making a mic out of a speaker

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pandatone
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making a mic out of a speaker

Post by pandatone » Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:46 am

i remember someplace, people talking about making speakers into mics to record kick drums. but i can't find the tread. does anyone A: know where it is? or B: can point me in some direction to find info on doing such i a thing. like making a 6" or 8" [or 12"!?]speaker into a mic?
its not as easy as just wiring it up to like a TRS connection? and using tons of gain? i use headphones as mics alot.. though they need mad gain to be of any use.

thanks!

panda

thethingwiththestuff
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:14 am

it is exactly as easy as connecting it to an XLR cable....connect the ground to the metal holder, and the other two pins to the speaker connections, and you've got a balanced XLR speaker mic. you might actually need to pad it, it'll be really hot. and sound like muddy ass on its own.

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pandatone
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Post by pandatone » Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:28 am

cool.. do you think building some kind of housing for it would help? enclosed? or open back? maybe mount it on a piece of steel or PVC pipe?

i'll look around for how to build a pad, i'm sure its all over the place.
thanks!

panda

thethingwiththestuff
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:13 pm

a spare snare stand seems to be popular.

bradb
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Post by bradb » Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:15 pm

an open backed speaker as a mic will be a figure-of-8 pattern mic.

you can get conduit sleeving and attach it to a table-top mic stand.

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surf's up
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Post by surf's up » Thu Nov 24, 2005 2:58 am

If youre planning on using it for kick, which is a popular application, I just like to lay it in there on the pillow/blanket, it tends to work rather nicely and delivers quite a bit of 'punch'. I usually like to mic the outside too along with it.

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pandatone
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Post by pandatone » Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:46 am

actually i wasn't planning on using it on a kick.. i don't have a drum set. maybe on a big cardboard box? or some stretched cloth? or on backup vocals? no idea..

panda

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Post by Dave-H » Thu Nov 24, 2005 11:24 am

We did this at recording class Tuesday night. We had an old Hiwatt combo amp with a 12" speaker. We just unplugged the 1/4" TS jack from the amp output & went into a direct box then XLR to the board. We also had another Bass drum mike"Can't remember which one" inside the the drum. There was no resonant head on the drum & there was a pillow in it also. What a kick ass bass drum sound. The regular mic was used to get the attack & the speaker gave a nice round boom.

Dave H. :P
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Brett Siler
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Post by Brett Siler » Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:34 pm

awesome! I am gonna do this! Any speaker recommendations, or just any old speaker laying around will work?

Dave-H
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Post by Dave-H » Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:42 pm

We have found that a 10" or 12" speaker works well & a lighter magnet seems to work better.
Have fun & good luck!
Dave Huffman :)
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sonicmook56
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Post by sonicmook56 » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:41 am

I just made one tonight with a soft NS-10 driver. I used a old mic clip srewed onto the speakers mounting hole. Works great

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