not-so-ghetto ribbon mic UPDATE!!

[ubertar]

Just for the hell of it, I thought I'd put together a ribbon mic. I made a frame with popsicle sticks, put on a couple NIB magnets, cut a strip of foil from an old capacitor and corrugated it with a couple pot knobs, clamped the foil in the gap between the magnets with a couple binder clips-- like you'd find in an office (one of them was coated with a black paint or lacquer-- I had to strip that off. The other was bare metal.). Then I connected the clamps to a surplus transformer, made in Japan, that was meant for who knows what.

It works. The whole thing must have cost about $5 to make.

At first I did some recording of my voice, just speaking, but I thought I sounded like an idiot, so I recorded some guitar (electric, humbuckers) instead.

http://www.ubertar.com/ghettoribbon.MP3
It's very bassy, and kinda noisy.
Here's how it sounds cleaned up:
http://www.ubertar.com/ghettoribbonmod.MP3
That's with some noise reduction, eq, and a touch of compression. It's no RCA or Coles, but hey, for five bucks...

The guitar is a Gibson Epoch, through a tweed Champ set to about 4 1/2. The mic is behind a pop screen, right up to the grille.

[ubertar]

[Mudcloth]

That's my favorite DIY post in about a year. Bravo!
I'm going to have to try this.

[newfuturevintage]

That simply rules.

doesn't sound half bad either!

[Electricide]

what is the best microphone for under $5???

[Scodiddly]

That is *awesome*!

(and the guitar track just oozes vibe, BTW)

[Snarl 12/8]

what is the best microphone for under $5???

It depends.

What style of music are you recording? What instrumentation?

Do you already have good monitors and sound treatment? If not, I'd spend the $5 there.

And don't scrimp on the pres either. Get yourself a THAT chip and wire it up yourself if you need to save money.

[CurtZHP]

A better transformer would probably make this thing really rock. OEP makes some good ones that are very cheap compared to Lundahl or Jensen.

Stick the whole assembly in a piece of 2" copper pipe.

[ubertar]

I tried out a Chinese transformer Jon (fum) gave me a while back. A couple other people sent me some too... thanks.

Anyway, it sounds much better (at least as far as accurately representing what the guitar really sounded like, and what people usually look for in a mic-- the Japanese tranny sounded cool in its own, unique way). But now it sounds like a mic you could buy somewhere.

Here's a clip (same guitar/setup as yesterday, pretty much same "song" too):
http://www.ubertar.com/notsoghettoribbon.MP3

No noise reduction this time... all I did was boost a little at 1k and a little at 5k.

For comparison, I recorded at the same time with a 57:
http://www.ubertar.com/sm57.MP3

I used the same preamp for both, and only needed slightly more gain for the ribbon vs. the sm57, which wasn't much gain at all. The Japanese transformer needed a lot more gain.

[Joe P.]

[Electricide]

did you get those popsicle sticks from the local ice cream man?

[trevord]

I stand in the presence of greatness.
This has to be the best use of the web since Britney's photo distribution

Good Job!!

[trevord]

you should put something on youtube

[BENDYmusic]

Cool, but man the new popsicle sticks suck compared to the old Neumann ones. So much more vibe. Too bad the prices are all pegged on the 'bay, you could get some and have yourself a really cool mic.

[Snarl 12/8]

Can someone explain to me how/why that works? Is there something special about using foil from a capacitor? Or would this work with aluminum foil?