Rycote S-Series 330 Review

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The Rycote S-Series 330 finally came in the mail a few days ago! I’ve been wanting to build my field kit for a while now, and by getting this furry thing, I’m even more excited to complete the set with a Sound Devices recorded/mixer and field bag next. Why am I writing about this? Well, when I was looking for a blimp system, there were a limited number of reviews on this product. Hopefully this review will turn out to be beneficial for someone looking to get this.

Why Even Buy a Blimp System?

Coming from the post-production sound side of things, it’s highly important to capture great audio. Not only will the post-production team appreciate great recordings, but even the mixing engineers in the music industry will highly value the pristine recordings as well. Why? A lot of the times, recordings aren’t well done and therefore, editors/mixing engineers/’you name it’ have to spend extra time “fixing” the recordings by removing hums, hisses, pops, air conditioning, dollies moving, crew coughing, minimal laughter, infrasonic noise, and wind just to name a few. When money is an issue, the last thing a client would want to spend their money on is fixing what was done prior. And most importantly, the better the recording and performance, the better the end result will be.

S-Series 330 Kit

The S-330 is wrapped in a nice looking box. I was really amazed about how light it was even in the UPS box. You would swear that there wasn’t even anything in the box to begin with! And according to my good friend and production sound guru, Alan Chang, “Every ounce counts.” It really does. According to many people, the Rycote is much lighter than Rode’s Blimp System.

Opening the Rycote packaging, I couldn’t help but notice how big (but extremely light) the “pods” are. You can mix and match the pods to accommodate different sized mics. There’s a lot of fur and the pods shed for a good hour!!

The suspension kit is top notch! Rycote developed the Lyre suspension and it does its job extremely well (you’ll hear below). I put my Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic in the suspension with the included Neutrik shorty XLR cable and shook the darn thing vigorously. I noticed that the XLR didn’t “click” into place – more on this in a minute. To my surprise, there was noise BUT NOT from the Lyre suspension, but from the XLR connection specifically with the Rode NTG-2. Rode decided to make pin 1 longer than pin 2 and 3, and when the shorty XLR was plugged in and shaken, noise from the loose XLR connection came through due to the fact the XLR connector didn’t lock in place. In response to this, I took off the blue washer from the NTG-2 XLR port to see if that would get rid of the unwanted noise. Taking off the washer guaranteed a snug, locking fit, and it turns out that there was less noise. I don’t have another shotgun mic, so I’ll update this review when I plug in a Sennheiser MKH416 from work. I’ll assume that there would be no noise… ** Keep in mind that this should not skew your view on the S-330. The noise was emitted from the NTG-2 specifically ** It seems like there is at least one person out there who shares the same issue. Read here.

Update I tested the S330 kit with a MKH416 shotgun mic and there is NO NOISE AT ALL. It’s amazing. The 416 is a much shorter mic than the NTG-2 and doesn’t have a battery chamber. The 416 in the S330 seemed to be a solid mic-to-blimp team. Ultra light and you could swing the entire blimp and not hear a thing.

Keep in mind that super cardiod mics like the NTG-2 have a small rear pick-up pattern as well. The NTG-2 is also a really TIGHT fit. It’s probably one of the longer mics qualified (by Rycote) to fit in the S-330 kit. With that being said, there’s a chance that either the head or tail end of the NTG-2 might touch the tips of the pods, which may cause noise. I never had that experience, but it’s just something to look out for if you have a mic that is nearly as long as the S-Series kit.

One amazing thing about the Lyre suspension is that the handle has a nifty spot for the male end of the XLR cable. The male connector sits perfectly in the socket, waiting for another cable to wrap around the pole or if you have an internally cabled boom (like this one), this is even more convenient.

Let’s talk about the S-330′s performance. Please listen to the following demo. I placed the NTG-2 (with and without the blimp) literally 2 inches away from a fan at full speed. I could tell you more about it, but I think the demo will speak for itself.

Without the blimp, the audio is really unusable as it suffers from distortion and infrasonic frequencies. As mentioned before, the better the recording, the better the end result and possibly more money is saved in the long run.

The Rycote S-Series 330 is a great buy! It is extremely light and performs beautifully. Please let me know if you have any questions or need me to take specific pictures of the blimp system. I’ll be continuing to update this review as time goes on and as I get better mics on this furry thing. Comments are always appreciated!