How do you prevent clothing static...

[Troy Davis]

...with wireless mics? I often use my iriver 895 w/ giant squid mic on the groom for wedding productions. There are times when I get the annoying clothing static. Is there anyone out
there that has been able to conquer this problem? I'm thinking about wrapping the mic in black silk cloth, but not sure if this will do it. I guess it's worth a test.

Thanks,
Troy

[Matt Bishop]

I'm not sure about your specific mic and how you position it on the groom but here's what I do to avoid that as much as possible.

I put the mic higher on the groom's tux..usually above the flower. This keep it away from the center where there's much more potential for rubbing and hitting it with his arm and such. I also loop the wire right off of the mic. This will help a ton to remove any noise from the loop down. Then if he's moving around, the only noise you'll get will be if he actually hits the mic....which again, is very hard when it up close to his shoulder.

If you're unfamiliar with looping the wire, watch any newscast and you'll see it done on the anchors.

These two things have dramatically reduced excess noise for me.


Matt

[Troy Davis]

Thanks Matt. That helps. I will be trying out my new Olympus DS-30 this weekend, so we will see how this works. I will see what I can find on looping the mic wire.

[Rick Steele]

The squid mics are great but the clip is just too close to the capsule. It helps to use a shorter lav cord (a 2 footer) as it won't bunch up in the grooms pocket and work its way out wiggling the mic itself.

The mics that come with the Sennheiser G2's have that wire loop and I never have a problem with them brushing up against clothing.

[Danny O'Neill]

Looping? <10 letters>

[Don Bloom]

go to any office supply store. Get a few vampire type paper clips. They are sprung and have a cutout in them to hold thicker tings and also have 2 pins to pin to clothing. Hence, vampire clips.
After installing the mic on the groom take a small amount of wire and run it back up to the mic clip. Clip it so there is about a 1 inch 'loop'.Now take the rest of the wire and wrap it into about a 3 inch loop, take your new vampire clip clip it all together and pin it to the inside of the grooms jacket.
It will not do any damage to the jacket or wire as long as you are careful with looping the wire and clipping it to the lapel clip. I've done it for years and never damaged a wire.
The better solution is to get a mic clip with a wire clip on the back side so you can run the wire up thru that before wrapping it and clipping it to the jacket. they are very inexpensive and can help keep the wire seperated from the subject.
AAMOF I use vampire clips on my mics (came with the Countryman mics). No big clip looking ugly on the jacket plus with the clips from the office store it makes micing the subject up as easy as chocolate pie;-)

Don

[Martin Catt]

Use a newsman's loop on the cable. Instructions here:

About Lavalier Mics

Nothing to buy, just a cable-rigging operation.

Martin

[Don Bloom]

yep, that's what I was trying to explain. The thing is, my mic cables are 48" long (standard length on the EMWs) so there's a lot of extra wire hangin' around. that why I suggested the "paper clips" not as a loop but as a way to get the extra wire out of harms way.
BTW, thanks for the link. I've been trying to remember what it was to give to people.

Don

[Troy Davis]

Originally Posted by Martin Catt

Use a newsman's loop on the cable. Instructions here:

About Lavalier Mics

Nothing to buy, just a cable-rigging operation.

Martin

Thanks Martin,

I was looking for instructions for the loop.

Troy

[Nick Flowers]

Troy in your original post you mentioned wrapping the mic in silk. I don't think that would be any good: I've found that the worst ties for producing noise are silk ones - maybe static electricity is being generated somewhere. Persuade the wearer to change to a cloth one and things improve at once (admittedly awkward if the tie is a marker of prestige, such as MCC, Guards, Institute of Confused Sound Recordists).
However, wrapping the mic in a Rycote Furry works well, even under clothing.

[Troy Davis]

Originally Posted by Nick Flowers

Troy in your original post you mentioned wrapping the mic in silk. I don't think that would be any good: I've found that the worst ties for producing noise are silk ones - maybe static electricity is being generated somewhere. Persuade the wearer to change to a cloth one and things improve at once (admittedly awkward if the tie is a marker of prestige, such as MCC, Guards, Institute of Confused Sound Recordists).
However, wrapping the mic in a Rycote Furry works well, even under clothing.

Thanks Nick. I went w/o wrapping the mic and the proper placement on the lapel seemed to work well.