellows, the pivot, XLR holder and 3/8″ mount.

Pianissimo: The basket’s overall maximum dimensions are 165mm W; 324mm L; and 140mm H. Weightwise, this version is 370g with the fabric cover only and 560g with the fur added, so a little lighter than the Zephyx. The grey injection moulding has the look of the sprues or, more correctly, runners, used for the Airfix kits I made as a nipper. It comprises two halves, top and bottom, which separate to allow access to the interior: unlike the Zephyx, you cannot remove the basket from the shock-mount, but that didn’t concern me, and I found it much easier and quicker to access the mics than in its older sibling. The fabric cover for the lower half stays on permanently, while the cover for the top half has to be put on after the two basket halves are joined (it is elasticated and overlaps the lower half of the basket). Although the four-armed suspension connects to the bottom half only, the top half has the same fixing points, which is surprising as the two half-basket mouldings are not entirely identical: the upper one lacks the integral thick ring at the bottom that allows connection to a boom pole or stand. No great significance, but, again, something I wouldn’t expect in a relatively expensive windshield. There are different gauges of plastic in the basket: 3.1-3.4mm diameter round minor ribs and approximate circles; 3.5mm wide x 6.7mm high T-shaped longitudinal ribs top and bottom; and three sets of T-shaped main cross-ribs c.8.0mm wide and 6.7mm high. The last expand into wide round feet, 15mm diameter, which form the push-fit connectors between the two halves of the basket: when joined together, these feet form six cylindrical posts 75mm high. Although the Pianissimo basket has smaller spaces between the basket components than the Zephyx, the lighter structure and placement of the larger elements means that, on visual grounds at least, the design looks to be more transparent. The main concerns from a mid-side recording perspective are the front and middle rings, with their thicker posts at the joins: the front one is positioned off-axis to a forward-facing mic, and the middle one, which is set behind the mic position a little, is positioned off-axis to the side mic. The version of the Pianissimo for the MKH 8030 + MKH 8000 MS has the same back-to-back clip for the mics and suspension as the Zephyx, which is excellent.

Pianissimo with top half of basket fitted.
Pianissimo with top half of basket removed, showing mic shock-mount and the four-armed basket suspension.
The Cinela windshield connections to boom poles and stands might be made out of a slightly unusual looking plastic, but I must say I do like the pivot/clutch on the Pianissimo: small, but really effective.

Cyclone: The basket’s overall dimensions are 160mm maximum diameter; and 285mm L. Weightwise, this version is 620g with the integrated fabric cover only and 744g with the fur added: so significantly heavier than the Cinela models, with the difference being greatest without the furs (the Rycote fur being lighter). While also being made of grey injection-moulded plastic, there are substantial differences from the Cinelas: the 3D-Tex material is integrated with the basket; the basket is quick to assemble and disassemble (leaving the shock-mount easily accessible) due to its form and connection (held together with magnets and four small levers); and the basket structure is made of smaller cells and ribs of smaller dimensions (3.5mm wide). The smaller cross-section of the ribs of the basket is countered, however, by more substantial mouldings at the top and the bottom (for connection to the shock-mount) and to allow the two halves of the basket to clip together easily, with magnets to aid the fit. As a result of the division of the basket into two parts, the junction of the front semi-dome with the tapering body to the rear is marked with a 19.5mm-wide plastic ring. I can’t pretend other than that this ring has made me wonder about the Cyclone’s suitability for MS as it is positioned on-axis to where naturally you would have the sideways-looking fig 8 mic: with that in mind, I have been using the Cyclone Stereo Kit 5 with the mics forward of this plastic ring, and I notice that is exactly how Rycote have set up their new MKH 8000-specific MS versions (the Stereo MS Cyclone Kits 17 and 18). Obviously the ring remains within the lobes of the fig 8 and the mics are now pushed rather further into the front cap than is ideal (I remember the advice of the designer of the original Cyclone, Chris Woolf, that this was to be avoided…). The basket suspension for the Cyclone is a lot more substantial than that for the Cinelas, which again adds unwanted bulk (and weight), albeit in arguably less sensitive locations than the basket ring: both the top and bottom parts house multiple lyre-like suspension elements to provide a flexible connection to the basket, and are joined by the removable C-arm. The latter itself provides an extra component within the basket, but it is set well behind the capsules of the MS pair so is unlikely to cause significant acoustic issues (DMS may be another matter: one for a later test). More positively, the Cyclone offers a lot more immediate flexibility than its Cinela counterparts: you can move the lyres, reverse them and, indeed, even replace them with Radius hoops should you wish, while the Cinelas very much come specific to the MKH 8030 MS pair, although additional suspensions for different mic set ups can be bought (at a significant cost).

The Cyclone with one half-basket removed.
The Cyclone shock-mount and basket suspension with the basket fully removed. If you want one with MZL connectors for MKH 8000 mics you will need the Stereo MS Cyclone Kit 17.

Overall, then, there is no doubt that the Rycote Cyclone is more flexible, makes use of more consistent materials, and seems better built and better engineered. But, and this is a big but, this engineering gives it some large and chunky components in the thick mouldings in parts of the basket (from an MS perspective, most concerningly the wide ring at the rear of the front cap) and the top, bottom and C-arm of the shock-mount/suspension.

Operation

The two Cinelas operate quite differently. As we have seen, while the Zephyx allows the shock-mount to be used without the windshield, the Pianissimo does not. The Zephyx, then, is like the Cyclone (where the basket and, if required, the C-arm can be removed), although the process of removing and adding the Zephyx’s basket is much more fiddly. For some, this ability to remove the basket may well be crucial: for example, if transitioning from outside to inside booming. That said, such a transition with a mid-side pair may be less common than with a single more directional mic. Certainly, having long used a Cyclone I have rarely found myself using it sans basket as a shock-mount: rather, I have found the ability to remove the basket primarily of use in installing and removing the mics, unimpeded. The ease with which the Cyclone basket can be removed and replaced is very different than with the Zephyx, which is rather more fiddly – it requires removal of the back part of the basket and unscrewing the knob below the mic suspension, with replacement being fiddlier still, getting the bellows in place and getting the screw into the hole. Far from ideal in the field, let alone in low light. So from a practical point of view, the apparent limitation of the Pianissimo of not being able to use sans basket is far from that: while still short of the slickness of a Cyclone, removal of the top half of the basket to get access to the mics is much easier than with the Zephyx.

Obviously the integration of the fabric cover of the Cyclone with the basket means that there is no additional process involved on that front, while both Cinelas need their fabric layer adding after the baskets are assembled. This is a little fiddly, but not as difficult as putting on their fur covers: both furs are unlined, quite stiff and with a coarse internal surface, so are much harder to fit than the lined Rycote fur. Indeed, all the Cinela preparation operations are much easier to do with the windshield in your lap than, say, on a stand at head level (if, for example, doing field recording): I have found myself pulling on a Zephyx fur with both hands providing counter-resistance to the considerable tugging by use of my forehead against the rear of the windshield. Fortunately, nobody has witnessed my clumsiness, and doubtless those using the windshields day-in day-out have mastered the techniques.

When it comes to mounting the windshields, there are differences again . The two Cinelas have XLRs close to the attachment point, evidently geared to boom-pole use, but with no flexibility in positioning, while the Cyclone allows rotation of the whole pivot clamp (indeed, swapping between a 3/8″ and quick-release versions) and the XLR, which is very useful for field recording set ups. Small details that may not matter to some. And this isn’t to argue that for my usage the external details of the Cyclone are entirely preferable: for instance, I have found the small pivot clutch of the Pianissimo easily the best of the three windshields, gripping well without recourse to an over-sized lever like the Cyclone.

Finally, there is the operational aspect of cueing. The Zephyx is harder to point in the right direction than the other two windshields, largely due to its more spherical shape, but also due to how the mics sit inside the basket.

So, operationally, although some have eulogized the Cinelas on all fronts, there is no doubt in my mind over a period of using the three interchangeably over six weeks, that the Cyclone is much easier to set up, add/remove the basket, and dress/undress with its fur. It is followed at a distance by the Pianissimo, and with the Zephyx very much in third place. Once ready to use, the Cyclone and Pianissimo are much easier to aim, with the Pianissimo slightly winning on this front and certainly so in terms of weight when on a long boom pole; the Zephyx is less easy to aim, which doesn’t only matter for production sound, but also for field recording – not problematically so for the latter use, just needs a little more care.

So the question you might be asking – and I certainly was having first set up the Cinelas – is the much-heralded performance of the Zephyx and Pianissimo evident and enough to outweigh any downsides? Well, high time for some testing then!

Handling noise

All three windshields have sought to tackle vibration by having baskets that have separate suspensions from the microphone shock-mounts. As we have seen, Cinela was the first to introduce this with the Zephyx in 2007, and it was then adopted in the Pianissimo (introduced in 2014, after the similarly styled, but longer, Piano model of 2012). Rycote introduced its version of independent basket suspension with the Cyclone in 2014. To compare the windshields I mounted two at a time on a stereo bar at the end of a boom pole and carried out both a static test (i.e. holding the extended boom steady so all that was transmitted was my muscles straining – not insignificant given the weight of two such windshields and my lack of muscle!) and a deliberately shaking/vibrating test. Given the similarity of the two Cinela mic and basket suspensions I found the difference in handling noise to be negligible, but they are both observably different from the Cyclone. Testing the static hold first, here are the sound file clips:

While rendering the clips I noticed that the LUFS for the Cyclone recording was slightly lower (1dB), but listening to the files it is clear that the additional energy in the Pianissimo recording is at a lower frequency and, consequently, to human ears it sounds much more effective. You can see this different frequency in the spectrum analyzer visualizations, with the vibrations falling away very quickly from around 50Hz in the Pianissimo compared to the Cyclone:

Static suspension tests of the Stereo Cyclone (top) and Pianissimo (bottom).

Moving on to the tests with the pair of windshields on the end of the boom-pole being deliberately shaken, here are the sound files:

Again, the Cyclone produces slightly less noise in the test (this time by 2dB when considering LUFs and with a peak 3.8dB lower), yet the frequency spectrum of the noise makes it more audible, as the spectrum analyzer visualizations confirm:

Shaking suspension tests of the Stereo Cyclone (top) and Pianissimo (bottom).

While the differences in the suspensions between the two Cinelas and the Cyclone are measurable and audible, it is hard to tell whether this will be relevant to any user: it will come down to a matter of how much movement is likely, be that fast boom swings (which seem unlikely with an MS pair), handling noise or, if stand mounted, transmitted structure-borne noise from the ground or the stand (the latter itself perhaps produced by wind buffeting), and the degree to which use of an HPF (and at what frequency) is acceptable. In practice, I have not found the Cyclone any less usable on shock-mount/suspension grounds than the Cinelas, but it is something to bear in mind: there is a difference and it may well matter to some users. Certainly it is likely to matter to production sound recordists using versions of the baskets (very probably not the MS variations considered here) on boom-poles.

One interesting aside on suspensions and handling noise is the question of reduction in the mass of the MKH 8000 mics by use of the MZL connectors. MZLs are great when you want to reduce the visual impact of the already small mics (say while recording a live or filmed performance) or where reduction of the bulk of the mic helps acoustically (most obviously in double mid-side – or DMS – recording), but it isn’t entirely clear to me why it is so advantageous for an MS pair in a large windshield, where the additional mass of the MZX 8000 XLR modules and then the XLR plugs themselves may well help lower the resonant frequency of the spring system of the shock-mount (something that Chris Woolf discusses in his eminently readable article ‘Keeping Microphones Quiet’in LineUp 120 for summer 2009, which is freely available via the IPS website). Indeed, when including the pair of MZF 8000 ii filters when he sent the Cinelas, Philippe Chenevez made the point that this was because ‘the suspension is optimised for those, whatever [sic] you switch the filter on or off’: in other words, the additional mass seems to be helpful (although, of course, in addition to its switchable 70Hz HPF, the MZF 8000 ii has a fixed low-cut filter at 16 Hz). More prosaically, the additional length from the MZF filters helps with fitting the mics, but then so would the MZX 8000 XLR modules and, of course, if XLR connectors were used then other similarly-sized mics could be used interchangeably. That’s certainly the case with the Cyclone model used for these tests, which I use equally happily with the Rycote range of mics.

Transparency

I really began to think about transparency of windshields when finally getting around to comparing the wind reduction performance of my massive DIY blimp (built for LDC mics many years ago) to that of my smaller windshields: I had never tested the DIY blimp with SDCs before. As expected the reduction in wind noise was considerable, which is the inevitable consequence of its large size, but I was surprised by how much more transparent it was: I could hear much more in the way of leaves rustling and birds tweeting. What was unclear was how much this was to do with differences in size, coverings, basket design/construction, and shock-mount and other internal differences. Of course, some attenuation of higher frequencies is to be expected from a windshield covering, especially fur – that’s the quid pro quo for wind noise reduction – but, evidently, additional colouration should be minimized: this seems especially relevant to mid-side stereo pairs in a windshield. So a considerable amount of my time testing these windshields was focused on transparency, comparing, where possible, the impact of the bare shock-mount, then the bare basket, the basket with any fabric added (or permanently fixed to the basket), and the impact of adding fur. The tests were carried out using an MKH 8040 cardioid and MKH 8030 fig 8 pair rather than a calibrated test mic: this was due to the shock-mounts (and for the Cinela windshields, the connectors) being designed for such mics, and because I wanted to test the windshields with the actual mics that would be used and in the exact positions in which they would be placed.

In the absence of an anechoic chamber, I started off by making quasi-anechoic measurements, in which room reflections are removed by adding a gate, or time-window, which in this case was 5ms. This meant that lower frequencies were not measured, but this wasn’t a significant concern as my preliminary rough tests showed that colouration only became significant – and significantly different – at higher frequencies. To allow repeatability as I swapped windshields, added baskets to shock-mounts etc. I took a leaf from the Dambusters: instead of using convergence of angled lights to show an exact distance (in that case 60ft above the reservoirs) I applied Benjamin Lockspeiser’s inspired idea to angle two laser levels to coincide on the centre of the mic capsules, allowing me to set and reset distance and height to millimetre accuracy. By angling the two laser levels on axis to the loudspeaker and at 30 degrees, alignment of the mic bodies was also made easy: to reduce the number of measurements to something manageable I had decided to measure head-on (0 degrees) and at 30 degrees with the forward-facing MKH 8040, and at 60 degrees and 90 degrees with the sideward-facing fig 8 mic. Not the full 360 degrees of a polar plot, but, of course, with a full frequency sweep from 200Hz to 20kHz. Simplifying things by reducing the number of angles was just as well as it still took me 11 hours to work through the measurements, each time leaving the test room to control things (via REW software) from my PC: maintaining stability of the windshields while progressively adding baskets, fabric and fur took immense patience and, in some cases, multiple attempts. I am only too aware that much better and more comprehensive measurements could be achieved with an anechoic chamber, better equipment and more expertise, but this is at least an attempt to carry out measurements and I am happy enough with the broad gist of the results.

Lining up the mics for quasi-anechoic tests with a pair of converging lasers (not easy to see the red one, I know): a touch of the Dambusters!

I began the series of measurements looking at the impact of shock-mounts alone. This was measurable with the Cyclone and Zephyx, as only they can be removed from the basket. There was a modest, albeit quite noticeable, impact at 0 degrees vs the bare mics in a back-to-back clip mounted in the simple mic clip provided by Sennheiser, becoming more significant at 30, 60 and 90 degrees with the Cyclone, probably due to the large plastic C-arm (left in place for this test) that links to the top of the basket. Moving on to the impact of bare baskets, this was measurable with the Zephyx and Pianissimo only, as the Cyclone 3D-Tex fabric is bonded to its basket. This showed reasonably increased colouration over shock-mounts only, most noticeable at 30 and 60 degrees with the Zephyx, which makes sense when you consider the more substantial impact of the basket ribs (which are much larger in cross-section than those of the Pianissimo) at such angles. As a comparison, I measured the impact of my massive DIY blimp basket, which was negligible in comparison, as would be anticipated given its open structure and the thin structural components (3mm diameter stainless-steel wire). However, windshields need a covering to be useful, so, though the shock-mount and basket components will have an acoustic effect, sometimes considerably so, it makes sense to look in more detail at the measurements with coverings on.

Rycote Cyclone Kit 5: sound pressure level (SPL) 1kHz-20kHz with MKH 8040 and sound source at 0 degrees (i.e. straight on axis). The black line is the reference of the bare mic (albeit in an MS pair, with back-to-back clips, a simple mic clip and on a stand). The green line shows the basket (which has integrated fabric) and the red line shows the windshield with fur added. All these graphs have 1/48 smoothing.
Cinela Zephyx Z-8030-8040 with MKH 8040 and sound source at 0 degrees. The black line is the bare mic reference, the green line represents the basket and fabric, and the red line shows the windshield with fur added.
Cinela Pianissimo PIANI-2-8030-8040 with MKH 8040 and sound source at 0 degrees. The black line is the bare mic reference, the green line represents the basket and fabric, and the red line shows the windshield with fur added.

With a straight-on signal to the front of the windshields the performance of the three baskets with the addition of the various fabrics supplied shows a fairly modest colouration of the sound, broadly consistent across the different models, with very little attenuation. The addition of the fur shows, as expected, a significant attenuation in high frequencies, beginning as low as 1kHz. The Cyclone and Zephyx are close in this test, with the Pianissimo performing less well, especially from around 12kHz where the attenuation increases significantly. I found almost identical results when repeating the test, but swapping the long-pile fur for the short-pile fur also supplied. Thinking more generally about the attenuation from fur, below is a graph showing the same test but with my massive DIY blimp, in which lined fur (both lining and fur supplied by Rycote many years ago) sit directly on a more open basket, which itself has no fabric covering. In this case, the impact of the fur is much reduced, and there is very little attenuation of high frequencies: food for thought.

DIY windshield for LDC mics with MKH 8040 and sound source at 0 degrees. The red line shows the windshield with fur added, and the minimal attenuation of high frequencies that is in contrast to the smaller windshields above, with more complex basket constructions and tight fabric coverings of the baskets.

Anyway, back to the three windshields we are primarily concerned with here! Turning to their transparency at 90 degrees is particularly relevant to their MS use, as this is, of course, on axis to the fig 8 side mic.

Rycote Cyclone Kit 5 with MKH 8030 and sound source at 90 degrees (i.e. straight on axis to the fig 8 mic). The black line is the bare mic reference, the green line represents the basket and fabric, and the red line shows the windshield with fur added.
Cinela Zephyx Z-8030-8040 with MKH 8030 and sound source at 90 degrees (i.e. straight on axis to the fig 8 mic). The black line is the bare mic reference, the green line represents the basket and fabric, and the red line shows the windshield with fur added.
Cinela Pianissimo PIANI-2-8030-8040 with MKH 8030 and sound source at 90 degrees (i.e. straight on axis to the fig 8 mic). The black line is the bare mic reference, the green line represents the basket and fabric, and the red line shows the windshield with fur added.

Not unexpectedly, when the sound is measured from the side of the windshield, the Cyclone is showing significant colouration from around 7kHz, with a series of peaks and troughs from around 9kHz: that these are seen in the basket + fabric measurements as well as with the fur on confirms that they relate to the basket design, with the obvious culprit being the large plastic ring around the windshield that joins the cap to the tapered body. I understand from Rycote that the suggested set up for the new MS Cyclones for the MKH 8000 mics, whereby the mics are pushed forward into the end-cap, is a consequence of measurements of the impact of this plastic ring in the anechoic chamber: my crude measurements previously with pink noise suggested the same, and, as I mentioned previously, I have followed Rycote’s proposed more forward positioning. The Zephyx sees some similar, but much reduced, behaviour to the Cyclone from around 9kHz too, affecting basket + fabric and fur, while the Pianissimo sees little attenuation with the basket + fabric at any frequency and, in a sharp reversal of its performance at 0 degrees, some fairly modest attenuation when the fur is added.

With no published data for windshields (if only we could have detailed polar plots and frequency response graphs with, say, a measurement omni mic for each windshield basket design), I found making my measurements (necessarily many more than included here) an instructive if painfully long process. It confirmed my suspicion that none of the windshields was free of colouration, suggested that the Cyclone held its own with forward-facing mics, but that the Cinelas had better all-round transparency, and, above all, that they did not suffer from anything equivalent to the impact of the Cyclone’s wide plastic ring on the fig 8 mic. Again, as with the difference in handling noise, whether or not the different transparency matters is another thing: given these tests and what I have noticed with a more informed ear as I listed to my MS field recordings, I would be less inclined to use a Cyclone with an MS rig for the most demanding situations (say outdoor acoustic music recordings), but for many a field or sound effects recording, I suspect that the colouration would be too subtle to notice. Anyway, after all this measuring, with relief, I packed away the laser levels, restored furniture to the test room, turned off the PC, and headed outside…

Wind reduction

While much of this post has been about the compromises that windshields bring – the fiddliness and faff, the inevitable effect on the sound recorded – the bottom line is, of course, the ability to reduce the impact of wind noise on the microphones, whilst keeping these downsides to an acceptable minimum. After weeks of a strange anticyclonic gloom in October and November, at last the weather changed so I headed up to the coast at Cley to get a bit more wind to compare the difference between the two Cinela models. Pointing them into the northerly onshore wind, I first tested the Cinelas with just their fabric covers on (these being a double layer polyester/polyamide fabric), and here the Zephyx clearly won out by a substantial margin, presumably reflecting its larger size and more spherical shape (the latter better for turbulent wind):

Putting furs on made a huge difference, as expected, but interestingly the difference between the two models is much reduced, although the Zephyx still performed better in terms of wind reduction. And in neither test is there an obvious difference between the two windshield models in the recording of the footsteps walking past on the shingle, which were included to get some sense of the effect of the wind reduction on higher frequencies. Admittedly, this isn’t as nuanced as recording an acoustic instrument or vocal, but in the real world these are unlikely to be recorded on an exposed windy shingle beach.

With the strong sound of the wind and the sea beyond, and the fact that the incoming spray wasn’t doing my specs or the equipment any favours, I thought perhaps something more subtle might be equally, or more revealing, so beat a retreat to the garden. There, in addition to wind, there was the noise of leaves moving, the singing of the odd bird that forgot to migrate somewhere nicer for winter, and other village street noises. Again I kicked off with the Zephyx with just its fabric cover, but this time compared it to the Cyclone also without its fur:

The difference between the two windshields is very obvious, with the Cyclone picking up so much more wind noise. Of course, the construction is quite different – the Zephyx having its fabric ‘Z-cover’ stretched over the basket, while the Cyclone has its 3D-Tex material built-in to the basket, with plastic elements of the latter remaining exposed.

Adding furs reduced the wind noise, of course, but the difference between the two windshields remains very evident.

Now that’s more like wind! OK Storm Bert might imply something more dramatic than was the case – certainly far away from the centre, here in Norfolk – but wind around 20-25 mph with gusts over 40 mph was welcome after weeks of anticyclonic gloom. Here we have the Pianissimo (foreground) and the re-purposed LDC DIY blimp (background).

With Storm Bert hitting the UK, scope for windier tests improved, so I went through a whole sequence of comparisons with the MS pairs, each time comparing the Pianissimo to another windshield. First is a variant of the last clips, albeit with more wind, being the Pianissimo (with its long-pile fur) vs the Cyclone (with its fur, of course):

And here are the spectrum analyzer visualizations of the difference between the two, with the audible component (say above 20Hz) clearly greater with the Cyclone.

Pianissimo (top) vs Cyclone (bottom) performance in wind: fig 8 mic only.

As we saw (or heard) with the Zephyx vs Cyclone comparison above, the difference between the two windshields is substantial again, with the Pianissimo offering much better wind reduction that the Stereo Cyclone.

With the gusty wind, I thought it would be interesting to repeat the Pianissimo vs the Zephyx test, this time without the background white noise of the sea. First up is the Pianissimo:

And here is the recording of the Zephyx:

The differences between the two are perhaps rather more evident than in my tests on the beach, and, clearly, of the two Cinelas the Zephyx does a better job at reducing wind (entirely as expected and as advertised, I should hasten to add!). Again, we can see the differences in the spectrum analyzer visualizations:

Pianissimo (top) vs Zephyx (bottom) performance in wind: fig 8 mic only.
The Kelly rain cover on the Pianissimo. I must confess it took me worryingly long to work out why it had such a name!

A slightly unexpected extra in the package from Cinela was a Kelly rain cover for the Pianissimo. I must confess that it will take more than a cheerfully named rain cover to make me think I am Gene Kelly and feel like singing or, rather, recording in the rain – I am a fair-weather recordist – but for some dealing with rain is unavoidable: a few hardy souls even choose to record in the rain. Comprehensive testing of the Kelly is rather outside the scope of my recording experience, but, with the rain cover in hand, I thought that a wind test might prove useful (it is a choice between the Kelly and the fur: you can’t have both on the windshield at the same time). Now, this comparison is between the Pianissimo with the Kelly and the Zephyx with fur: not quite like-for-like, but the two windshields are similar enough and the differences so dramatic that the test is perhaps worth including here:

Pianissimo with Kelly rain cover (top) vs Zephyx with fur (bottom) performance in wind: fig 8 mic only.

Obviously, the rain cover is not something you would deploy unless absolutely necessary. And, of course, it’s function is for rain not wind although, of course, wind and rain often go together (certainly here in the UK!). As the Cinela website says: ‘Depending on the strength of the wind and the intensity of the rain, you have to make the best choice between adding the fur or the rain cover. Your experience and your ears will guide your choice!’ Indeed.

Rycote Nano Shield NS1-BA adapted with Radius hoops and 3d-printed MS clips and mount to hold a MS pair centrally.

Right, and here for something different in the last of this particular batch of tests is a comparison of the Pianissimo with the Rycote Nano Shield, which I promised at the beginning of the this blog post:

As expected, there is a lot more wind noise in the diminutive Nano Shield NS1-BA when coping with the lively wind, and it runs up into much higher frequencies than you’d want (i.e. hard to remove without a high-pass filter set horribly high for most uses – say 200Hz or higher), as evident in the spectrum analyzer visualizations:

Pianissimo (top) vs Nano Shield (bottom) performance in wind: fig 8 mic only

While using the Cinela windshields over many weeks I got better at putting the furs on and taking them off (and I guess they would get more supple with use), but still I wasn’t keen on the fiddly process, and began to wonder just how different they would be with a lined fur. Radius Windshields make aftermarket furs for other makes of windshield, such as Rycote and Cinelas, so I tried a pair of these (thanks to Simon Davies). As expected, fitting was so much easier with more suppleness and the lining making the furs slide on smoothly, but what about performance? Testing was a bit difficult, what with having one of each model only, but trying different combinations of furs (including, as controls, both windshields with the original furs and both with the Radius alternatives), it became clear that while so much easier to deploy, the Radius furs (which are very much the same as Rycote ones: not surprising given their pedigree) offered no performance gain, and, if anything, the original Cinela furs (or at least the long-pile variants) have a slight edge.

Testing aftermarket lined furs by Radius Windshields on the Pianissimo and Zephyx: much easier to fit and remove, but just slightly less effective. A price worth paying?

Anyway, you can judge for yourself in these test files, for which, for a change, I have uploaded the MKH8030 fig 8 tracks only. First off, here are two ‘control’ recordings, with both the Zephyx and the Pianissimo wearing their Cinela furs:

As per the previous tests, the Zephyx has a slight edge in terms of wind reduction. And here are the recordings with the Pianissimo sporting the Cinela (long-pile) fur and the Zephyx with the Radius fur:

There’s not a huge amount in it, and the differences may well be much reduced (or disappear) if using a high-pass filter (you can download the files and have a play in your DAW to examine the effect of your likely HPF settings), but if trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the windshields, then the Cinela furs appear to have the edge. But if you are continuously taking the Cinela furs on and off, it is perhaps useful to know that there are some competent alternatives that would make life easier.

And as something of a total aside (I’ve accepted that this is going to be a very long post anyway!), if you are unfamiliar with the physics that relates size of windshield to effectiveness, the Radius furs gave me a chance to make a direct comparison with my large DIY blimp. First off is the Pianissimo with the Radius fur:

And here is the DIY blimp with pretty much identical fur (it has fur and lining provided some years ago by Simon Davies, when running Rycote and, not surprisingly, it seems pretty much identical to the Radius furs):

Pianissimo with Radius fur (top) vs DIY mega blimp (bottom) performance in wind: fig 8 mic only.

The differences are significant and, with some background voices of passing walkers, you can also hear the increased transparency of the DIY blimp in the field. Of course, this doesn’t help you if you wish to boom an MS pair or, indeed, travel very light for field of effects recording!

NB In all these wind tests do note that I used no high-pass filtering at all either in the field or in post, so do download the files and play around. My main aim was to show the differences between the three windshields without the masking effect of HPFs being applied. If you are really keen, you can decode back to M and S if, for example, you wanted to hear the difference just on the forward-facing mid mic to compare the windshields for non-MS use.

Pricing

I haven’t mentioned pricing at all so far, other than oblique references to the windshields being expensive. All three are not cheap, which is, perhaps, which is often a bit of a surprise to some: I think this stems from the plastic construction, which lends itself to mass-production, and that the designs of the baskets and main components are not new (so you might hope that the R&D and tooling investment for the injection-mouldings would be offset by now). Anyway, all three cost no more than one of the MS mics inside!

Here in the UK, the Rycote price is easiest to establish: looking at the prices at Pinknoise (and I would use them for any such purchase), the Stereo Cyclone Kit 5 is priced at £758.40 (inc. VAT). The two recently announced versions specifically for the MKH 8030 + MKH 8000 MS are pricier, with the one with MZL connectors – the Stereo MS Cyclone Kit 17 – naturally being more expensive (at £888 inc. VAT) than the one with XLRs – the Stereo MS Cyclone Kit 18 – at £834 inc. VAT (both prices at Pinknoise again). None of these comes with the small Cyclone fur, which you will almost certainly need: this costs another £138 inc. VAT.

It is harder in the UK to establish the price of the Cinelas, since I can find no stockist of these specific models. I am sure that Pinknoise, Soundkit or similar specialist retailers who sell other Cinela models could order either, but I have found prices for both at Audiosense in Brussels, where the Pianissimo (the Cinela Piani-2-8030-8040) is €1,171 inc. VAT and the Zephyx (the Cinela Z-8030-8040-MS) is €1,411 inc. VAT. At today’s exchange rates, these equate to £977 and £1,177 respectively, which are pretty much as I would expect from the prices of other MS versions of the Pianissimo and the Zephyx that are stocked in the UK. Given that both Cinelas come with furs and travel cases, I can’t really see the price would be a determining factor in making a choice between the three.

Quite different cases for the Pianissimo (left) and the Zephyx (right), with pros and cons (room for furs etc. vs overall size), but good that they – and the furs – are included with the Cinelas.

Conclusions

So where does this leave me or anyone else so minded? Cinela windshields have an excellent reputation amongst professional sound recordists, especially those involved in production sound. Often they are described as the best available and a definite step up from the more prevalent Rycote models, but, in the absence of much comparative testing, it was hard to know what to make of the largely anecdotal evidence. Having had the Pianissimo and Zephyx in my hands for over six weeks, the short answer is that I am impressed, and there is no doubt that they have a significant edge over the Cyclone in terms of pure performance as windshields, not least – as this was the underlying aim of the tests – ones suited to a mid-side pair. That said, I have been a little surprised with some aspects of their construction and the elements of the designs that make them fiddly to use (most especially the means of disassembling and reassembling when changing mics: this is especially the case with the Zephyx), and which are so much better addressed in the Rycote Cyclone.

The design of the windshields has meant there are inevitable compromises in all three cases, some of which they have in common (e.g. overall size). And it is clear that there could be a still better solution within the general design parameters: that is, a windshield as light as the Pianissimo and as effective at reducing wind noise and handling noise as either Cinela, but with a bit more transparency than either of them and, above all, with more of the operational convenience of a Cyclone. But dreaming of non-existent products aside, if I was booming a shotgun mic or a supercardioid mic on a long boom-pole and not continually swapping in and out mics, there is no doubt I would choose the Pianissimo, on grounds of weight, ability to aim and its excellent handling and wind-noise reduction. If you want an MS rig on a long boom-pole, then this is the way to go too. But that isn’t my usage of MS: typically, I am using MS in the field for effects recording with mics on a stand, and frequently swapping out mid mics (changing from omni, to wide-cardioid, to cardioid and supercardioid) and the whole MS pair, and putting the fur on and taking it off again depending on the wind level. And then I am recording music outside, where the lack of complete transparency of any of the options becomes perhaps more evident, but especially with the Cyclone. So I am left scratching my head. Should a sound recordist in similar shoes accept the lesser high-wind reduction of the Cyclone (which, I should clarify, is not at all shabby anyway: it outperforms my other windshields) and the acoustic effect of its large plastic hoop on the fig 8 mic as compromises worth making for increased ease of use in the field? Or should the recordist go for one of the Cinelas, with greater transparency overall and better handling and wind-noise reduction, and just accept it will be less easy to rig? OK, as we have seen, this could be made a bit easier by recourse to an aftermarket lined fur from Radius Windshields, but at the cost of a slight loss in wind reduction performance. And if a recordist is to choose a Cinela, should they go for a Zephyx with its better performance in wind, or the Pianissimo with its greater convenience and ease of aiming? A bit of a dilemma for the recordist that I cannot resolve: what I hope, rather, is to have provided some useful comparative information and food for thought for those looking for capable MS windshield solutions and weighing up these three options. Personally, I would be rather pleased if the Pianissimo didn’t have to disappear back to Paris!

NB Just for transparency, the Cyclone model tested here is one I have been given previously by Rycote for testing, while the Pianissimo and Zephyx have been loaned by Cinela.

DIY Projects

3d printing clips for the Radius Windshield hoops

October 27, 2024
At last, mid-side clips integrated into a shock-mount, yet easily swappable with clips for a single mic.

Mid-side clip for 19mm Ø mics

When Radius Windshields launched and produced their RAD shock-mounts one of the unique features was that the mic clips could be unscrewed from the hoops and switched to something different. A radical difference from, say, the Rycote Invision series shock-mounts, where the mic clips and lyres are all one moulding. This has provided scope for Radius to produce dedicated clips for the older MKH 50 etc. mics and, ultimately, to produce dedicated MS clips, doing away with the need to use clips to fix a mic to the shock-mount then a pair of back-to-back clips to attach the second mic to the first. A fiddly faff and also bedeviled by the lack of back-to-back clips with a close spacing, which is preferable for mid-side recording. I have been encouraging Simon Davies at Radius to produce MS clips, and this is now in train using some of the ideas I have proposed. While their nice injection-moulded version is awaited, here is my version for a MS clip to fit their RAD-1 and RAD-2 hoops, and designed for 19mm Ø mics such as the MKH 8000 series and the Rycote SDC series. I should add that Simon Davies at Radius Windshields has supported me in putting this design out into the public domain, which follows similar release of their first prototype for others to 3d print (their initial design was rather different to mine, and their upcoming production version, with a central bolt and a consequently wider spacing as this is tightened). The approach I have taken with this clip is very much a product of many discussions with Simon – via email – on MS clips and other Radius items in development, but also reflective of the company’s refreshingly open engagement with sound recordists.

One of the nice things about the Radius Windshields hoops is that they fit to Rycote shock-mounts such as the InVision INV 7 here, so you can make good use of existing hardware.
CAD drawing, created using Onshape, for the MS clip.

In designing this MS clip I have gone for a spacing of 2.5mm between the mics, which is nice and close but still provides just enough room to allow two MKH 8030 mics to be inserted for a Blumlein pair of two fig 8 mics(the MKH 8030 having a wider front part to the mic). The mics are given enough grip by the springiness of the clips, and this took quite a bit of work to get right: in particular, the internal seemingly circular clips are made up of several different radii so that they hold the 19mm Ø mics properly as the necessarily undersized opening is enlarged by insertion of the mic to give sufficient grip. I have printed them in both PLA and PETG filament (with solid infill) so nothing fancy is required: the PETG filament gives a bit more flexibility and is what I have been using for them mainly. If you are determined you can break them, but, of course, that applies to many a commercial-produced back-to-back clip!

There are two bits of metal hardware that you will need for each clip, which comprise an M3 thin square nut (standard size 5.5mm x 1.8mm), and one of the same M3 socket head button flange screws that Radius use, in this case 12mm long. Of course, you can just use the existing screws that come with your RAD-1 and RAD-2 shock-mounts, so strictly the only extra part you need is the square nut. Stainless steel A2 is best. I got both the nuts and some of the extra screws from Westfield Fasteners (in the UK).

You can go to the file here in Onshape and export in STL, STEP, 3mf etc. file format as required. Note that the clip looks a little skewed or angled when printed: this is deliberate since loading it with two mics opens up the two clips elements a little and consequently, with this built-in angling of the lower circle, the MS clip sits properly square and central (i.e. with the mic centres exactly one above the other) when in use.

MS clip showing vertical alignment when loaded with a pair of mics: a bit of a fiddle to compensate for the skewing effect when the clips are expanded to take the mics, but worth get right.

And, yes, with the MS pair nicely in the Radius Windshield hoops, you can not only retrofit them to InVision shock-mounts or, say, a Rycote Modular windshield, but even, with a bit of ingenuity, get them into a Rycote Nano Shield: with the rather high-set mount for the lyres in the Nano Shield there is not a lot of height to play with (which makes back-to-back clips a very imperfect solution: the top mic ends up right by the basket), so a 3d-printed mounting bar (here’s a link to this too) and mounting the Radius hoops on the underside gives a good workable solution.

While I am at it, here’s another view of the MS clips in Radius hoops being used in a Nano Shield: a pretty dinky MS set up!
Yes you can fit three mics into a RAD-1 and RAD-2 shock-mount!

Triple mic clip for 19mm Ø mics

For something a little more esoteric, I have also created a triple-mic mount to fit the Radius RAD-1 and RAD-2 hoops. Such a triple configuration of mics is something I have used from time to time for MMS (i.e. mid-side but with two different mid mics with different polar patterns – say omni and supercardioid – facing forward so that the polar pattern of the mid mic can be chosen in post) or side-by-side Blumlein with, say, a single supercardioid for recording a singing guitarist, as I demonstrated recently here. Previously I have had to use two pairs of back-to-back clips to connect three mics, which is a fiddle. As I said, a bit esoteric, but that’s the fun with 3d printing: making the commercially unviable possible.

In terms of design, this drew on the mid-side clip, but the loading of the three mics had an impact on the form of the different near circular forms, so even more complex curves were necessary to ensure a snug fit for each mic. I also chose to beef up the thickness of the clip a little, to 3mm, due to fear of the additional forces involved getting three mics into a single clip; and then angled the top interface/mating part by 3 degrees to allow for the change in angle arising from the necessary expansion of the individual clips due to inserting all three mics. In all, nine iterations were required, and doubtless there is room for improvement still: things like best thickness vary a little with filament used. I used a slightly different approach to the fillets, but that is a subtle change. The solid modelling takes a few minutes only, but the printing at finest quality takes an age! The interface, or mating, with the Radius hoops is the same as for the mid-slide clip, so the same size nut and screw are needed. I suspect not many will want to print this model – it is largely presented as showing the potential for very specific mic clips (inc. DIY) offered by the interchangeable design of the Radius hoops – but if you do want to use it, then you can download it (again freely) here from Onshape and choose which file format suits you for export.

And here are the triple clips as 3d printed.

EDIT (6.1.2025) More triple mic clips: double mid side (DMS)

I’ve also spent some time playing around with mic clips for double mid side (DMS), and, spurred on by receiving a Mini-ALTO 115 from Radius Windshields for field testing, I revisited this. DMS always feels a bit clunky (it’s that rearward-facing mid mic out front that seems so odd) and, though I’m never overly concerned about it, shadowing does seem more obvious than in, say, side-by-side Blumlein of MS. But using MKH 8000 mics with MZL connectors at least goes some way to reducing the bulk of the mics. With the size of the Radius hoops there is no scope for three mics in a vertical line so, as with, say, the Rycote Cyclone DMS kits, I have gone for the two mid mics set side-by-side (although facing opposite directions, of course) with the fig 8 centrally above. The wider front part of the MKH 8030 means that this needs to be taken into account by the front clip that holds it too: the fig 8 provides the only common mic spanning between the two mic clips, and there isn’t much to grab onto at the front, so I decided – like many a DMS rig – to include a couple of metal rods (these are chopped down ones, 2mm in diameter, that were redundant from a Rycote MS stereo Cyclone kit 5 – where they are superfluous and, indeed, prevent better rigging). Anyway, here are a few images of the model (you can download the front and rear clips from Onshape) and the resultant rig.

Rear clip for DMS, showing holes for 2mm connecting rods.
Front clip for DMS.
The 3d-printed clips with connecting rods in place.
And the DMS rig set up in Radius hoops (the mount looks a little different since this includes the ‘smiley face’ adapter that allows the RAD-2 shock-mount to be used with the Mini-ALTO windshield).
Audio Gear Audio Projects

MKH 8030 pair: a Blumlein variation for singer-guitarist Greg Brice

September 23, 2024

Blues singer and musician, Greg Brice, was up from the Cotswolds to Norfolk for a gig, and while he was here we headed over to the workshop of Luke Chapman (woodcarver and a blues musician too) to record and film a couple of songs. Greg is an up-and-coming musician, which is reflected in his three nominations in the 2023 UK Blues Awards: he was a finalist in the ‘Emerging Act of the Year’ category. The workshop, which was formerly a farm dairy, is decidedly not a music studio, but with a recent album out that wasn’t the aim. Rather we wanted to capture a couple of live acoustic recordings on location. As sharp-eyed readers of this blog may have noticed, the workshop is somewhere I have used before for recording, sometimes for mic tests and sometimes for more full-fledged recordings. In fact, Luke and I are thinking of getting many more musicians to record there in a kind of down-home NPR Tiny Desk Concert meets Gems on VHS series, but with extra sawdust on the side. So Greg was the first, and hopefully not the last, of the new ‘Milk, Wood and Dust’ sessions.

Close-up of the three-mic array, showing the angled capsules of the side-by-side MKH 8030 fig 8 mics.

The usual problem when recording a singing guitarist is to get good separation between the instrument and the vocals (to allow different tweaking of levels and other processing later), without resorting to recording them separately: overdubbing often results in a less than fluid performance. When I recorded singer-songwriter Lucy Grubb in the workshop last year, I went for a variation on double mid-side recording, with two mid mics facing forward: one upward to her mouth and one downward to her guitar, with the nulls of the mic polar patterns reducing spill effectively. It is a simple set up that also has the merit of being less visually intrusive than an LDC right in the singer’s face. There is a Sound on Sound article by Hugh Robjohns from a few years ago that discusses and illustrates the approach. It’s a bit of a clunky set up, however, and the stereo vocal seems a bit unnecessary (and potentially problematic as singers often move their heads about), so I have been thinking about another technique also making good use of the deep nulls of fig 8 mics, but aiming to get a stereo recording of the guitar and the voice in mono.

What I came up with as a solution was a Blumlein pair of fig 8 SDC mics (in this case the excellent new Sennheiser MKH 8030, which I have been testing in various blog posts: see here for part 1), combined with a super-cardioid for the vocals (I went with a Sennheiser MKH 8050). To keep it compact I placed the two fig 8s side-by-side instead of in the more usual end-to-end arrangement: now some theorists will break out in a cold sweat and say this isn’t Blumlein, but the reality is that, with capsules only at 23mm centres, the very slight non-coincidence has little impact (and, of course, is nothing compared to the spacing in near coincident pairs, such as the Gerzon array, ORTF and NOS). Equally, a bit of shadowing of the rear lobes is no big deal as they are only capturing a little uncorrelated reflected sound from distant walls. With the super-cardioid mic placed on top, the tight cluster (which I placed in a single shockmount: a Rycote InVision USM-L) was positioned around chest height and angled so this pointed upwards for vocals, with the Blumlein pair then angled down towards the guitar. This left the nulls of the fig 8s and the super-cardioid to do their work and minimize bleed from guitar to vocals and vice versa: and any bleed left was coincident and consequently sans phase issues. Now, it may well be that others have used this approach before, but I can’t find any reference to it: I wonder if this reflects that it is best suited to SDC mics and many will not have more than one SDC fig 8, if that.

I did a few tests beforehand and was happy with how the array sounded, so when Greg came over to the workshop I put it into action. Set up was easy, with the mics fairly close (the acoustic of the workshop is OK – and certainly without a ‘small room’ sound – but it isn’t the Wigmore Hall), but distant enough and off-axis so that no pop filter or foam was required for vocals, which would rather have worked against the minimalist approach. I was pleased with the results (and so was Greg), and see this as a discreet and quick to deploy array (I had the mics ready to roll in the shock-mount already), which will really suit more singer-songwriters down in the workshop or, indeed, similar recordings elsewhere on location. Have a listen and, if you think there is any merit and you have a pair of SDC fig 8s, perhaps give it a try.

Audio Gear

Sennheiser MZF 8000 ii

August 24, 2024
The MZF 8000 ii filter up close…

My series of field tests of the new Sennheiser MKH 8030 fig 8 (which kicked off with initial tests, moved on to mid-side recording, encompassed field recording, included comparison with the MKH 30, and most recently included use in a native B-format array) have led to various questions being asked of me, both via this blog and on sound forums. An interesting one was whether the mic needed the modular filter that Sennheiser make for the MKH 8000 series: the MZF 8000 ii. This filter was announced at the same time as the MKH 8030, in September 2023, but, as I understand it, was available beforehand as a special order option instead of the original MZF 8000. Both filter modules are the same in terms of the switchable -10 dB pad and the fixed low-cut filter of –3 dB @ 16 Hz (18 dB/oct), but differ with regard to the switchable low-cut filter: on the newer filter the latter is –3 dB @ 70 Hz (18 dB/oct), compared to the original’s –3 dB @ 160 Hz (which was much less steep too: I can find no authoritative specs). This stems from understandable user feedback, since a lower and steeper HPF around the 70 Hz frequency of the new filter is of more use to broadcast and filmmaking sound for those mics in the MKH 8000 series that don’t have in-built bass roll-off (i.e. all except the MKH 8060 and MKH 8070 shotgun mics): more use, that is, for reducing low-frequency wind noise and handling noise.

While some might (and, indeed, do) lament the absence of a built-in pad and switchable low-cut filter in the MKH 8000 mics, as found in the earlier MKH mics, the modular nature of the MZF 8000 ii filter means it is more flexible and, also, the end result is quite different. Flexibility is seen in the fact that the MKH 8000 mics, sans filter, can be kept small and, moreover, when the filter is used, this can be placed either between the head and the XLR module (making for a 29mm longer mic) or, if using an MZL cable, well away from the mic head, and next to the (then remote) XLR module. As for sonic differences between the MZF 8000 ii and the in-built equivalents of the MKH 30, 40 and 50, arguably the fixed 16 Hz low-cut filter of the former simply compensates for the increased bottom end of the MKH 8000 series mics, but there remains quite a difference in the switchable low-cut filters: the MKH 30, 40 and 50 have much higher and gentler low-cut filters, designed to address proximity effect, rather than the lower and steeper filtering of the MZF 8000 ii filter that is geared to reducing wind and handling noise. And, to add complexity, the MKH 20 switchable filtering is only concerned with high frequencies, being to modify the mic between near and diffuse field applications (with, of course, the proximity effect not applying to an omni anyway). The earlier MZF 8000 filter, therefore, was more comparable to the switchable elements of the MKH 30, 40 and 50, while the newer MZF 8000 ii is more overtly geared to production sound.

A pair of MKH 8030 mics: one with the MZF 8000 ii filter and one without.

OK, so much for the theory: how does the MZF 8000 ii perform? With the focus of the MZF 8000 ii on production sound, I fitted the filter to one MKH 8030 and mounted a pair of the mics in Rycote Invision 7 shockmounts to a short stereo bar on the end of a carbon-fibre boom pole. First off I compared the impact of mild shake (from straining muscles) on the two mics, with no high-pass filter (HPF) on the recorder, and just the fixed 16 Hz low-cut filter on the one with the MZF 8000 ii module fitted.

MKH 8030 on boom pole, with no filtering to remove low-frequencies arising from handling noise (note the scales and that gain was cranked up for all these tests).
Recorded simultaneously with the above, but recorded with a second MKH 8030 with the in-built fixed low-cut filter of –3 dB @ 16 Hz (18 dB/oct) of the MZF 8000 ii.

As expected, the MZF 8000 ii filter removes a significant amount of the infrasound, whilst having little impact on other low-frequency performance.

Moving on now to compare the effects of using the high-pass filters built-in to most recorders and mixers versus, or in conjunction with, that of the MZF 8000 ii filter, first of all I repeated the boom pole test with one mic with the recorder’s 40 Hz HPF (40 Hz being the lowest setting on Sound Devices 788T) with the other mic using the MZF 8000 ii’s 16Hz filter and the 788T’s 40 Hz HPF:

MKH 8030 on boom pole, with 40 Hz HPF on Sound Devices 788T to remove low-frequencies arising from handling noise.
Recorded simultaneously with the above, but recorded with a second MKH 8030 with the 16 Hz low-cut filter of the MZF 8000 ii plus a 40 Hz HPF on the Sound Devices 788T.

Again, as expected, the 16 Hz low-cut filter of the MZF 8000 ii adds significantly to reduction in handling noise from the boom pole by use of the recorder’s 40 Hz HPF.

For most such boom pole (or, indeed, pistol grip) mounting of a mic of course one would anticipate using a higher frequency HPF such as the switchable one built into the MZF 8000 ii, so that formed the next test: i.e. comparing the Sennheiser module with the 70 Hz HPF of the Sound Devices 788T.

MKH 8030 on boom pole, with 70 Hz HPF on Sound Devices 788T to remove low-frequencies arising from handling noise.
Recorded simultaneously with the above, but recorded with a second MKH 8030 with the 70 Hz HPF of the MZF 8000 ii.

Going by the frequency of the two HPFs some might expect that the results would be same, but the MZF 8000 ii’s 70 Hz filter has a much steeper slope (18 dB/oct) compared to that of the 788T (selectable at 6 dB/oct or 12 dB/oct: I used the latter), and this difference is clear. By contrast, the more recent Sound Devices 8-series and Mix-Pre recorders have 18 dB/oct HPFs, so the final test with the boom pole compared the MZF 8000 ii’s 70 Hz HPF to that of a MixPre-3: the latter only goes up in 20 Hz steps, so was set at 80 Hz.

MKH 8030 on boom pole, with 80 Hz HPF on Sound Devices MixPre-3 to remove low-frequencies arising from handling noise.
Recorded simultaneously with the above, but recorded with a second MKH 8030 with the 70 Hz HPF of the MZF 8000 ii.

Given the steepness of the slope and the slightly higher frequency, the MixPre-3 shows more attenuation of boom pole handling noise.

So far, this is all very much as expected from the specifications: but where does this leave us? What are the benefits of the MZF 8000 ii in terms of its HPF if the recorder/mixer has one too? And, likewise, what is the benefit of the -10dB pad if, as is sometimes the case (e.g. the 788T), the recorder can supply 48v phantom power in line-input mode to cope with mics recording very high SPLs and consequently producing high outputs? Well, this is complex, and will reflect the type of material being recorded, the modus operandi of the sound recordist, and the capability of the mixer/recorder. In some cases, stacking HPFs (i.e. in both the mic and the recorder/mixer) may be useful to give a steeper slope: this is especially relevant if the recorder itself doesn’t offer anything as steep as 18 dB/oct. In many uses the fixed 16 Hz HPF of the MZF 8000 ii will be useful to remove unwanted infrasound, and many mixer/recorders do not have HPF options that go this low. In some cases the MZF 8000 ii will stop the mixer/recorder preamps being overwhelmed by, or giving too much headroom to, unwanted low frequencies: this is especially relevant with those recorders (such as the Zoom F8n) where the HPF comes after the trim/gain and ADC. Of course, any such uses need to be balanced against the additional weight of the module (relevant at the end of a long boom pole) and the lack of accessibility of switches if the mic is in a windshield. And it also needs to be considered against other options that are outside the mic or the recorder/mixer, such as the switchable 80 Hz HPF built into the XLR mount of the Rycote Nano Shield (and therefore accessible outside a windshield).

So, in short, it will come down to personal choices: the module is primarily of use to those for whom mic handling noise, wind noise, unwanted low-frequency ambient noise, and, for the pad, extreme SPLs are issues, which will mainly comprise production/ENG sound, sound effects recording, and, to a lesser extent, field recording. As for using the MZF 8000 ii with the MKH 8030? Well, although this has a decent bottom end for a fig 8 mic, it naturally has less in the way of a low-frequency response than its omni, wide cardioid, cardioid and supercardioid siblings and is also less likely to be swung around vigorously on a boom than, say, the supercardioid MKH 8050. In short, to date I haven’t found a need to use the MZF 8000 ii with the fig 8 MKH 8030: others may draw different conclusions. However, I’ve found it useful to have the MZF 8000 ii in the kit, and so far have used it most with just the 16 Hz low-cut filter with the MKH 8020, where the very bottom of the extended low end of this omni mic isn’t always wanted: and its good to be able to have the 70 Hz (18 dB/oct) filter and the -10dB pad there for whenever the need arises. Turning this around the other way, and again unlike some others, I’m glad that with the MKH 8000 series mics Sennheiser took a modular view to the HPF and pad capabilities since, for the bulk of my recording activities (and I suspect those of so many others), they aren’t needed and the consequently more compact form is useful: evidently the MZL cables take that compactness further, but that’s another matter!

And just for a size comparison here is my MKH 50 alongside MKH 8050 with the MZF 8000 ii. The latter adds to the size of the MKH 8050, increasing its length to 103mm and its weight to 81g: these are significant increases of 39% and 47% respectively from the MKH 8050 just with its MZX 8000 XLR module, but still well short of the MKH 50’s 153mm length, 102g weight and, of course, greater diameter (25mm vs 19mm).

Audio Gear Audio Projects

A tale of two MKH 8030 mics, a native B-format array and a pipe band. Part 2: recording.

August 4, 2024
Members of the City of Norwich Pipe Band arranged in two arcs, in the rather wonderful setting of Wymondham Abbey.

Introduction

In part 1 of the blog posts on recording test sessions with the City of Norwich Pipe Band (a prelude to a CD recording, with the tests focused on establishing whether recording indoors or outdoors is preferable), I covered the rationale and detail behind the microphone choices. To recap, with the band formed in both a circle and a near circle, I decided to go with a native B-format array of two fig 8s (Sennheiser MKH 8030) and an omni (Sennheiser MKH 8020), which, in terms of the required stereo end product, gave me options of mid-side with two fig 8s (i.e. decoding to a Blumlein pair), omni mid-side, and double mid-side (the latter with any polar pattern for the mid mics). And just to cover all bases, I also elected to add a spaced pair of omni mics (Rycote OM-08s). This second blog post is concerned with the recording and the results.

Location

Recording a pipe band indoors requires a large space. In the absence of a massive purpose-built recording studio (ruled out due to cost and because this was always intended as a location recording of a non-competition pipe band), I was glad to be able to arrange for use of Wymondham Abbey (many thanks especially are due to Brian Randall, churchwarden, for his help and support). The early 12th-century nave that survived the demolition of the rest of the abbey at the Dissolution (to function thereafter as the parish church for the town) is substantial, being twice the size of Abbey Road Studio One: if a small pipe band (the recording involved some members only – we had five pipes, one tenor drum, one side (or snare) drum and a bass drum) was to overwhelm the abbey church, then indoor recording would evidently be a non-starter outside a studio or concert hall.

Arranging the band

The regular formation used by pipe bands is a circle, and I could see no reason to, say, go for a more linear concert-style arrangement for recording. On the one side, recording a band in a circle is a challenge, but, as we have seen in the previous post on mic array selection, one that is solvable. But aside from the easy benefit of intervisibility for band members, this arrangement offers an additional benefit for loud acoustic instruments such as bagpipes and drums: direct sound will predominate over reflected sound from all directions. That is certainly the case if an unbroken circle is adopted, but balancing this with the array options (which included mid-side with two fig 8s) meant that these tests comprised both a full circle and a very broken circle – i.e. two opposing arcs each just under 90 degrees. With a modest contingent of the band for the test session, for the full-circle version we had the pipers occupying a little more than half the circle, which had a radius of around 2 metres. For the two opposing arcs, the pipers were all on one side facing the three drummers on the other side, with a radius of 3 metres for both arcs. We will replicate the arrangements for the outdoor test session in due course, but, evidently, any CD recording with a larger number of band members is likely to require some tweaking of the radius to accommodate everyone. That said, the band members were far from squashed together on this initial session.

Recording

Prior to the recording test session, I dropped into one the regular practices to meet the band. They hold these in the former Regal Cinema (now part of the Wymondham & District Ex-Services Social Club), so, while not a remote glen, it is far from a small room with a low ceiling. The sound of the band, however, came bouncing back from all directions and, given the reputation of bagpipes, I was a little concerned about levels before the test session. With only one pad on one of the mics (courtesy of the single MZF 8000ii filter I have – more on that soon) I was crossing fingers that I would be OK in terms of volume: with healthy max SPLs of 139dB for the MKH 8030s and 138dB for the MKH 8020, I was happy with the Sennheisers, but the Rycote OM-08 with its max of 127dB was an order lower. And then, what about levels into the recorder? Well at least with the Sound Devices 788T I had the option of using line inputs, which can still supply 48v phantom power, if things got overly hot. Needless to say, such slightly nagging concerns were entirely unfounded: with the more distant 3 metres of the two arcs I was able to set all the mic input trim/gains at 20dB, and with the shorter 2 metre radius of the full circle, I was fine with 15dB. Perhaps more reassuring too, the reflected sound in the aisled abbey church seemed much less overwhelming than the practice rooms: or was I just acclimatising!

Set up in the south aisle with the Sound Devices 788T. No overloading of mics or recorder, and I didn’t even resort to the earplugs I brought along!

The results

With the native B-format array, the options are endlessly variable, but what follows are some short clips (around 30 seconds long) from the beginning of Scotland The Brave (my request, as familiar to many: but we did record a couple of other tunes too), covering the main options.

Another view of the band set up in two opposing arcs.

Starting off, here are clips from the recordings of the band arranged in two opposing arcs:

First, we have fig 8 mid-side with the two MKH 8030 mics, which, of course, decodes to a Blumlein pair:

The stereo imaging is good for this, but the bass drum is very light. Looking at this in an FFT frequency spectrum analyser (Voxengo SPAN), the fundamental of the drum is around 35Hz, so the lack of low end in the MKH 8030 (whilst unusually good for a fig 8) is rather exposed. With a coincident omni in the array we can add this in a variety of ways, but just to keep things straightforward here is the same clip above with the bottom end of the omni MKH 8020 mixed in (with a 100Hz low-pass filter) at -6dB.

So now moving on to the omni mid-side pair itself, which, of course, has no problem with the bottom end of the bass drum. As you would expect, the drums have swapped sides (most obviously the snare is now on the left as it was in reality) as this and the subsequent clips don’t have the flipped LR stereo of the rear side of fig 8 MS and Blumlein pairs:

Leaving the various outputs of the native B-format array for the moment to compare omni-based recordings, here is the omni AB (spaced pair) of Rycote OM-08 mics at 840mm spacing (the spacing chosen to match the stereo recording angle of the Blumlein pair, decoded from the fig 8 mid-side pair, which lay behind the two opposing arcs formation):

Next up we have double mid-side. This uses forward and backward cardioid mid mics (created by mixing the omni and forward-facing fig 8 in the native B-format array) with the two resultant cardioid mid-side arrays mixed at the same level:

This might well be fine with the full band (and the low end is certainly present, due in no small part to the fact that the cardioids are created from a mix of the forward-facing fig 8 MKH 8030 and the MKH 8020 omni, so, as my preparatory tests demonstrated, have a better bass response than the MKH 8040 cardioid), but the level of the very small drum section is a bit low. Of course, we can change independently both the polar pattern of the two mid-side arrays that make up a double mid-side array and, more relevant here, can change the relative levels between the front and the rear. So here is more of the same, but with the rearward-facing component of the double mid-side array 6dB louder than the front:

And to demonstrate this flexibility a bit further, here is the double mid-side array again, but with the rearward-facing component of the double mid-side array 12dB louder than the front:

And then in a full circle, with a tighter radius.

Moving on, here are clips from the recordings of the band arranged in a full circle. Again the clips comprise the opening part of Scotland The Brave.

As before, first off we have fig 8 mid-side with the two MKH 8030 mics:

This still lacks the bottom end of the bass drum as with the fig 8 mid-side recording of the two arcs, but I must admit that the effect of the full circle (i.e. not avoiding direct sound from the side, with the consequent phasing issues arising from the fact that such sound is picked up by the front of one capsule and the rear of the other) is much less noticeable than I thought it would be. Perhaps that’s just my ears (I have been listening to a lot of bagpipe recordings over the last few days)! Anyway, I think it might still be one to steer away from and, accordingly, I haven’t included a version of this clip with added low end from a low-pass filtered omni mic.

On then to the omni mid-side pair, which, as before, has no problem with the bottom end of the bass drum. Again note that the drums have swapped sides (most obviously the single snare is now on the left as it was in reality) as this and the subsequent clips don’t have the flipped LR stereo of the rear side of fig 8 MS and Blumlein pairs:

Here is the omni AB (spaced pair) of Rycote OM-08 mics at 460mm spacing (i.e. narrowed from the previous 840mm spacing to give the wider stereo recording angle required for the full circle: 180 degrees):

Next up we have double mid-side. This uses forward and backward cardioid mid mics (created by mixing the omni and forward-facing fig 8 in the native B-format array) with the two resultant cardioid mid-side arrays mixed at the same level:

As noted in the two opposing arcs set up, the drums in the double mid-side recording here are a bit on the quiet side, reflecting the lack of tenor and side/snare drums, although, perhaps counter intuitively, they are clearer than in the equivalent recording with the two arcs, despite the pipers spreading into the rear half of the full circle. As noted before, we can change, independently, both the polar pattern of the two mid-side arrays that make up a double mid-side array and, more relevant here, the relative levels between the front and the rear. So here is the same as before, but with the rearward-facing component of the double mid-side array 6dB louder than the front:

And to demonstrate this flexibility a bit further, here is the double mid-side array again, but with the rearward-facing component 12dB louder than the front:

High-frequency loss with vertical omni

As mentioned in part 1 of the blog post, omni mics are increasingly directional with high frequencies, which is the main reason to orient the mic vertically in the native B-format array if dealing with a sound source in a circle rather than, more typically, largely in front of the mics: that is, to ensure an even response in the horizontal plane round the full 360 degrees. But, of course, it also means that this approach reduces the high-frequency response (albeit equally) in the horizontal plane. As I said in the section on mic arrays, I didn’t expect that the high-frequency losses would be hugely significant with a pipe band: indeed, it could be useful given the nature of bagpipes and snare drums. I certainly don’t feel that results are weak in that regard, but, for the sake of completeness, here is a clip of the omni mid-side recording of the band in the full circle, with the omni mic given EQ to compensate as per Sennheiser’s polar plot for the MH 8020:

Using a plugin for processing the native B-format recording: in this case the (free) Soundfield by Rode plugin.

Processing

The native B-format array offers a lot of flexibility, which is only partly explored in the already rather numerous clips provided above. These have all been produced manually in Reaper, albeit using a mid-side plug in for the MS processing. Further tools can aid the process, be that Schoeps’s double mid-side plugin or, more usefully, plugins that can use the WXY tracks of the native B-format directly. So finally, here are the WXY clips (for both the opposing arc and the full circle set ups) for anyone who wants to play with them in an ambiosonic audio processor such as the Soundfield by Rode plugin, with which I have had fun dabbling.

The verdict?

Well this may be too early to call, given that this recording session was designed to be the first of two tests to compare indoors vs outdoors recording of the pipe band. The outdoor session will probably have to wait until September, due to holidays and a flurry of summertime engagements for the band, and then we will have to juggle the vagaries of the weather. But, even before this second test, I must confess I am much happier with recording the pipe band indoors than I was beforehand: I was very much in the ‘record a pipe band outside’ camp (indeed, perhaps the only voice in this case!). The set up in the abbey worked extremely well from my perspective: OK, the part-band was imbalanced in terms of pipes vs drums (and, indeed, imbalanced within the drum line with just one tenor and one side/snare), and there are some tweaks that I would like to make when we have a fuller drum line (e.g. bringing the tenor drums forward of the snare/side drums), but the acoustic was excellent and vastly different to the practice room.

And, beyond that, this first session has been extremely useful for assessing the different means of recording the band in a circle or in a broken circle of two arcs: I am happy with both formations although, of course, the different mic arrays performed differently in the two configurations of the band. The omni AB, or spaced pairs, worked reasonably, but lacked clarity on the snare drum so would require extremely careful placement of band members to get the (baked-in) balance right, if possible: in the context of a loud pipe band with members understandably not used to protracted setting up for recording and the lack of really good (and isolated) monitoring on location, I would be loathe to go down this route. This isn’t unexpected, as I included the spaced omnis as something of a control in this test. The native B-format array was a great success in giving so many options from a three mic set-up, and producing what I think is the better sound. Using the two fig 8 MKH 8030s alone, as a fig 8 mid-side pair, underplayed the low frequencies of the bass drum, understandably, but, as we have seen (or, rather, heard), this can be supplemented by a bit of bass from the omni MKH 8020 mic. Again using just two mics, the omni mid-side (MKH 8020 and MKH 8030) pair gave a good result in both the opposing arcs and full circle arrangements. The (virtual) double mid-side array from the three mics, however, is my preference: while sharing the ability to vary the levels of front and rear with a conventional double mid-side array (say made with two cardioids and a fig 8), the fact that in this case it was derived from the native B-format array gives it additional advantages. First, it keeps the low end intact (by virtue of the increased low-frequency response of the two virtual cardioids made by combining the MKH 8020 and forward-facing MKH 8030). And, second, it has complete flexibility in post in terms of the polar patterns of the mid mics. Playing around with all this is certainly easier in something such as the Soundfield by Rode or Harpex-X plugins, and they make steering the mic arrays (not that useful in this instance) easier too. In short, I’m really impressed by the MKH 8030 and MKH 8020 native B-format array for recording musicians in a circle: I suggest that it is worth giving something similar a go if you have a comparable challenge and suitable mics to hand.