A newbie DIY microphone?

[therecordingart]

Ok guys.....

I've built some stompboxes, preamps (still under construction), and I'd like to tackle a microphone.

Is there a decent mic that I can try building? Preferably inexpensive, but I don't mind slowly building something.

I read through the most of the metas and nothing really caught my eyes as fars as having plans/parts lists in my face.

Thanks in advance!

 

[rodabod]

How cheap are we talking?

At the very low end, you can make a good omni mic using Pana*sonic (ie PZM) capsules.

Simple to understand too.

 

[Gus]

therecordingart

What do you mean? The G7 is well documented IMO. Then there is the Alice microphone.

 

[ToobieSnack]

well of course ts will recommend that you build a ribbon mic :grin:
this is THE cheapest mic to build.
you can get by with tools and every thing for less than 100 dollars
anyway hope this helps
later
ts

 

[pucho812]

depending what you want, for 50.00(us) you can get an alice mic. I got two and they are nice small condensors. check with "Scodiddly" on our beloved DIY. or do a seardch for thr alice DIY mic. good stuff and fairly easy to do. Just follow the pictures.

 

[Guest]

[quote author="therecordingart"]Is there a decent mic that I can try building? Preferably inexpensive, but I don't mind slowly building something.
[/quote]
Wont DIY only mic with bought capsule, or capsule DIY?
Maybe pressure, backplate structure controlled capsule is
good DIY thing.
Cardioid is non so easy...

xvlk

 

[Scodiddly]

The real newbie mic classic is the "TapeOp Omni", which can be found here. For the capsule use a Panasonic WM-61A, since the original article listed the wrong capsule and the usual replacement has itself been replaced. You can get them at Digi-Key.

Some more fun projects with the cardioid Panasonic capsules can be found on dayVel's pages here.

My mic stuff can be found here.

 

[dale116dot7]

As your first mic project, I would recommend against trying to build a capsule unless you are proficient at machining. If you want to build a capsule, the Debenham capsule sounds nice and there are instructions on how to do it in there. It is very easy to make bad sounding mic capsules. It is harder to make acceptable sounding capsules, and very difficult to make magical sounding capsules. It is especially difficult to get a good frequency response and good sensitivity (or low noise). You actually can make an ok sounding capsule with surprising ease if you don't worry so much about output level or a nice pattern.