homemade stereo mic isn't recording in stereo--why not?

[Guest Anonymous]

Hello all,

I checked out a bunch of the binaural mic DIY links and tried to make one. One of the capsules may have gotten a little fried when I soldered it (novice) but it still functions and the other works great. The problem is, both of them playback on both sides. :cry: Even when I had just one connected and tested it, it was through both ears. Now with both connected, both ears. I used a cheapy headset which doesn't have shielded wires to each ear if that matters. One side is a red cable and a copper colored and the other is blue and copper colored. Each pair do not appear to be shielded individually. Any ideas on what's going on? Thanks in advance.

A-man

[BJ]

It sounds like the copper coloured wires in each side are the ground wires, and the red/blue wires are the...can't remember the term...live? I have to stop perusing the forum so late. Probably the red is right and blue is left. Eh, or maybe not.

Anyway, make sure the ground wires are attached where they should be (my mic elements had one lead that was obviously connected to the metal casing of the element itself--that's the ground) and the "live" wires are connected to their proper places. Basically, make sure none of the wires're crossed.

When I first made one of these, I got solder all over the place, and some of it bridged the space between both wires, so I had to cut through it and re-solder that one. Make sure the space between leads is clear on both elements.

Also, just in case, I used a razor blade to scrape off the coloured coating on the "live" wires to make a better solder connection. You might want to try that, too.

And lastly, I cut the wires as short as I could possibly work with so there weren't any extra bits jutting out.

Who knows? One of these might actually work! Good luck!