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Quick Q for you guys - I'm looking at a new wind protection system for use with a Sanken CS-1 (subject to change mind you, might swap for a hyper cardioid at some point..) for SFX collection. Anyway, much as I'd love a Rycote full kit, I think I'd be better spreading my money about a bit so I'm either looking at The Rode Blimp, Rycote Baby Ball with pistol grip or maybe the rycote S-system.

I'm guessing zeppelin + soft windshield cover is best over just a soft windshield but always open to opinions. Basically its for use with a pistol grip or tripod, indoors and outdoors and for the forseable future only needs to accommodate a mono mic and will be replacing my current homemade one.

I'm veering to the Rode just for the screaming value and good protection it offers....will be demoing whatever I can in a few weeks Thanks

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I recently did some recording in Iceland of some geysers and some other sounds unique to the island and I used the Rode blimp and was very happy with it. Iceland is a very windy place and the blimp held its own against some fierce winds. Plus for the price you are getting a lot of value. The one thing that is a bit of a pain is the hole where the mic cable goes into the body is at the seam where the end caps come screw on/off. To get a tight seal in this hole the Blimp comes with a little piece of rubber that fills in the space around the cable. I have dropped this tiny little thing a bunch of times. This leads to a few minutes on your knees looking for where this little piece bounced to. With out it the cable can rattle around a bit in the hole so if it goes AWOL you have to be much more careful with movement when recording. Other then that the blimp has been great.

I have used the Rycote S-system very briefly and it seems to be an OK device but not very adaptable as it is what it is. I would go for a softie to start and then save up for a full Rycote system if you want to go the Rycote route.

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  • @AzimuthAudio - This was the kinda real-world review I was looking for - you hear people say its good for general stuff but honestly wasn't expecting it to cope well in 'extreme' places. Think the Rode is for me right now and then save up for the full rycote if I go down the m/s route etc. Thanks
    – Dom Lawrence
    Jul 31, 2010 at 13:27
  • I came across this post by accident, looking for ideas to design water explosions when I thought of geysers...do you still have those recordings?
    – GMatijas
    Jul 28, 2011 at 1:54
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We have a pair of the Sennheiser blimp systems at work, complete with furries. They do the job very nicely, but I'v never been impressed with the back cap, as it's a pain in the butt to get screwed on correctly. Not impossible, just a little more difficult than I think it should be.

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  • I have Rycote & Sennheiser blimps & I think both are tricky to use, it can be really hard to remove the caps without putting too much pressure on the delicate body of the windshields. I dont like the way one only 1 of the end caps on Sennheiser blimps is detachable, if you damage the permanently attached end cap you cant replace it without buying a whole new blimp :S
    – Haydn Payne
    Aug 1, 2010 at 9:44
  • Wow, that seems like an odd design flaw...or an extremely clever sales technique ;-) Thanks lads
    – Dom Lawrence
    Aug 2, 2010 at 11:19

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