Airshow: On planes and weather
I did sound for a doc at an air show last month. It was a good excuse to finally buy a pair of HN-7506 cans. I will admit I’m a fan.
I suppose one could argue that they are overpriced. The component parts are a fairly standard aircraft headset with Sony 7506 drivers, and a coiled driver terminated with a 1/8 inch stereo jack, but Remote Audio has done a fair amount with the baffling and whatnot to ensure that they are a pretty good match to the industry-standard 7506s. Also, they have good customer support, so I’m not going to object.
Other than that, it was a fairly standard run and gun couple days: KMR-81i on the boom, A lectro set (401+400a) for interviews, and an SM-57. Yep, the hammer of the music recording studio. I basically used this as a plant mic, pointed towards the taxiway, or for other very high SPL situations, and a couple dirty ones where I didn’t feel comfortable pointing the -81i. With a constant stream of P-51s and loud radial engines, it did alright.
The noisiest thing of the day was a B-1B, which did a full-power climb over the runway. I turned the monitor pot all the way down for my ears, and tried not to ride the limiters too much. Between the two mics, it ended up sounding alright.