If you unpacked rental lav mics and you see that they include un-needed but firmly attached foam windscreens, would you endeavor to remove the windscreens or just use them as provided?

48:41and play in the cracks, as they say, sing in the crack. And Ronnie? I'm going to say that the most used pitch tool scenarios we have is karaoke. Damned with faint praise. Let's go to the next question. Next one comes in from New York City. Brody Hefner asks, if you unpacked rental loft mics and you see that they include an unneeded but firmly attached foam windscreens, would you endeavor to remove the windscreens

49:22or just use them as provided? I take it you're unpacking the mics that you rented, not that came back from your rental and back into your stock. Let's, Craig? So I've got a couple of approaches to this. One is, the first question is, what are you using them for? If this is something where you need a very specific look, if it's on close-up cameras, and how distracting the windscreens are, I would try and take them off.

49:55But I would also, before that, specify that in my rental order, talking with my regular assortment of vendors to make sure I got what I wanted in the first place. and if they didn't come that way hopefully my production team has got that order in with enough time that i can call the shop and get them to send me the right thing if not

50:17jeff francis yeah i would uh probably remove them just for those reasons of look um and you know i don't mind tinkering with things so i'll get in there even as they're firmly attached i'll figure out how to take them off correctly. I'm famous for trying to remove something or take something apart and breaking it. I feel your pain, Brody. Bill Davis?

50:41I'm a victim of what I call degenerated foam windscreen rash. Some of my older Sennheiser 421s came in the original cases, and I guess they used a formulation that literally if you left it three years in a storage unit or something like that, I came in and opened the box. All the foam that used to cradle the mic was just completely destroyed.

51:05And it got me to the point where if I can get rid of foam in encasing things, I tend to do it. But again, I think it's a reaction to those bad experiences I had with a lot of outgassed, fall-apart foam for many years. I think the formulations are better now. And so, yeah, but I think that's going to continue for the rest of my life.

51:30I don't like foam windscreens. I like them when I need them, and God bless them if I have a little breeze behind me and I'm getting the low-frequency wind noise. But I like getting rid of them as quickly as I can. Courtney? Yeah, there's two types of foam. One turns into a powder, which gets into the mic elements, and the other turns into gooey mess glue.

51:56So it depends on what type of plastic was used in the foam. But as far as foam windscreens on lovs go, there are two things to consider. Are you hiding the lov underneath clothing? If you are, you want to take the windscreen off probably because it will rub and make noise on the clothing. and B, you probably won't need it because the clothing will form a wind barrier to the microphone even if you're outdoors.

52:22If you're not hiding the lav underneath clothing, another thing to consider is besides wind noise, they also prevent pops from a lot of times people snort, you know, will blow some air out of their nose or guffaw or something. and so you might have some it does have some effect as a pop filter depending upon where you're putting it if it's in the explosive zone so take care of that

52:49and if they're especially if they're painted these days a lot of people are paint matching the lobs of the windscreen and the cable to the wardrobe and so if it comes pre painted be careful about removing it because it's gonna look ugly underneath because it may not be painted correctly directly underneath. All right, well that's that. I want to extend my most sincere thank you