Re: [Harp-L] Tom Ball avoids windscreens like the plague

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

I agree 100%!  Windscreens in recording studios are there to reduce  the 
effect of the vocalists breathing noise, on the sound track.
 
Some years ago, I was doing an acoustic harp session in the studio, and the  
engineer said "there is a strange intermittent noise"... It was my "self  
winding" mechanical wrist watch! The condenser mic was sensitive enough to pick  
up that almost imperceptible noise. Now I simply take my watch off  when 
playing in the recording studio. 
 
Also like many guitarists, sometimes when playing through a valve (tube)  amp 
you get a hum from the transformer that sounds terrible on the recorded  
track... Often this is caused by interference from fluorescent lighting, or poor  
earthing (grounding) on the mains supply.
 
I've often recorded with the smallest battery powered "Pig Nose" when I  
haven't managed to get my Fender tube amp to behave.
 
This seems to give an ok tone with no "hum" at all. At a very recordable  low 
volume.
 
I do believe that tube amps give a better sound with amplified harp than  
solid state. But solid state amps seem to produce less background noise. Well,  
mine do anyway!
 
By the way I've been using a couple of "Crystal Balls" JT-30 mics for more  
than a decade, and they are (for me) the best "amplified" style harp mics  I've 
ever come across.
 
 
Best wishes,
 
John Walden
London
England.
 
 
<<  In a message dated 25/03/2008 14:35:20 GMT Standard Time,  
mxharpguyl@xxxxxxxxx writes:

<<  I can't imagine why you would use a windscreen on stage.  No one in a 
crowded
bar or stadium will notice that there is non-singing  sound coming through
the microphone like wind or crickets or god-forbid,  crowd noise.

I have used them in recording for vocals and harmonica.  It's mostly so the
really nice condenser mic's don't pick up unwanted sound  on the recording
(because they pick up EVERYTHING), there will be enough  work done just
editing out your breathing and other sounds that you can't  get away from.

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 10:16 AM,  <captron100@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> A question re those microphone  foam pop filters/windscreens that has been
> bouncing around my head for  years -- Once on Harp-L our esteemed fellow
> poster, Tom Ball, stated  that he avoids windscreens "like the plague".?
> Whenever i see a  performer using them for vocals, I wonder -- specifically,
> what  detrimental effects are caused by adding a windscreen to a microphone?
>  ron
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