Portable microphone stands?

[dgpretzel]

I'd like to do some field recording during a family visit over the holidays.

I'm quite a novice at recording, and wonder if there are any such thing as a portable mic stand? I'm thinking of something that is light weight, and could fit easily in a suitcase for traveling.

Most of what I see seem to be about 39" when fully compressed.

I understand I'd be losing stability, and probably couldn't use anything big or heavy, but I'm getting some small mics (Naiant X-Qs).

Some travel tripods can be very compact, and extend quite a bit, for their size. But, the ones I've seen max out at only about 40" high. Oh well, maybe better than nothing.

Thank you for any comments.

DG

 

[3rd&4thT]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but I saw a string quartet record themselves at a live concert (and sell the CD in the lobby afterwards) using a two-piece 7-foot mic stand that assembled into the letter H, with the top pieces bent outwards. Can anybody identify what I saw?

Best,
3rd&4thT

 

[gecko zzed]

I reckon a cheap camera tripod would do the trick

 

[hairylarry]

Camera tripods

I reckon a cheap camera tripod would do the trick

gecko zzed,

Most camera tripods come with 1/4 20 screws but I believe you can get some with the 3/8 inch screw that is also the European standard microphone mount. Then an adaptor from the 3/8 European standard takes you to the American 5/8-27 standard (if that's right) but it's the standard that all the mic clips you have screw into.

I've never done it but I've read about it. Anyone else have any info on Camera Tripods for mic stands?

What would be nice would be an adaptor to go from 1/4 20 to 5/8-27 or whatever is the right name for American microphone stand standard.

Anyone know where I can get some of these?

Thanks,

Hairy Larry

 

[dgpretzel]

Good question.

As you say, there seem to be many 3/8" to 5/8" adapters, but few 1/4" to 5/8", and they are quite expensive.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cach...+microphone+adapter&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=49&gl=us

DG

 

[Freya]

Apologies for raising the dead!

I've been searching for something like this for some time ever since i saw such a telescopic microphone stand like this on e-bay. The one on ebay came wit h a couple of nice microphones and went for a lot of money. It was from the 70's I reckon and you know what, it probably was right that it went for a lot of money because I have never seen a stand like it for sale since.

That was till today when I stumbled upon this:

http://www.hamiltonstands.com/mic/kb810-820.htm

Not sure if it would be tall enough for what you are talking of but it looks like it could be really portable. It's ironically still much bigger that the stand from the 70's which folded down to nothing at all virtually.

It looks like you could add sand bags or something to weigh down the base but then you would need to have the sand bags there! It might be possible to improvise with something. Either way this looks like a great stand especially for the price!

The table top stand looks a little silly to me OTOH but the full size stand is very nice.

It doesn't solve my problem tho as I'm over in the 51st state here but I wanted to share with the rest of you!

love

Freya

 

[Freya]

I too have been thinking of the camera tripod idea, you could always get one with a plastic hotshoe and epoxy a microphone clip to the end it. There is a very cheap and nasty aluminium tripod available from 7 day shop over here that has a nice hook in the bottom. This is incredibly useful as with the addition of a carrier bag and a large empty 2 or 3 litre bottle of lemonade, you can travel to your location, fill up with water at the other end (assuming you can get water there) and you have a nice weight to go under the tripod and hold it all down steady. Works great! Very stable! You could easily mount a stereo pair on such a setup too i am sure.

My other plan is to attach microphone clips to those cheap pound shop style clip on lamp holders and just clip the microphones to things rather than use stands at all. Not perfect but needs must when the devil drives and all that!

love

Freya

 

[gecko zzed]

The other possibility for solving your portable mike stand for working out in the field is to buy . . . a mike stand.

Admittedly most of the ones you get these days are fairly solid and heavy, designed for on stage. But I reckon there are some lightweight ones around.

Finding a tripod, which is ideally what you want, might be tricky.

 

[stevieb]

Gecko has a good idea (he and I seem to be forming something of a mutual admiriation society...)- just buy stands there. If you gotta bring them back, put 'em in a tube and check 'em into baggage.

 

[gecko zzed]

We seem to be tripping over ourselves i our desire to be helpful! Fortunately, our ideas are closely aligned!

I just did a web search for a conventional tripod stand, with no luck.

The other option is to use a camera tripod with one of those quick-release tops, and adapt the top to suit a mike cup.

 

[dgatwood]

Tripod threads are (I think) standard 1/4x20 threads, so what I'd to is start by buying a Radio Shack microphone clip. They come with a threaded chunk of metal that screws into the mic clip and sticks out about an inch. (I have no idea why they come with them...) Take a 1/4" nut, weld a large 1/4" flat washer to it, and weld the washer to that chunk of mic thread from the Radio Shack clip with the nut up inside it (or use solder or epoxy or something if you can't weld).

 

[Shadow_7]

I think you're over thinking this. (As I do all the time myself).

Camera tripod. + Camera mic bar + stereo bar + mics x2.

bhphotovideo dot com

I haven't used them as a source, but it's nice to check out their inventory. Adapters / clamps / stands / accessories / ???. Worst case scenario, just use a stereo bar and some vice grips to whatever is at hand. Tree branch? Chain link fence? Collapsible music stand? Baring weight, and stabilization issues as applicable.

 

[Shadow_7]

Or just use an old broken camera and a stereo bar on a tripod.

 

[Freya]

The other possibility for solving your portable mike stand for working out in the field is to buy . . . a mike stand.

Admittedly most of the ones you get these days are fairly solid and heavy, designed for on stage. But I reckon there are some lightweight ones around.

Finding a tripod, which is ideally what you want, might be tricky.

I think the point is that normal mike stands are just too big and cumbersome to carry around all the time and in my experience it's really hard to find more light portable ones, see my earlier posting.

The reason I revived this thread from the dead is because I wanted to let everyone know I had actually found portable microphone stands! Check out this link:

http://www.hamiltonstands.com/mic/kb810-820.htm

They look really amazing but I'm not in the states and over here it's actually preety easy to get camera tripod stands cheaply that are quite good for the task. It's just that personally I find those are often not all that portable either!
I think it would be preety easy to bolt a double head microphone thing to a camera tripod as someone here shows tho.

Anyway just wanted to let people know about the stands as not only do they look really practical they are quite cheap too!

love

Freya