recording in extreme cold

  • Thread starter Thread starter trooly
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trooly

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Hi there
I will go to Tibet in december and january to shoot some documentary for TV. I can use Fostex PD 4 or Nagra D as a recorder, Sennheiser MKH 416, AKG C-451 with various capsules, AKG C-522 ( X/Y and MS ) and Shure radio mics as microphones.
Does anybody have experience working in conditions like that, cold as hell and very high ( above 4000 m ), and generaly any sugestion is very aprecciated.
Thanks in advance
 
Welcome trooly! The only advice I can offer is to wear
extra warm thermal underwear and drink plenty of hot chocolate!

Good Luck!
 
Looks not easy. Best thing would be to contact the manufacturers of the gear.

Only thing that comes to mind: keep the tape out of the cold because it will get brittle, and the recorders because oil at that temp can become hard. Also beware of condensation.

A recorder with big knobs and switches might be handy if wearing gloves while working. Try it before you leave.

Good lick and a nice trip!
 
There aren't a lot of guys doing location audio here. You might want to try a film sound effects and location sound type of BBS for some real world experience in those conditions. I did do a bit of film audio but I usually had to contend with heat not cold.

The Nagra is pretty rugged but I would be concerned about the tape. Digital might be a better choice but I'm not sure how well they operate in cold, moist climates. Contacting the mfgs is a good idea.

Whatever you decide on bring a backup recorder.
 
Cold

I also wonder about topicality of a question about recording in Tibet in a "home recording" forum.

Look out for "muffled" sound.

Don't look out for Bigfoot ... he lives in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, BC, maybe Northern Cal). You may want to keep an eye out for Yetis, though.
 
All the above, plus a second-hand anecdote to illustrate how wierd things can get -

My old boss told me this about 30 years ago (he's dead now, only the bad live forever)

At the time, boss worked for Ampex as a field service rep. He got sent to alaska to fix a wierd problem with an old Ampex AG-350 (If I remember correctly) Anyway, he gets there, and this deck has bad noises coming from inside BEFORE he even tries to power it up - he takes off the covers, and the capstan flywheel is LAYING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE REAR COVER ! He then calls his boss in the main office, asks how this can be, and is told that it's not possible. Then, he asks the user of the deck how/what/where he uses it, etc, and finds out that the guy had taken it home in the trunk of his car so he could do a remote the next morning, and when he tried to use it it wouldn't work.

To make a long story just a little longer, turns out Ampex assembled the flywheel to the capstan shaft by freezing the shaft with dry ice and heating the flywheel, then assembling the two in a jig and letting them come back to temp. The shaft was stainless steel and the flywheel was bronze or something, and when the guy left the deck in his car trunk the cold shrunk the shaft enough that the flywheel FELL OFF...

Sooo, among other things, maybe take one of those Coleman softside coolers with the shoulder straps and keep the recorder in it with just the mic cord sticking out thru the zipper? Maybe the self-heat of the unit will help that way. Tube gear, anyone??
 
you could get one of those big foamy wind blockers for yer mic's.

those are always fun..... block the frigin frigid air
 
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