Carbon Microphones

[pinchemotherloaf]

The way I see it is that the first post was a “critique” on the price of the mic and the use by Placid áudio of the term “military” whatever when referring to a carbon capsule that we know sounds crappy/LoFi anyway, military grade or not

I was not providing a critique of the price or the term, simply stating the facts from Placid's website. I wish them the very best of success for their fine products.

 

[abbey road d enfer]

About 40 years ago, I was part of a community of young audio pro designers, and we used to joke about putting tubes in mixers, mic preamps and whatever effects boxes, allegedly for cosmetic reasons...

 

[pinchemotherloaf]

Wait til you see the carbon Bottle Mic I'm working on!

If you really want that sound, the Western Electric 'transmitters' like the 233 sound even more scratchy than the later F1 type 'element'!

 

[Whoops]

I remember there was also a product similar to the Placid Audio CarbonPhone,
it was called the Bing Carbon microphone,
they're still in business:

http://recordinghacks.com/microphones/Bing/Carbon
https://bingcarbon.com/shop?olsPage=products/edqz9nenff

 

[pinchemotherloaf]

I remember there was also a product similar to the Placid Audio CarbonPhone,
it was called the Bing Carbon microphone,
they're still in business:

http://recordinghacks.com/microphones/Bing/Carbon
https://bingcarbon.com/shop?olsPage=products/edqz9nenff

Next thing you know, someone who made cool stuff like the LA-2 will be making plugins to recreate the crackle perfectly. No microphone or compressor needed.

 

[Whoops]

Next thing you know, someone who made cool stuff like the LA-2 will be making plugins to recreate the crackle perfectly. No microphone or compressor needed.

Thats already made for a long time, a lot of different offers for that actually:

Avid Cosmonaut Voice:

FutzBox

SpeakerPhone

 

[Tubetec]

A repurposed loudhailer might make an interesting '**** box distortion' lo-fi effect .

Fitting an XLR at the front end so any dynamic mic could be used might be a useful mod , a PTT or latching footswitch might allow the artist hands free engage/disengage of the effect during the performance ,
sub mixing in other effects like effect like delay/chorus could add a bit more of that AM radio transmission swirley whirley vibe .

If you wanted to use your own drive electronics one of the Pyle 8 ohm indoor horns would do nicely , instantly adapts to mic stand mounting is a handy bonus . Any tube guitar amp between 5-15 watts like a champ or blues junior would drive it , but the response of the horn starts to fall away at 400 hz , so your not going to be using bass heavy sources in the first place .

You have to add a speaker cable with a jack to the horn unit and screw in a stand mount and your ready to try your new gadget with what ever amps you have lying around . Assuming the parts are on hand its less that 10 minutes work .

Why not add a couple of stainless thumbnuts to allow angluar adjustment of the horn on the bracket ,

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152696253538https://www.ebay.com/itm/283513322546

 

[Ricardus]

If you really want that sound, the Western Electric 'transmitters' like the 233 sound even more scratchy than the later F1 type 'element'!

Thanks!

 

[pinchemotherloaf]

Thats already made for a long time, a lot of different offers for that actually:

Avid Cosmonaut Voice:

FutzBox

SpeakerPhone

I know, I was being facetious

 

[Newmarket]

Loudhailer / Megaphone is well established as a lo-fi staple. I recall Suzanne Vega with one in concert in Cardiff (99 deg F tour IIRC).

 

[Tubetec]

If you want to go military style the WWII T-17 tank/aircraft lollypop handset caught my eye , around 25 dollars gets you a brand new old stock unit , complete with 3 pole BPO jack .

Looks like it would make a neat harmonica mic , although the momentary action two pole switch would be redundant , incorporating a mini volume pot in place of the switch might be another possibility .

Probably requires a polarisation voltage if its a carbon element .

This clip from Iggy and the Stooges has the kind of urban street megaphone quality on the vocals Im taking about , watch out for your hairpiece ,

 

[Whoops]

Loudhailer / Megaphone is well established as a lo-fi staple. I recall Suzanne Vega with one in concert in Cardiff (99 deg F tour IIRC).

That album the 99.9 Fahrenheit is exceptional, my favorite Suzanne Vega album.
On the record those vocals were recorded through an Indian Ahuda PA that it’s based on an horn, Tchad Blake brought it from India

 

[amplexus]

I have no doubt that in one afternoon for $20 worth of parts you could build a really ugly and sketchy microphone, without any stand mount solution (you could always use gaffa tape to solve that and go well with the sketchiness) , that will probably sound Lo-Fi enough for the application but that will have no resemblance to the CarbonPhone.

If you honestly think I can't pull it off it should be an easy 500 bucks then right? At any rate it's clear we have diametrically opposed views about these things, so there's little progress going to be made. I'll personally never see this product as anything other than an expensive solution in search of a problem.

Putting forth an additional purely pragmatic consideration- as someone who operates a commercial recording facility, (and does repair work for dozens of other studio owners, so i know I'm not alone in my general approach to gear expenditures) I would have to look at such a purchase in terms of how quickly I'd make my money back on it. For a novelty sound I might pull out a handful of times in a year it makes a product like this a tough thing to justify from a business perspective. If one were a facility or engineer who needed this sound on every session, or a home recordist or indie artist for whom this was a core part of their sound i'll grant that might change the equation.

 

[amplexus]

Avid Cosmonaut Voice:

This plugin is the only thing I miss about moving away from ProTools.

 

[amplexus]

If nothing else, this thread has inspired me to try and build some mics like this.

If you want- i have this bin full of Canadian military helicopter headset carbon mic elements. I don't know what i was thinking when I bought 30 of them on ebay for like $5...

Free for the taking!

 

[Newmarket]

That album the 99.9 Fahrenheit is exceptional, my favorite Suzanne Vega album.
On the record those vocals were recorded through an Indian Ahuda

Yeah - it's great. And yes - 99.9 as you say.

 

[Newmarket]

Of course you have to use proper NOS Analogue Carbon. Not this new digital carbon stuff they have these days...

 

[Ricardus]

If you want- i have this bin full of Canadian military helicopter headset carbon mic elements. I don't know what i was thinking when I bought 30 of them on ebay for like $5...

Free for the taking!


View attachment 91576

Save me a few!

 

[Whoops]

For anyone that wants to use a Carbon Element to do a microphone here are some very useful docs and pages on building the supply circuit:





















https://groupdiy.com/threads/neat-little-telephone-carbon-mic-i-just-finished.39463/#post-543433
https://groupdiy.com/threads/telephone-with-carbon-mic-using-phantom-power.46185/#post-579018

 

[TheJames]

If you want to go military style the WWII T-17 tank/aircraft lollypop handset caught my eye , around 25 dollars gets you a brand new old stock unit , complete with 3 pole BPO jack .

Looks like it would make a neat harmonica mic , although the momentary action two pole switch would be redundant , incorporating a mini volume pot in place of the switch might be another possibility .

Probably requires a polarisation voltage if its a carbon element .

This clip from Iggy and the Stooges has the kind of urban street megaphone quality on the vocals Im taking about , watch out for your hairpiece ,

Got a link for NOS T-17's?? I picked up a used one awhile back for like $10 or so.