Dealing With Plosives And The Tradeoff With Wind Noise

[Demonik]

A little background:

My Masters was Music Technology, Innovation and Production. With that, I work in Foley and Sound Design for Hollywood and video games. I'm not new to mics and working with costuming on and off set, so I'd like to get the most desirable voice quality for youtube viewers that I can. I mean, who wouldn't, right?

Where and how are people mounting the mics? Why do I ask?


Problem:

I am setting up two helmets for two riders and I am at a tradeoff point where the lavalier mics I have placed on and near the chin bars receive too harsh and detailed of plosives and breathing noises (mouth and nose) from the location to the rider's mouth. I need to use additional muff to reduce wind noise and space is not a luxury in there.

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I can move the mic to the cheek pad, just below the right eye sight line. The additional wind muff will not be able to be used and leaves the mic slightly exposed to the seam between the face shield. Wind noise will be bad. Plosives and breathing are still there, however, the voice has become muffled.

Is there a helmet with a chin bar further away? Where do I go from here?

 

[HippoDrone]

you could try a chin skirt. I also find a deadcat over a sponge cover works well as long as the mic isn't hard up against the chin piece

 

[R-Rated]

Hate to say, but I think too perfect voice can sound like an overdub to the audio. I get occasional heck off of my bike review I did with a breath box and a migraine.

But that is what deleting a comment is for!

 

[ShiftHer]

Many motovloggers use the Icon Variant helmet (or most any dual-sport style helmet) because there is more space in the chin bar area.

 

[MIcruiser]

A modular hetmet gives more room in front of the mouth so the chin bar is able to lift up. I had one at first and it wasnt too bad. The only bad thing is after mounting a mic, you can no longer use the helmet as a modular because of the wire, unless you want to leave a long loop hanging down from the front of the helmet.

 

[SamBiker]

I dont have a chin guard on one of my helmets, so I put cam on my open face visor. No it does not block my view the cam is not in front of my chin but more in front of my mouth. The angle is perfect. I added the mic to the left side and clipping it on to the cheek pad or chin strap. See if that works.

 

[Demonik]

So I've been playing around with muff/deadcat sewing/construction ideas and mic placement over the last few days and reading through these helpful ideas. (thanks!)

I am reminded of one of my first few days in sound design and studio design school where the professor said, "If you can get good sound in a car, you can get good sound in a telephone booth guys."

Well, shit. I am trying to get good sound in a HELMET. ON A HIGHWAY. Just short of carrying a backpack full of Dolby gear, it won't happen. It's unnatural, like R-Rated said. If I want super clean vocals, I could always stop and lift the visor to reduce the inside-the-helmet reflections. Otherwise, I think I have it down pretty pat now.

I ended up settling on a single Giant Squid with a foam over it and sewing a muff over that, placing it on the chin bar, but to the right of the mouth. It's fairly clear and I can't discern much wind noise anymore, as compared to when I was running without it. I'm fairly happy for now.

I appreciate your help with ideas on getting it offset and I'll be looking into moving into an icon helmet soon. I agree, if you can get the mic further away from the mouth, you can indeed reduce plosives.

thanks again!

 

[SighBored]

You will need to play around with different mic sponges or dead-cat.. Mine is directly center of the chin and my mouth sometimes touches the mic itself, cause the one I use is a large one (See Sony ECM-DS70P), the mic itself has a mic foam and I wear a balaclava, some of my breathing can be heard and the wind noise is not that bad, even in the noisiest helmet (AGV PISTA GP), I use the editor is clean up the wind noise slightly and so far seems pretty good even at high speeds 200+ km/h.

Sometimes it's the mic itself, it might be just too sensitive in picking up any kind of sound, background or vocal.

 

[ShiftHer]

Check out this thread about wind noise if you haven't already. You might find it useful. Glad to hear you've found a set up that works for now.