DIY : radio shack mic element

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
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moogrock
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DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by moogrock » Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:59 pm

greetings.

so radio shack is having a massive sale on everything in the 'parts drawers' so i finally bought a few mic elements to play with (its been on my to do list for years) and im pleasantly suprised by how they sound...
veRRRry decent omnis...

i just wired them up straight and was rather impressed...

my question to everybody is this:
what can i now do to make them sound better?
i had seen in other diy mic stuff putting caps and stuff after the element to change the tone of it some... im just curious...

any ideas?

dustin

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Stan Keyhole
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Stan Keyhole » Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:43 am

Some members of this board actually spent alot of time coming up with a circuit that works really well for small condensor capsules.

This thread has the circuit:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=17744

Page 8 of this one has a Digi-Key parts list:
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... &start=105

Be warned - if you look at the mics near the end of the second thread, you will be seriously inspired.

I haven't seen the Rat Shack capsules, but they may work. In any case, the above parts list has numbers for cheap omni and cardioid capsules that are tested and proven.

Have fun.
don't stroke the small stuff

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Scodiddly
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Scodiddly » Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:00 am

The Radio Shack capsules are probably identical to the Panasonic capsules DIYers know and love.

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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by junkstar » Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:43 am

Cool threads. Very inspiring. Not inspiring enough to make me, a complete electronics virgin, feel comfortable enough to go out and try to pull this off. I'll tell you though, I would kill to be able to buy a kit that came with all the necessary parts, and assembly instructions written for a moron. I really do want to get into this stuff but am a bit too timid.

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Don Shumai
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Don Shumai » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:15 am

Here's a question:
I have an old Shure microphone (I can't recall the model now, Unidyne something or other I think) that stopped working one day when it fell out of the mic stand and hit me in the face. (Actually, glasses and face, as if anything gets near my face laws of physics dictate it MUST hit my glasses). Anyway, I was always curious if the element just got pooched. Could I put one of these RS elements in there and let 'er rip?

Please pardon my complete ignorance of everything.

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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by KennyLusk » Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:32 am

Inspiring enough for me. I've been chewing on the DIY Mic info here for a couple of days now and Sco' has inpired me.

I'm off to rat shack...

...as soon as I get my broken Delta 1010LT swapped out, that is.

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Scodiddly
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Scodiddly » Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:31 am

Don Shumai wrote:Here's a question:
I have an old Shure microphone (I can't recall the model now, Unidyne something or other I think) that stopped working one day when it fell out of the mic stand and hit me in the face. (Actually, glasses and face, as if anything gets near my face laws of physics dictate it MUST hit my glasses). Anyway, I was always curious if the element just got pooched. Could I put one of these RS elements in there and let 'er rip?
Nope, wouldn't work. Massive incompatibility.

However, you could try one of those tiny little plastic dynamic speaker elements RS sells.

Or you could mail it to Shure with (I think) $55 and get it fixed/replaced.

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Don Shumai
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Don Shumai » Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:12 am

Scodiddly wrote:Or you could mail it to Shure with (I think) $55 and get it fixed/replaced.
I think I only paid like $30 for the mic. It looks cool, but I don't know if it's totally worth fixing. I think it's an ancestor of the SM58, and has an 1/4" plug attached.

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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by moogrock » Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:20 pm

if you are wanting to experiment with this at all -- now is a decent itme... as the parts drawers at radio shack are 1/2 off...
so the mic element costs around a buck fifty....
take it and attach it to an xlr cable (if you got phantom power) and your set...
as easy as soldering 3 wires...

im sure with some experimentation it could be even better (hence my original post)... but its a verrrry easy diy project... if you can solder a cable you can do this... .

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Scodiddly
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Scodiddly » Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:27 pm

moogrock wrote:if you are wanting to experiment with this at all -- now is a decent itme... as the parts drawers at radio shack are 1/2 off...
so the mic element costs around a buck fifty....
take it and attach it to an xlr cable (if you got phantom power) and your set...
as easy as soldering 3 wires...

im sure with some experimentation it could be even better (hence my original post)... but its a verrrry easy diy project... if you can solder a cable you can do this... .

Direct to phantom??? You've tried this? Wow. :shock:

Anyway, if the parts drawers are 50% off I'll have to drop by. One of my little fun side things is to buy their 20-count assortment of LEDs and their 5-pack of 9v battery snaps. Sometimes you have to trial&error, but in general 5 LEDs in series makes a good 9v battery tester, and 4 LEDs in series makes a fun thing to run down half-dead 9v batteries.

Image

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Rodgre
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Rodgre » Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:45 pm

I went to R.S. today and nothing was on sale, so maybe this isn't a chain-wide sale?

Anyone in New England find a store with this sale?

Roger

moogrock
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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by moogrock » Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:54 pm

yeah apppparently its not company wide....
i went to another radio shack here in seattle and it wasnt on sale...
so im going to run back to the one that was 1/2 off...

it may be about to happen company wide, as the woman who is the manager of that store whom told me about the sale after seeing us digging thru the parts drawers basically stated that they are going to completely change all the parts drawers and how they are setup and stuff so they are blowing out what they have on hand.... so it might be something she heard thru the corporate chain of command and is starting on early or something...
regardless its posssibly a way to pick up some, albeit often sub-par, parts for dirt cheap... so one may check back in a week or two...
sorry to pass along information that seems to be somewhat false... i appologise...
but come on out to the one on 99 north of seattle... shits cheap there... har

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Re: DIY : radio shack mic element

Post by Disposable » Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:46 am

I'm a little late but...

I just made one of the DIY Omnis (with an altered circuit) using one of these Radio Shack mic Elements... Only cost me 97 cents for the thing.

A quick test of a crappy untuned drum-set in a crappy room...
Just the one Omni I made... And no processing at all.

http://www.fronder.com/bands/388/music.php
"The mic I built..."

It really shows how crappy the set and room really are...
Which is probably a good thing...
Maybe I'll actually upgrade the the set now... :)

P.S. I am not a drummer by any means...

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