Best Blimp for Microphone Wind Protection
Learn about what blimps are, how they work, and which one is best for you in this article!
When is comes to protecting your microphone from wind noise, there is no better solution than a blimp. As an added bonus, blimps also eliminate noise caused from handling, movements, and vibrations all in one tidy package.
This article will teach you about what blimps are, how they work, and how to use one. After that, I’ll introduce you to the best blimps for the professional, enthusiast, and beginner.
Links on this page are affiliated with Sovrn and Amazon Associates networks.
Click here to jump straight to the best blimp windscreens.
What Is A Blimp?
A blimp is a large windshield that fits over and surrounds the entire microphone. Other forms of wind protection, like foam covers and deadcats, only cover the microphone’s capsule.
This extra coverage makes blimps more effective at blocking wind and better suited for protecting longer mics like shotgun microphones.
The benefits of using a blimp windshield include:
less wind noise
no handling noise
no vibrational noise
How Do Blimps Work?
Blimps block wind noise by creating a calm pocket of air around the microphone. .
They do this by completely surrounding the mic with a thin layer of acoustic fabric. This material blocks wind but allows sound to pass through.
To add form and durability to the blimp, the foam is wrapped in a hard, outer shell called “the basket.” The basket has many large holes in it to allow sound to pass through freely and also to lower the overall weight of the blimp.
For additional wind protection, most blimps come with furry windscreens that pull over, and attach to the basket. If you plan to record outdoors with your blimp, make sure it comes with this extra layer of protection, you’ll need it.
An awesome bonus in buying a blimp is that most come with a shock mount. Shock mounts are essential for eliminating unwanted noise caused by vibrations, handling, and movement.
What Makes A Good Blimp?
Wind Attenuation
First and foremost, a blimp must do a good job at reducing the force of wind. A blimp’s ability to do this is called “wind attenuation,” and is measured in decibels (dB).
Blimps typically offer 40 dB of wind attenuation. This figure can be increased by adding a furry cover over the blimp, however, this added layer of protection can make your recording sound muffled.
Although this can be fixed in post with EQ, it is generally best to capture your audio as clearly as possible in the field. Not only will this lead to the highest-quality sound, it can also save you time in the studio.
Acoustic Transparency
The best blimps will have little to no impact on the sound of your audio. They will block the wind but allow the frequencies of your subject to pass through unchanged. In this sense, they are acoustically transparent.
As you can imagine, stopping the movement of air while allowing the movement of sound is not easy. To accomplish this feat, pro-level companies like Rycote spend lots of time and money researching materials fit for the job.
Lightweight
If you’re a boom operator, your arms will tell you how important equipment weight is. After an all-day shoot, a few ounces can really make a difference.
Easy To Setup
Being able to quickly change microphones and remove/install your blimp will not only make your life easier, but will speed up the entire production process.
This is especially important if your work requires you to jump back-and-forth between recording indoors and outdoors.
If your blimp has a lot of pieces and screws, this process can become excruciating. If this is important to you, spend the extra money on a blimp with premium features like a magnetic locking basket for instant installation and removal.
Where Are Blimps Used?
Blimps are most often used for recording location sound for films and other productions. On set, boom operators typically use them with shotgun microphones for recording dialog.
Without a blimp, recording good sound would be very difficult. Wind noise would be a problem when moving the microphone back-and-forth between subjects quickly, and also from the ambient environment outdoors. Handling noise would also be a problem, as would any vibrations caused by nearby machines.
A blimp solves all of these problems and is why they are so popular on production sets.
Will It Fit My Microphone?
Before purchasing a blimp, make sure that it will fit the total length of your microphone. This sounds really obvious, but it’s easy to overlook this specification and end up with a blimp that is too short.
Each blimp recommendation on this page clearly states the maximum supported microphone size for your convenience.
If you find a blimp that you like but find it is too short, you most likely can purchase a blimp extension for that model. Here are some extensions for popular blimp models.
The Best Blimp Windscreens
Best Overall: Rycote Cyclone Windshield
If you are looking for a professional blimp with all the bells and whistles, the Cyclone Windshield from Rycote pulls out all the stops.
You’ll notice that the Cyclone has a very unique design. That’s because it’s wrapped in 3D-Tex, Rycote’s latest innovation.
This material is able to greatly reduce the speed of wind without the need of an additional fur layer. With this new technology, the Cyclone Blimp boasts a wind attenuation value of 50 dB.
This also makes the Cyclone lightweight. The entire basket, suspension system, and boom adapter weighs just 590g.
Besides being great at blocking wind and keeping things light, 3D-Tex is almost totally transparent with just -3 dB signal attenuation.
One of the best features on the Cyclone is its magnetic-locking basket. This design provides instant, one-hand microphone access for quick changes on the fly. Watch the video below to see this in action.
Wind Attenuation: 50dB
Max Length: 280 mm
Diameter: 19 - 25 mm
Weight: 590g
Deadcat not included (link to one here)
Boom adapter included
Best Value: Rode Blimp Windshield
The Blimp Windshield and Rycote Shock Mount Suspension System from Rode is an all-in-one package designed to provide your shotgun microphone with protection from wind noise and isolation from shock and vibration.
You get the blimp, dual Rycote shockmount, Rode pistol grip and pull-over deadcat all in one tidy package.
The Rode blimp will create a large pocket of calm air around your shotgun mic while holding it noiselessly between 2 shock mounts.
For very windy conditions, it includes a deadcat that fits over the entire blimp for next-level wind protection.
It also comes with the Rode pistol grip for hand-held recordings. Alternatively, it can be mounted to a mic stand or boom pole via standard 3/8” thread.
Although Rode doesn’t list a value for wind attenuation, Rycote makes a deadcat specifically for the Rode blimp and by their testing, they say their deadcat + the Rode blimp equals 50 dB of wind attenuation.
Rycote’s deadcats are some of the best and are rated for 10 dB of wind attenuation alone. Considering this, I think a good estimation for the Rode blimp is 40 dB of attenuation.
The biggest downside to the Rode Blimp is its slow setup time. The blimp is 3 separate pieces and is held in place with two tension screws. That’s 5 steps you’ll have to take every time you want put the blimp on/off or make a microphone change.
Wind Attenuation: ≈ 40dB
Max Length: 325 mm
Diameter: 19 - 22 mm
Weight: 550g (674g w/deadcat)
Deadcat included
Rode PG2-R Pistol Grip included
Best for Low Budgets: Micolive Blimp Windshield
The Micolive Blimp Windshield is a clone of the Rode Blimp available for about half the price.
After researching the Micolive, it seems that the only differences are that it does not include a brush for the furry windscreen, the suspension system is not made by Rycote, the handle is more ergonomic, and the furry windscreen is a very tight fit.
The windscreen is the biggest complaint about this product, prompting Micolive to make an instructional video about how to put it on → video.
Other than that, the two blimps have identical specifications. Given this, I think it’s safe to assume that its wind attenuation is the same as the Rode at about 40 dB.
Wind Attenuation: ≈ 40 dB
Max Length: 325 mm
Diameter: 19 - 22 mm
Weight: 550g (w/o deadcat)
Deadcat included
Pistol Grip included
Comparison Video
Below is a great video comparing the Micolive Blimp to the Rode Blimp. When this video was filmed, the Rode Blimp did not include the furry windscreen, but it does now.
Blimp Extensions
If your microphone is longer that 325 mm, you’ll need an extension. If that’s the case, you’ll need to go with the Rode blimp because the Micolive blimp doesn’t have one.
I originally thought that you could use the Rode extension on the Micolive but the threads on the Rode look wider so I’m not sure the extension is cross-compatible.
The blimp extension kit from Rode comes with a 256mm blimp extension piece, two sets of rigid silicone bands, extra long fur windshield, and a comb.
Final Thoughts
After thoroughly researching this subject, I would save the money and go for the Micolive Blimp. It is a lot cheaper than the Rode, does the same job, and has all the same features. However, sound is my hobby, not my job. If you are a professional, the Rycote Cyclone is worth the price for its performance and features.
Support Acoustic Nature
If you enjoyed this post and would like to help support Acoustic Nature, please consider "buying me a coffee" or becoming a Patreon with the buttons below.
As a thank you for your support, Patreon supporters receive a copy of Field Recording For Beginners, exclusive access to the full Behind The Sounds video series, nature sound library downloads, and more.
If you are unable to support the site financially, please share this post with others, or leave a comment below letting me know you enjoyed this post! Both are free and help the website grow. Thank you ♫
Thanks for reading,
-Jared
