A Sound Recordist's Toolbox: Radius Mini-ALTO 180
- Dan Guest
- Apr 17
- 5 min read
A few weeks ago, I bought the much anticipated Radius Mini-ALTO 180 Windshield & RAD-2 kit, a microphone suspension and windshield kit designed to fit one of my favourite microphones, the Sennheiser MKH50. In this blog, I’m going to dive into how it all works, why I got one, what’s great about it and maybe even some ideas for improvements in further iterations of the kit.
What is it and how does it work?
For other sound professionals working in the industry, most will probably be familiar with the Radius brand by now, but for those uninitiated, Radius is a fairly new professional sound accessory brand specialising in microphone accessories, particularly microphone shock mounts and windshield kits. They were established by Simon Davies, a previous engineer, MD and owner of the iconic Rycote brand for over 30 years and responsible for a lot of their innovative products, so Radius is certainly a brand that I was keen to keep an eye on and try out their products as soon as possible!
I first came across the Radius RAD shock mount kits online which looked impressive enough, but it was the next stage of their development that I was mainly excited about… the Mini-ALTO windshield range! A few years back, I bought myself a Sennheiser MKH50 microphone and until recently it’s been housed in an old second-hand Rycote windshield kit. It’s been doing a decent job, but the Rycote basket had taken a bit of a beating and was creating a little more handling noise compared to my more modern Rycote windshield kit I use for my Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun mic. So, I was in the market for a new windshield kit and when I heard and read about the new Mini-ALTOs, I knew I had to try them with my MKH50!
The main feature of the Mini-ALTO, and what makes it stand out from similar products on the market, is it’s light-weight, small, magnetic basket design. As you can see in photos and the video in this blog, it’s so easy to connect and disconnect, making the setup and de-rig process a breeze. My kit came with a bunch of items too that make up the Mini-ALTO windshield, including; a black fur windcover, 4x pairs of suspension hoops and clips for different size microphones, a magnetic stowage holder for the windshield with a carabiner clip, small cable straps and a short balanced XLR cable (optional).
Radius Mini-ALTO 180… ASSEMBLE!
Shortly after my Radius package arrived from retailer Pinknoise Systems, I made a timelapse video of my assembly of the Sennheiser MKH50 into the new Mini-ALTO 180. You can check that out here and also still available to watch in my reels on my Instagram page.
It was fairly straightforward to setup, the only issues I ran into was routing the short XLR cable from the mic down to the holder on the RAD shock mount. I was having some trouble with the cable hitting against either the mic itself or the suspension hoops, creating noise when moving around on my boom pole. After trying a few different things, I decided to contact Radius via Instagram to check if I was missing something. I recorded a short video explaining my issue and within an hour or so, I got a very helpful reply, informing me to use a different set of mic clips for my MKH50.
At the time, I had no idea that the extra clips did different things and thought they were just spares! However, what I found was a different set of clips specifically designed to fit very snuggly around the MKH50. I then tucked part of the cable underneath the MKH50 and secured it with one of the small rubber straps. From then on, the windshield was practically noise-free on the boom! Amazing assistance from the Radius social team.
Radius On Set!
Once I’d had a little play with the Mini-ALTO at home, I thankfully had a couple of shoots coming up where I could use it out in the wild! First up was a shoot for Songs of Praise, shooting Presenter Pieces-To-Camera and one-to-one interviews, both interior and exterior. It was a perfect opportunity to trial the quickness of removing and adding the magnetic basket for when I’m inside and outside.
The first thing that was a little cumbersome in that process was putting the fur windcover over the magnetic basket. It is a VERY tight and snug fit! Getting the back of the fur windcover over the back of the basket was quite tricky and needed a fair bit of pressure to get it over and often got me worried I might be pushing too hard onto the basket. Once it was on, there was certainly no wind getting through it though, and despite the trickiness of getting it on, it was very easy to remove.
It was a very windy day on that shoot so the Mini-ALTO’s wind protection was certainly tested! I did notice that when the wind was strong it was possibly creating some low frequency rumbles in the sound which could probably be removed quite easily in post-sound, but was something of note.
The next shoot opportunity I had to take it on was for a corporate video shoot involving 5 cast members sat around a table chatting with 4 camera angles shooting simultaneously. I miked all the cast up with radio mics, but I still needed something to record the ambience and act as close to a boom mic recording that I could get in the super wide angle shot.
Thankfully, I had my 1st Assistant Sound with me, James Lister, who generously brought his own MKH50 & Mini-ALTO 180 kit with him too, so we could set up two boom mics on stands to cover the scene. This worked really well and thanks to the small nature of the shock mounts, we were able to get in closer to the shot which also aided us in a previous scene involving a moving camera shot on a gimble down a corridor, where the corridor had low-hanging signs and a big light positioned overhead.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’m super happy with my Mini-ALTO 180 so far. It’s been on a couple of shoots with me and it’s performed exactly how it should, giving me noise-free operation on the boom, speedy rigs and de-rigs of the magnetic basket and a nice light-weight feel during use as a boom mic.
There’s some areas for improvements in future iterations, e.g. the fur windcover being easier to slip onto the basket, but it’s a minor point and I can’t wait to take it on my next shoot.
Radius also have other products in the works, including a slightly bigger Mini-ALTO to fit microphones like the MKH416, due for release later in 2025, and you can bet I’ll be placing my order for one of those asap! I look forward to having my equipment being fully equipped with Radius windshield kits for my two favourite microphones.
Dan Guest
Sound Recordist
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