Nathan P

Wow this would have been really easy about a month ago, but I really stepped up my music listening (I have always listened to music practically constantly, but I listened to a limited number of bands. Many many genres, but not so many bands) Right now I am really digging a band called The Hint, also Leeland, which is a Christian group similar to Coldplay, really good stuff. I really like Matchbook Romance, Anberlin, and Halifax.

I'd like to know what you all think about the song I wrote, I played this from memory with no prep, I just hooked up the mics and played. I named it "Solace" and it is the key of C-major. It is the first song I've written for piano. Also say what you think of my mics/recording quality, this was recorded with Garage band, my mics plugged into my computer's line in, and encoded to mp3 at 192kbps. Hope you enjoy it!

Heres a recording I made of a song I wrote for the piano. I named it Solace, it is played in C-major. I'll post up one that was recorded straight to my computer, and one that I did through my camera. Note that during the camera one I was rudely interupted I am quite pleased with it, and although you haven't heard my recordings with the other battery box, you really don't want to. I'll have to get a soundtrack from the play from the sound guys, or use some kind of audio cleaner to remove the noise. I'm quite happy with what an hour or so of work and some recycled/left over components did to improve the sound of my mics. Solace_No_Accompaniment.mp3 Extracted_Audio_02.mp3

Heres some pics, the new one is on the right (If you couldn't tell by the massive improvement in form factor/size.

Okay, here's a clip of my mics recording music from my computer speakers. The funny thing is that these speakers sound terrible through the mics, although my regular stereo/home theatre speakers sound great. Wierd. Maybe it's because of the tiny drivers or something. As you can see, it picks up my computer's humming rather loudly. The good thing though, is that that noise isn't the noise that was in my recordings, and it isn't loud and obnoxious like the one before, plus, it's not coming from the mics. Extracted_Audio_01.mp3

Woooo! All test so far show little to no noise, although, my bedroom has a million fans in it, and these mics pick up things louder than I hear them! The click wheel on my mouse was very noisy on the recording, while it is just kind of medium to my ears.

I'm not sure, but I've built a new battery box with correct connections. I soldered the cable from the box out directly to the box. RS didn't have any 2.2 uF caps, but I found two in an old Harmon Kardon amp from a set of computer speakers I took apart, they are polarized (The last ones weren't), but they are also much smaller, and my battery box is a much nicer form factor.

Okay, I switched out the stereo cable that ran from the battery box to my camera for a RCA to miniplug cable with a miniplug adaptor on the rca end, and it worked fine. Could it be that I had 2 crummy cables? My recording from the first performance, which was made with the rca cable, had no noise, even though it was wired incorrectly. My noise issues started after I found out about the wiring issue and started using the stereo cables with the 3.5mm connectors. These were both ones I had had from various computer things I have gotten, soundcards, speakers etc. Maybe the camera was making some electronic noise and the way they were wired was picking it up?

AHHHHHH IT'S BACK! Grrr. This is fricken pissing me off now. It recorded sounding fine in one scene of the play, then it hummed, then it was fine, I changed tapes it was fine, It would hum when it was silent but not when something was happening, and then it would hum all the time. Give me a break, why is this so difficult! It would sound great if it weren't for the fricken hum! How could it sound perfect, I even recorded a song, played it back on my stereo, and it sounded great, and now it's humming, exact same equipment, same battery, (Tested good, only used 3 hours or so), same cables as when it recorded good, and it hums like a maniac. I'll have to use a sound scrubber just to get decent sound out of it, and who knows what kind of problems that'll introduce.

I found it, it was my cables, I replaced the cables and rebuilt my adaptors and everything worked fine. Maybe I had a short in the wiring somewhere.

Okay, I finally got my wiring figured out, but now my mics make a horrible hum, it's very annoying, especially on a system with a sub. It is present in silence too. What could be causing this? It's not my camera.

Well, found my own problem I wired up the ground as left channel because I looked at the pinout on the plugs I bought backwards. I may just make some adaptors, it would be cheaper and easier than trying to unglue the whole thing. To make another one I need one miniplug socket and 2 caps, which is like $3, so I'll probably just buy another set of parts and just build another one.

Okay, my box and mic work well but no matter what I do, the left channel is always maxing out, and the right is quiet. Is it my battery box? My mics? I replaced both the mics, and the left is still considerably louder. Note that I didn't match the mics, but what are the chances of it being that far off with 4 different mics, twice in a row and the same orientation? (Left louder)

Here's a quick and dirty recording, mono, just copied for 2 channels. I thought it turned out pretty good for having the mic hanging from my ceiling fan, an old 9V batt I found in my drawed, and no EQ work or anything. You'll probably like the ending haha. http://forums.minidisc.org/gallery/1163333...291_2296167.mp3

Well, My battery Box is finished, and it works fine, but I didn't have such good luck with the mics. I tried to solder them with my old soldering tip, which is messed up, and they overheated and have no sensitivity left, I can blow right into it or put it into my mouth and it barely sounds. I quit while I was behind and bought a new tip before I started on the batt box, much better! The solder actually melts! Anyway, the batt box turned out great, although I burned myself good covering it in hot glue. I used carbon film resistors and nonpolarized caps, but it still works, fine, I didn't bother matching the resistors for this, on a video you won't be able to tell anyway. I have 1 working mic, and it sounds great, but the other three I bought got ruined. One had it's contact ripped off when I was trying to bend the wire on it (Oops) the other two were destroyed by my soldering tip (I tried to sharpen it as it got bent, and I guess it was plated with something solder sticks to, the inner metal was anti solder or something), so I have to buy a few more. Oh, if you guys need a cheap connector for the batt and can't find the batts like greenmachine had, you can find some 9V batts that have circuit board like end plates instead of paper (Fibergalss reinforced, I got mine from an energizer), I just soldered it onto the board and hot glued it and it works fine. My board is rather larger than yours greenmachine, but it works so I'm happy. Anyway, I'll order those mics and let you guys know how it works when I get them! Oh, I found out that my camera doesn't have a powered mic output, it says it requires a battery powered mic. Does this mean it's line level?

It might be a good conversation peice. haha

Yeah, I knew that, I meant while not recording, setting up etc. I'll play around with them some, I'll probably just wire them up and then work with different configurations.

Actually, it goes behind my head, I would mount it to the part that wraps up and over your ear, before it attaches to the headphones themselves. Oh, I just got the capsules in today, they're smaller than I expected! I'm really excited to get these things working. What's the best way to match them? I don't have anything with levels to check with at home, but I can use some of the equipment at Church or School to do it.

Clip? I will be using an L-bracket and making a good shockmount for the Nady. I chose it over the AT Pro 24 because of the frequency response, I do alot of music, and I can't have the bottom octaves chopped off, 30hz is much better than 100hz, this is especially emphasized by being in the low end, 20hz-40hz is one octave, so the Pro 24 wouldn't be recording between 2 and 3 octaves that the Nady would pick up. I know this has it's disadvantages, wind noise etc., but it's worth it I think. Because I'm using an L Bracket, I'm not worried about the mic length anyway. Oh, I'll probably mount the headphones to a pair of Sony behind the head "street style" headphones from Wal-Mart. I've been using these phones for a few years, and for $14 they give good sound, so I can monitor when I want, and also they are very secure on your head. I'll probably make the mics removable, as versatility is important to me.

Okay, I'm also getting a Nady CM-2S if noise is a problem and for situations where fast setup and mobility is needed. Will the head mics be a problem for moving shots? Like moving around a crowd of singing (or shouting) people etc.

What are the best things to do to minimize cable noise etc? What is an easy way to mount the mics (I don't wear glasses) to your head? Oh, I have no choice on the speakers, most of my video will be going to my class's graduation video, can't have everyone with headphones. I do know what you mean on the "Like your really there" thing, I was listening to one of Greenmachine's recordings, and I actually looked around a few times cause I thought my mom was calling me when someone in the recording shouted.

My camcorder has a 3.5mm jack for external mics, so no mods neccessary, thank God. (Way to expensive thing to modify for my tastes, at least when it's new). I may just try doing it on my head, but I was hoping to get something mounted to the camera so I could move more freely. I ordered 4 of the 61A capsules, and I'm going to build a battery box for them (Even with a volume control to be put into mic in, it will give me much more flexibility, and lower chance of distortion, plus, I can always plug straight in if need be). I'll probably build one set into a head mounted system (Maybe mount them to a pair of wrap around headphones or something), and another I'll play with. Is there any problem with the head mounted units when you move? I'm afraid that if I turn my head too much etc. I'll get too much noise. When mounted to the camcorder a shock mount is neccessary to isolate the mic from movements and the sound of the motors in the camcorder, I don't know if your body would make as much noises. Wouldn't that look funny, tiny shockmounts mounted to your glasses

What about a cd sized jecklin disk? I know anything is better than the mics in the camera, they're probably omnis and aren't tilted or anything that I know of, and they are like, 2cm apart. So is it less critical when you're using speakers?

to listen to

First off, I'd like to say that this forum is an awesome resource, It will probably save me a chunk of change! Next, I have a few questions. I read through Greenmachine's entire tutorial thread, and am sold after hearing his recordings, they are every bit as good or better than the recordings I've heard from the $70 AT Pro 24 I was previously sold on getting (Probably still will, just for portability, maybe get it as a gift for Christmas or something). Now, I'm going to be using them to get greatly enhanced sound from my camcorder, and also for recording my vocals and guitar for the songs I've written. I was wondering how to mount them to the camcorder? I don't have an accessory shoe, I've seen things that mount to the tripod mount, and I really like them, but how would I get the stereo separation without my head in between? I'll be building some small shock mounts for them of course, how far apart do they need to be? What can I use to get the separation? The camcorder is a Canon Elura 100, so I don't want something completely massive mounted to my rather small camcorder. Thanks, Nathan