I'm either in Florida or the Northeast during the summer so I also tape a few desiccants inside ziplock to prevent moisture buildup.
Not sure if it would be considered a recommended method but it seems to work.

sharke


The dust that settles here in New York is atrocious...any large city in fact. I run an air cleaner all the time, it's a pretty kick-ass one (IQ Air) and has 3 stages of filtration in it. I add an extra coarse dust pad to the bottom of the chain, and it's incredible what that picks up in the space of a week. I cannot help but think that if it wasn't stuck to this pad, it would be in my lungs, in my computer, in my mic and everything else. 

You know you are a true New Yorker when you blow your nose and the snot is black.

I generally keep my mics set up and covered so I can quickly be able to record those ideas that come to me at odd moments. If I have to set up everything to record one of these inspirations, I usually lose them... For covers, I use Crown Royal bags (available on eBay), which I washed to remove lint.

Dang, I haven't shut off my computer in 3 years and havent ever put away a mic, despite having one of those nice lunch box carrying cases for them.  I'm a bad mic daddy

i even let fall mics from their loose stands - ruined a 1k tube mic like this a few weeks ago :-)

AT

sharke


The dust that settles here in New York is atrocious...any large city in fact. I run an air cleaner all the time, it's a pretty kick-ass one (IQ Air) and has 3 stages of filtration in it. I add an extra coarse dust pad to the bottom of the chain, and it's incredible what that picks up in the space of a week. I cannot help but think that if it wasn't stuck to this pad, it would be in my lungs, in my computer, in my mic and everything else. 

You know you are a true New Yorker when you blow your nose and the snot is black.

You would think that, but surprisingly enough my snot sparkles. Same goes for my fingernails. 

I never use more than 2 mics in a given session and it only takes a minute or so to put them both back in their cases.  I also keep my mic/guitar cables rolled up and stored away in a plastic bin when not in use, and every hardware item (e.g., synths, Maschine, controllers) has a dedicated and custom-fitted dust cover.  But, then again, I'm sorta a neat-freak.  

Dedicated room so I just cover them when not in use,
Roy

Yea the pillow cases are close by (I'm right next to my wife's domain, the laundry room)and not the best solution.

I'm switching to the plastic sandwich bag thing...good suggestion 

Something to think about for those who are constantly putting their mic's away. You can only drop something you have in your hand. Every time you pull it from the mount, remove the cable start walking with it in your hand you are sending the odds that you will drop it into the "it could happen" territory. The cable connections on my 414 TL II's is very snug and I approach them with extreme caution every time I set them up. I always handle my microphones with extreme care but I try not to handle them at all. 

As for covering mic's, I used to do that but I had a couple occasions of leaving the studio and returning the next day to resume the previous evening's work only to discover I'd left the cloth bag on the mic for the first 30 minutes of the day. I'd get up to check something in the iso room and discover the bag is still on the mic.

All the microphones I've examined seemed to have some kind of fine cloth on the inside of the windscreen. I always figured that would keep out most of the particles.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe in taking care of my gear. I know there is dust all about. I try to minimize my handling of most of my mic's. I tend to use the same mic in the same applications often so many are always in the same stand and they always travel together. The only ones I move about more frequently are the LDC's.

My cables are meticulously coiled and hang on hangers in my main room. I keep a few specialized short cables in the iso room. I regularly refresh my cable layouts for continuing setups as I hate them to look all tangled. I use little doubles sided velcro strips to wrap them into little looms to keep them neat. I hate to leave a cable running across the middle of the room over night but I have to sometimes. I would love to have multiple panels in my room so I could keep the middle of the floor clear as much as possible. When I must leave a mic set in the middle of the room over night I will wind the cables from the panel to the stand (therefore not handling or moving the mic).

Cheers, William