Mics in high winds, how do thy do that?

[Richard Crowley]

What mic were they using? Typically an omnidirectional microphone is less susceptible to wind, and protection in the form of mesh, foam, calm airspace, etc. also shield the mic capsule from the wind. Also holding the mic close to the mouth increases the signal-to-noise ratio. I have seen many of those storm reporters using Electrovoice RE-50 which is an EV 635 dynamic omnidirectional mic inside lots of vibration and wind protection.

Here are pictures of Electrovoice RE-50 and 635A. They are not quite to the same scale as the 635A fits easily inside the RE-50 case.

[rmandelbaum]

That is an amazing amount of rejection, 80 MPH winds and you can still hear him,

when I gig outside, small amounts of wind are a mes with SM58s

Very impressive, how musical are theses mic? or are they really only good for spoken word?

[Richard Crowley]

SM58 is a cardioid microphone (not omnidirectional). That means it has more holes in it to gather wind noise. (Look at an SM57). It was never designed to be used in wind. When we use "regular" microphones in wind, we put them inside a blimp or Zepellin which creates still air space surrounding the microphone. And in high wind, we also use a "dead cat" furry cover over the blimp to further calm the wind before it touches the blimp.

IMHO, they are just as "musical" as SM57/58. If you look at the frequency-response curve of the RE 50 vs. the Shure SM58 you will see that they are virtually identical. I personally have preferred Electrovoice over Shure since I was a kid and saw lots of broken Shure mics with all those little plastic bits and gee-gaws vs. the Electrovoice with solid steel construction.