Cigar case mic

[hooper]

Been experimenting with another less than $5 homemade mic and a technique for recording vocals and guitars at the same time.

The mic was made by mounting a Panasonic WM-61A capsule in a foam bed (for shock mounting) just barely inside the open end of an aluminum cigar tube.  The cigar tube was then shock mounted in a standard microphone holder and a foam windscreen placed over the mic.  (see pics)  I like using the MC>ForNylon preset with the compressor and noise suppressor both switched ON.  It’s very quite and I love the sound… better than my best ‘regular’ factory-made mic.  Maybe better than the built-in mic and much more comfortable to use.   

This test recording was made on 4 tracks in 4 takes… each time singing while playing a guitar (or bass).  For the singing + electric guitar track I was playing my Epiphone Dot thru a Cube amp on the floor behind me.  By setting the mic input sensitivity low and working the mic close with the vocal, with the guitar amp some distance in the background… it has the effect of moving the guitar back in the mix.   Then did the same thing while playing bass.   The other two tracks were recorded while singing and holding an acoustic guitar.
Thanks to Lennon/McCartney for use of ‘This Boy’

   

[oldrottenhead]

bloody hell, ken you never cease to amaze me, cool as xxxx.

[SteveG]

That does sound good. Gonna have to get me some of them little things and have a play. Need a new iron tho, my od 25W job would melt the damm things! Clever recording technique too.

[Greeny]

Amazing. And not just any old cigar case either! A top quality cuban Romeo y Julietta!

Innovation with style...

[AlchemyMN]

Nice work.

Where did you find the Panasonic capsule?

Have you tired the one from the Radio Shack catalog?
[ Electret Microphone Element with Leads - Model: 270-092  |  Catalog #: 270-092 - $3.79]

[hooper]

I got the Panasonic WM-61A capsules here:
http://www.digikey.com
You get a little price break if you buy quantity so I bought 10 for $1.65 each. Might as well since you are paying the same for shipping anyway and now I’ve got some extras to play with… experiment with stereo mics and arrays.  Also that way you get a little insurance because there is great risk of frying these little buggers with the soldering iron when you go to attach the leads. The capsules are not quite the size of a 81mg baby asprin!

I see that the Rat Shack capsules come with leads and I would recommend that for anyone who doesn’t already have some soldering experience, or is at least willing to roast a few capsules while they get the experience.

Also notice that the Panasonic capsules spec a frequency range of 20-20,000hz and the Rat Shack caps spec a range of 30-15,000hz.  Not that I think I can actually hear anything above 15K….

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is a great article by Pedro:
http://microrecorders.org/articles/diy_electret_microbr_microphone.html

[AlchemyMN]

Thanks for the info.  I think I'll build a Rat Shack version since there is a shop right down the street, then move up to the Panasonic for comparison.  At this price, it will be worth have a few finished mics laying around.

Have you wired to run off a battery or use phantom power?

[hooper]

Well of course, as long as you are using the capsule with the Micro-BR you just use the on-board Plug-in Power.  But I have been looking at getting a pre-amp to make it possible to use these capsule mics with other equipment.  There are plenty of schematics for electrecet mic preamps available to build from scratch but that's just a little bit over my head. However, I'm probably going to order one of these preassembled kits:
http://www.canakit.net/Default.asp?Contents=/Include/Template/MenuCat.asp&Main=http://www.canakit.net/Contents/Items/UK495.asp
and then: Cut the capsule off of it and solder on a 1/8"F jack in place of it and add a cable with jack at the output.  What the heck... will still have a mic and pre-amp for near less than $20.  Will be interesting to see how useful it is with other equipment though because  a whole lot of the good sound of using these capsules with the M-BR has to do with the excellent signal processing on-board after the mic goes into the M-BR.   

[AlchemyMN]

Just noticed that the Rat Shack mic requires 4-10VDC.  They sell a PC board mount version that has a wider frequency response and only needs 2-10VDC, however the reviews say is has an overpowering low end...  hmmm, guess I better stop at Axeman Surplus tonight and do some digging around.