The Blimp

After a lot of vacillation within myself which stretched over a long time, I finally got myself the Rode Blimp. It arrived today. I got it from Visual Media Systems, Chennai. They are my trusted audio recording equipment supplier for a few years now. 

I have never met any of them in person. I discuss my requirement with one of their sales guys named Hussain. He quotes the price and confirms availability. I put the money into their bank account and send them an SMS. They send the material the next day. So far I have bought these from them - Videomic Pro (since sold), Rode NT4, Sennheiser K6/ME66 and now the Blimp. And some of these are not really cheap, if you know. But it has always worked perfectly well for me.

Incidentally they are very reasonably priced. Certainly cheaper than any of the online stores. And most importantly they seem to have all the products that you need though those are not available online anywhere in India.

And their price is always a little less than what is quoted on B&H website - which is supposed to be one of the world's cheapest stores. I do not know the mystery behind this. And these are all official duty paid stuff with proper invoice. Nothing illegal here.

Anyway, back to the blimp. 

First of all - it's huge. Not just big. It's seriously H-U-G-E. Way larger than what I thought. I have extensively researched the product. Watched virtually every youtube video on it (not that there are too many of them out there) and asked all sorts of questions where I thought the video was good. But even I wasn't prepared for this pillow sized thing. Mampu had to hold it with both her hands to hold it for photography.

I opened the box and it transpired that this is the older generation blimp that Rode has recently discontinued. Am I upset? Actually I am glad. Because the new generation ones that come with Rycote's suspension system are meant only for thinner mics. The NT4 cannot, for example, be used with it. So I am happy about that. But there are lots of issues which I will jot down here. 

It is not easy to make this blimp work for both NT4 and ME66 simultaneously. You have to change a lot of things. It's not like taking off a lens and putting another one in its place. As of now the blimp is carrying the ME 66, which I inserted just now. But if I want to take it out and use my NT4 I will have to change a lot of things. First of all the clamps that hold the mic up will have to be taken off and new clamps put in their place. This process is not an easy one to do in the field. Next you have to change the XLR connecting cable from the supplied 3 pin one to a 5 pin one. It is not easy either.

The blimp does not come with a detailed manual but just a quick start guide. It is enough to get you started but for the detailed manual you have to go online and download it. Another problem is that it's tripod thread is different. The bigger variety.

Let me jot down the things that came in the box.

1. The big plastic blimp with detachable domes on either end.
2. The suspension system with a tail-end XLR connector. Doesn't look like high quality. In fact the new blimp apparently has a better third party branded tail piece.
3. The dead wombat
4. A comb for the dead wombat
5. Spare clips, spare gromets, rubber bands
6. A key for hex nuts
7. A bung (for inserting a new cable tail)

One problem I foresee is switching on/off the mic with the dead wombat on. One has to take it off and it's not easy because you have to ensure that it sits snug on the blimp. But I suppose batteries in the microphones last a very long time for this sort of reasons.

There are many points mentioned here but it took me a long time to learn them one by one - particularly this thing about the new one being not suitable for NT4. There is a certain fun in learning that way. It is more of a discovery following extensive exploration. 

Now the next step is to go out and record some good bird sounds. Manas is definitely going to give me some opportunity. But I don't know how to carry such huge equipment.