I am on a shoot using a 416 as my boom running into an SD 302 mixer and then down to a tascam HD P2 for record. Beginning of the day I had great signal coming from the shotgun, as the day progressed it seems that I had to increase my preamp more and more to get the same signal. By the end of the day the 302 gain was almost at max with the channel output also near max just to the get same signal level outputting as the beginning of the day, but now with tons of system noise. My 416 is relatively new, less than a year, and I have mainly used it for SFX recording with the occasional eng or short film gig. Most of the day, the mic was in a rycote lyre mount with zeppelin and dead cat.
Does this sound like a humidity problem? I am in New Orleans so high humidity is present, but I thought the 416 was designed to go through hell and high water.
As far as tone and timbre of the mic, it seemed the sibilance became much greater as the day progressed.
I thought it may be a low battery situation on the 302, but fresh AAs did not do anything. Changed cables and even put the questionable cables through cable tester and that was not the issue. I did not check the channel on the mixer though.
I ask because I have yet to hear with my own ears the effects of humidity on a mic. Is there something I can do to help this situation?