Shock mount

In a variety of applications, a shock mount is a mechanical fastener that connects two parts elastically. They are used for shock and vibration isolation.

Rubber bushings compress synthetic rubber rings on bolts to provide some isolation. Other shock mounts have mechanical springs or an elastomer (in tension or compression) engineered to isolate an item from specified mechanical shock and vibration. Some form of dashpot is usually used with a spring to provide viscous damping. Viscoelastic materials are common. Maxwell and Kelvin–Voigt models of viscoelasticity use springs and dashpots in series and parallel circuits respectively. Hydraulic and pneumatic components can be included, depending on the use.

Shock mounts for microphones can provide basic protection from damage, but their prime use is to isolate microphones from mechanically transmitted noise. This can originate as floor vibrations transmitted through a floor stand, or as "finger" and other handling noise on boom poles. All microphones behave to some extent as accelerometers, with the most sensitive axis being perpendicular to the diaphragm. Additionally, some microphones contain internal elements such as vacuum tubes and transformers which can be inherently microphonic. These are often cushioned by resilient internal methods, in addition to the employment of external isolation mounts.

Traditionally the large side-address studio microphone has been strung in a "cat's cradle" mount, using fabric-wound rubber elastic elements to provide isolation. These designs still find some favour, although the elements tend to deteriorate, and sag with time. Newer designs, such as Rycote's "USM" lyre [4], use plastic elastomers, and patented spring shapes to reduce this problem.

For end-fire microphones, most often employed for location work, similar elastic stringing was once used. More recently designs moved to o-ring elements, before the Rycote Lyre [5] and Cinela Osix [6] suspensions were introduced. These use spring element designs that give far greater displacement along the microphone's prime axis, while limiting it on the other two. This enables excellent isolation while retaining good control of the microphone.

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