Rycote Nanoshield 2023 vs… Cinela?

[Derek H]

I like the minimalist lightweight look of the Rycote nanoshields but how are they comparing in the field? I read that early models had a handling noise issue that was possibly sorted out by new fabric? NAB 2023 seems to be showing them with the new fabric as standard. Or maybe that’s another new fabric?
 

The Cinela piano works great but is heavy ands bit over-engineered if you ask me. The original Rycote Modular system still seems to work great… the cyclone looks ridiculous and heavy to me but I haven’t tried it so who knows. 

 

So where does this Nanoshield fit in? Does it offer the same amount of wind protection as the traditional modular system?

 

 Thanks to anyone with some real time using these who would like to share. 

[Dave Pullmer]

I have not heard the best reviews for the nanoshield with handling noise. I agree I like the design though.

 

Cinela is obviously better in that regard, but I find myself sticking in the rycote camp just because the form factor is easier and smaller to pack in bags, which is helpful for how I organize my kit.

[DanieldH]

For what mics, length? What kind of wind conditiones? The original Rycote modular rumbles as well or more. 

Piano and Pianissimo rumble too but less than Rycote modular and I've seen minor mods at the joint fixture to improove it. 

Cinela does provide different fur length and a raincoat, the Nano comes with a well designed handle and is easier to fit to different mics and can loose the basket completely if you switch from outdoor to indoor sitiations.

Cinela also may be a more sympathetic "designer run" company as of today.

Pianissimo does have some parts that like to break, the Nano seems not to, though it may be still young to tell. (My magnets did come out, but that was not crucial)

IMHO none is technically "better" but it depends on a number of considerations.

[r.paterson]

All reports even with the nano shield latest mod  are it's still has the same problem. I've avoided buying one as reports here in UK are mostly negative from most users and they are all moving to cinela as the nanoshield problem still exists, the filter rfi cable is a winner tho. Also Rycote is closing its Lifelong factory in UK in May and moving elsewhere and not taking its staff with it. Looks like it's on the downslope since bought by Vitec  to add Ive found most deakers just sell the old unmodded  stock there isn't a product  recall so dealers want to sell what's still sitting on the shelf. 

[Spin360]

Cannot recommend the Nano Shield, even with their upgrade.

 

Handling noise is a huge issue with that one.

[Derek H]

Well that all sucks. Isn’t Vitec the same conglomerate that bought petrol bags?

 

 I’m mainly thinking of a new blimp for a MKH50 or similar sized mic. Mini CMIT perhaps. 
 

The Cosi is great for light wind days but there’sa lot of gray area of when exactly it starts getting too windy. 
 

I’m slightly confused as to what Rycote considers is it’s top of the line windshield these days. Is it the cyclone? Or this nanoshield or is the old Modular still the gold standard? Maybe they don’t know either?

[VASI]

 

 

 

[Wlad]

3 hours ago, Derek H said:

Well that all sucks. Isn’t Vitec the same conglomerate that bought petrol bags?

 

 I’m mainly thinking of a new blimp for a MKH50 or similar sized mic. Mini CMIT perhaps. 
 

The Cosi is great for light wind days but there’sa lot of gray area of when exactly it starts getting too windy. 
 

I’m slightly confused as to what Rycote considers is it’s top of the line windshield these days. Is it the cyclone? Or this nanoshield or is the old Modular still the gold standard? Maybe they don’t know either?

Cosi is on the same level as old rycote modular systems at wind protection. And way better with handling noise.

[Derek H]

Yeah I’ve used the Cosi a bunch and I just don’t agree. It’s great to a point and then a full size windshield, Rycote or a piano is needed if it’s really windy. 

[Tong0615]

I partially replaced my Pianissimo with Nano Shield, with the Nano Shield I can switch between Sennheiser MKH8060 and MKH8050 by only switching the shield module, that gives me a lot more flexibility compared to the pianissimo. And the Nano Shield is lighter than the Pianissimo. About the handling noise, I just need to adapt my way of booming and know what kind of movements I need to avoid, that's not a big issue. It was the same with Pianissimo MS Setup.

 

Once I was working on a film about wind, the Pianissimo with MKH8060 did not survive under the 230km/h wind situation, but the Cyclone from Rycote with MiniCIMIT did the job. 

 

I would say, see what one can improve with the booming technique before blaming the equipment, compared to the old windshield, the Nano Shield is a thousand miles better. 

[Shane Munro]

Wow Tong0615!
 

That’s a pretty extreme situation.
A fair comparison? Maybe not.

[DanieldH]

230km/h is a pretty irrelevant condition (but might show strudiness in a way), Pia/ni vs Cyclone is a much fairer comparison in terms of rumble than Pia/ni vs Nano as the former have both effectively decoupled baskets. This comes with the price of more weight. Im my experience Nano is in terms of rumble in the Modular/Supershield/Blimp camp. In my case, a CD size for the SuperCMIT. The "rumbling issue" there may be in general, that low rumbling due to the eliptic basket shape was promised and that the rather small sizes that compete with the Cosi may have special rumbling effects.

[colinmk]

230km/h, you'd be stone dead, never mind the Cinela! 

[Tong0615]

4 hours ago, colinmk said:

230km/h, you'd be stone dead, never mind the Cinela! 

Almost, that was a project about the wind "Bora" in Croatia, was physically extremely challenging, (The local people said they measured 235 km/h at that night, the exact spot we were shooting might not be so strong but was still extreme) I felt very fortunate that beside the Pianissimo I had the Cyclone with me, otherwise would not be possible in that situation. 

[Spin360]

17 hours ago, Tong0615 said:

I would say, see what one can improve with the booming technique before blaming the equipment, compared to the old windshield, the Nano Shield is a thousand miles better. 

While I agree to some extent, it's easy to say when you work in a controlled and planned environment.

Once you do hectic or spontaneous reports and docus you will be forced to switch positions and angles without warning and in such an environment the nano shield is just a complete failure.

Even bought a Hide-a-mic re:pose to try to fix it (plus the 3d tex upgrade) and with years of experience the handling noise is still too much. A colleague of mine is selling his for this reason.

 

(To be honest the re:pose didn't have an effect at all.)

 

I would love to use my nano shield more, but if the audio quality suffers then I can't.

Only use it for loud environments where I know handling noise won't be too much if an issue.

[Throwback]

I know it probably won't help those encountering evident problems with their Nano Shields, and does not touch on Cinelas at all, but I spent some time comparing the handling noise of my medium Cyclone vs one of my two Nano Shields for my own interest - not least to see if I was missing something - and have written it up. If nothing else, it might stimulate others to clarify what set ups are giving issues: certainly it brought home to me that lyre shore values don't translate from old style to Nano Shield style, and that info on the latter isn't easy to find. I did find the attached table though, which may be of use.

 

Oh, and the blog article if anyone is interested is here: https://drbadphil.com/https-drbadphil-com-cyclone-and-nano-shield-comparing-handling-noise

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

 

[Derek H]

Wow, thanks Roland. Love your blog btw. 

[Throwback]

3 hours ago, Derek H said:

Wow, thanks Roland. Love your blog btw. 

Thanks Derek!

[Spin360]

12 hours ago, Throwback said:

I know it probably won't help those encountering evident problems with their Nano Shields, and does not touch on Cinelas at all, but I spent some time comparing the handling noise of my medium Cyclone vs one of my two Nano Shields for my own interest - not least to see if I was missing something - and have written it up. If nothing else, it might stimulate others to clarify what set ups are giving issues: certainly it brought home to me that lyre shore values don't translate from old style to Nano Shield style, and that info on the latter isn't easy to find. I did find the attached table though, which may be of use.

 

Oh, and the blog article if anyone is interested is here: https://drbadphil.com/https-drbadphil-com-cyclone-and-nano-shield-comparing-handling-noise

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

 

Strangely your results are vastly different from my tests. Granted my tests were very rudimentary.

I have a medium cyclone and a bank shield with upgrade, using the correct lyres od course. Test was slight fingerdrumming on the boom pole, once in the basketed cyclone and basketed nano shield.

 

The difference for me was around 8db more noise on the bank shield though. Clearly a lot louder.

 

From your pictures I gather that you mounted the mic very front heavy... Maybe i should try that as well. Otherwise I'm very intrigued as what the heck could be the difference between our Nano shields.

[Throwback]

2 hours ago, Spin360 said:

 

Strangely your results are vastly different from my tests. Granted my tests were very rudimentary.

I have a medium cyclone and a bank shield with upgrade, using the correct lyres od course. Test was slight fingerdrumming on the boom pole, once in the basketed cyclone and basketed nano shield.

 

The difference for me was around 8db more noise on the bank shield though. Clearly a lot louder.

 

From your pictures I gather that you mounted the mic very front heavy... Maybe i should try that as well. Otherwise I'm very intrigued as what the heck could be the difference between our Nano shields.

 

Yes, I thought about mounting positions as a variable, and did a couple of quick tests to see if there was any significant impact on changing this a bit: there was none in this case. The HC-22 has a very light (aluminium) interference tube and a brass-barreled preamp, so is very much weighted to the back: the centre of gravity of the mic and its XLR connector was, as a result, nicely between the lyres (15mm behind the front lyre). The mic as set up for the tests (and in the photos) is exactly centrally positioned in the NS-DB4 Nano Shield basket: the front end of the mic is just short of the hemisphere at the front of the basket. I'd say that is a perfect set up, but evidently you are doing something very different: what? A photo would help.

 

Which Nano Shield model did you test, with what mic and what lyres? And, assuming the same mic, what Cyclone model and what lyres?

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

[Spin360]

5 hours ago, Throwback said:

 

Yes, I thought about mounting positions as a variable, and did a couple of quick tests to see if there was any significant impact on changing this a bit: there was none in this case. The HC-22 has a very light (aluminium) interference tube and a brass-barreled preamp, so is very much weighted to the back: the centre of gravity of the mic and its XLR connector was, as a result, nicely between the lyres (15mm behind the front lyre). The mic as set up for the tests (and in the photos) is exactly centrally positioned in the NS-DB4 Nano Shield basket: the front end of the mic is just short of the hemisphere at the front of the basket. I'd say that is a perfect set up, but evidently you are doing something very different: what? A photo would help.

 

Which Nano Shield model did you test, with what mic and what lyres? And, assuming the same mic, what Cyclone model and what lyres?

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

I'm using a CMIT 5u in a NS4-DB nano shield - blue lyres.

Got no photo on hand as I don't even use the nano shield because of this.

 

I've also tried positioning the lyres differently, like further apart, closer together etc.

Nothing changed, no matter what I do with the exception being removing the blimp.

[Throwback]

Well that's very odd: as you say, all correct in terms of basket size and lyre shore hardness. And the NS4-DB is the same model as I was testing. Presumably you changed the suspension arm bit with the upgrade kit as well as the 3D-Tex? Not sure beyond mic what other variables there are, other than how the lyres were spaced and the mic placed.

 

I'm happy with my testing: testing both windshields on the same pole at the same time removes the biggest problem with comparisons, and I repeated the whole set of tests, on different days, and got the same results. Since the upgrade, I've been very happy with my two Nano Shields, and relieved rather that testing didn't show I was missing some problem along the lines you have encountered. The tests made me think more about Nano Shield lyres, and now I will pick up a pair of the red 55-shore lyres to use in conjunction with my smaller NS2-CA Nano Shield for use with my very lightweight SC-08 supercardioid. If you have some (or are prepared to risk buying some), it might be worth testing 55-shore lyres with your mic: in general I find Rycote suggest lyres that are perhaps a bit on the stiff side (hence my dropping to 62 shore lyres for the HC-22 in the Cyclone), and the new Nano Shield lyres have a lot of lateral and vertical stiffness, so shouldn't make an 89g mic overly floppy/in danger of hitting the basket during fast boom swings.

 

Cheers,

 

Roland

[GHammer]

On 4/21/2023 at 7:36 AM, Tong0615 said:

I partially replaced my Pianissimo with Nano Shield, with the Nano Shield I can switch between Sennheiser MKH8060 and MKH8050 by only switching the shield module, that gives me a lot more flexibility compared to the pianissimo. And the Nano Shield is lighter than the Pianissimo. About the handling noise, I just need to adapt my way of booming and know what kind of movements I need to avoid, that's not a big issue. It was the same with Pianissimo MS Setup.

 

Once I was working on a film about wind, the Pianissimo with MKH8060 did not survive under the 230km/h wind situation, but the Cyclone from Rycote with MiniCIMIT did the job. 

 

I would say, see what one can improve with the booming technique before blaming the equipment, compared to the old windshield, the Nano Shield is a thousand miles better. 

We seem to have the same setup, 8050 and 8060 (even the pianissimo MS) and I'm highly interested by your utilisation of nano shield for run and gun situation or for a small backpack.  I'd like one mount for the two mics and have possibility to use the 50 outdoors. Dont' you have any problem with cable lenght when you switch the configuration? I guess you use the kit NS3 CB?