Shure SM7B / SM7dB - any experience

[Lt. Bob]

Moisture on the diaphragm is a BIG problem. It happened to one of my condenser mics in Stanwell Park. Just a tiny bit of mould on the thing and it started to deteriorate. That place was humid - ran a dehumidifier quite a lot. We are in a very humid place now and I'm struggling to get some rooms down to about 65%. Air conditioning deals with humidity well but you recording space may be immune.

my mics never sit out .... not ever.
Unless I'm actively singing into them I put them in their mic bags with a pack of silica gel .... doesn't take that long to set them up or take them down.

[Armistice]

Moisture on the diaphragm is a BIG problem. It happened to one of my condenser mics in Stanwell Park. Just a tiny bit of mould on the thing and it started to deteriorate. That place was humid - ran a dehumidifier quite a lot. We are in a very humid place now and I'm struggling to get some rooms down to about 65%. Air conditioning deals with humidity well but you recording space may be immune.

I just pulled it apart and there was some black build up on the diaphragm, so I removed it with alcohol and reassembled and tested. Hard to tell if it's made any difference.

I was just glad to be able to get the damn thing back together. Disassembly wasn't exactly intuitive!

[rayc]

Moisture on the diaphragm is a BIG problem. It happened to one of my condenser mics in Stanwell Park. Just a tiny bit of mould on the thing and it started to deteriorate. That place was humid - ran a dehumidifier quite a lot. We are in a very humid place now and I'm struggling to get some rooms down to about 65%. Air conditioning deals with humidity well but you recording space may be immune.

my mics never sit out .... not ever.
Unless I'm actively singing into them I put them in their mic bags with a pack of silica gel .... doesn't take that long to set them up or take them down.

I learnt that when this event happened. High n dry.
Yes, it's only a click away after all.

[rayc]

Moisture on the diaphragm is a BIG problem. It happened to one of my condenser mics in Stanwell Park. Just a tiny bit of mould on the thing and it started to deteriorate. That place was humid - ran a dehumidifier quite a lot. We are in a very humid place now and I'm struggling to get some rooms down to about 65%. Air conditioning deals with humidity well but you recording space may be immune.

I just pulled it apart and there was some black build up on the diaphragm, so I removed it with alcohol and reassembled and tested. Hard to tell if it's made any difference.

I was just glad to be able to get the damn thing back together. Disassembly wasn't exactly intuitive!

I'd suggest giving it some time to completely dry out inside - not just the alcohol. Also, if the black was mould then the moisture could still be inside...set up somewhere safe with the cap off in an air conditioned room would work as would silica beads, rice, anything that can absorb.

[vomitHatSteve]

If it was black mold, probably a good time to clean it anyway. You don't wanna be breathing that stuff!

It'd be real ironic to survive all the spiders and snakes only to succumb to the same fungus the rest of us get.

[Armistice]

If it was black mold, probably a good time to clean it anyway. You don't wanna be breathing that stuff!

It'd be real ironic to survive all the spiders and snakes only to succumb to the same fungus the rest of us get.

Mould is a constant here in the subtropics...

Take your eye of something and next thing it's covered in furry grey stuff. Guitar cases are particularly problematic. Always have vinegar on hand.

I'm not entirely sure it was mould anyway, could have just been accumulated grunge.

I did have a thought that, because it's summer and the microphone is positioned underneath the aircon intake grill and the aircon is on when recording and thus I've employed the mic rumble filter, which I've never previously done preferring to deal with any rogue low frequencies via HPF in the DAW, perhaps that's affected more than just the low frequencies.

Hard to say as the song I'm currently dealing with is way up high for me, so there's not much low stuff in it anyway. Haven't, so far, noticed an improvement via the mic position Farview suggested but I haven't gone in to really work on the vocal yet. Plosives are definitely reduced but I can still hear this wolf tone harshness on certain vowel sounds...

I'll do my usual vocal work on Monday so I'll know then, I guess.