Beginner microphone building questions

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What size PCB board material should I get to build DIY mics ?
And which breadboard is useful for microphone projects?

http://www.banzaimusic.com/Breadboards/
http://www.banzaimusic.com/PC-Boards/
 
Breadboards aren't good for condenser microphones . To fully check is the microphone work it need to be properly grounded and capsule closed into headbasket (farraday cage?).  If you want to start from electret - then it doesn't matter.
For external polarised condenser:
First you need to find microphone body!
Then you need to choose board size :)
I think you could find cheap MXL, Alctron, T.bone or any other microphone to learn.
You will get microphone body and the capsule what's the most important.
You can always desolder PCB's and make the new circuit :)
Mostly you will find two topologies:
- raped Neumann circuit with output transformer
- raped Schoeps circuit - transformerless
 
ln76d said:
Breadboards aren't good for condenser microphones . To fully check is the microphone work it need to be properly grounded and capsule closed into headbasket (farraday cage?).  If you want to start from electret - then it doesn't matter.

I see yes good point. I have a few cheap bodies lying around to experiment with.
Now waiting for my order from Banzai to come in with soldering iron, starter materials...

Unfortunately shipping to Europe was $34 otherwise I would also have ordered the electret capsules from Transound to build two Alices because it was advised as a good starter project.

 
Hello,

Is there a beginner friendly schematic for a LDC I can attempt?
Ideally one that works on perf board, not a pre-printed pcb. I have a capsule, assortment of components and a solder iron.
After reading so much for months I really want to "do" something :) 
 
I think Scott Dorsey's circuit from Recording Magazine, is the simplest you could use.

There is an thread from Midwayfair about a perfboard layout for this schematic, but the resulting mic was  noisy:

http://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=60462.0


May be if you PM Midwayfair, he can provide some details, and also if he could get rid of that noise.

Regards!

HL

 
One of the most simple circuits is Oktava MK12.
Many people like it.
If i will find schematic i can update it for better performance and even more simplified if you want to.
 
ln76d said:
One of the most simple circuits is Oktava MK12.
Many people like it.
If i will find schematic i can update it for better performance and even more simplified if you want to.

would love to see it, isnt it similar to the Alice mic ?
 
I'm not sure is it proper - it's someone drawing and partialy mdified by me.
There's a need to change polarisation voltage around 48V.
If i will have time i will recalculate the values.
 

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  • Oktava-MC-012.png
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I've saved Scott Dorsey's page long time ago!
Here it is in the attachment

Just rename the file from jpg to zip!
 

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  • Oktava 012 dorsey.jpg
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ln76d
There are good threads about the 012 here,  one has an adjustment to the circuit
 
Gus said:
ln76d
There are good threads about the 012 here,  one has an adjustment to the circuit

Thanks Gus.
I will try to search it by google, becuase i have some problems with "smart" searcher (i know that i'm not the only one here).
Too smart for me.
I even have idiotphone, because i don't like smartphones :D
I'm not fan of any Oktava circuit or microphone - but this circuit is really nice for start.
Capsules are not bad but they always screw up something.
Their factory matched pairs have usual (if any) matched capsules - forget about matched circuits :D
 
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