Lo-fi Mics, Crazy Mics, Carbon Mics - What do you love?

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 4:29 pm

Been messing around with the bing a bit today, it's quite beautiful in that i haven't heard that kind of distortion anyplace else. Just bought a wasaphone that i'm looking forward to trying on acoustic stuff.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 9:31 pm

I totally forgot about the Alice mic!

Thanks Mark, I'll check out the carbon mic!

lyman · Post by **lyman** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:22 am

I have one of these guys - they came with the 1/4" reel to reel tape recorders that were used in a lot of schools/colleges in the 60's. Great lofi sound! They need a lot of gain though.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 4:12 pm

I still make the Alice mics, but I'm not sure I'd count them as crazy lo-fi mics. To me they are the mics that sound natural on guitars and a few other instruments.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:20 am

Yeah, I actually checked out the Alice mic sound clips and I thought it sounded really nice, not broken record player through a telephone crazy at all!

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:18 pm

The Alice was the precursor/inspiration for the TapeOp omnis, right? I made a couple of those when they were the craze around here... ended up putting them in a manikin head, with a wax-filled coconut shell for a skull and rubber elf ears, to make a binaural head. Works pretty well.

Anyone still rocking their ubertar ribbon mic? I keep meaning to make a new batch, but there are just too many other projects on the list, and too little time for non-work projects. The last ones I made were with 2 micron ribbons... much better fidelity than the early ones.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:01 pm

The TapeOp omni definitely came first - that's where I started fooling around with mic building. The Alice took a couple years to happen, partly because it became possible to buy really good capsules from China.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 11:22 am

ubertar wrote:The Alice was the precursor/inspiration for the TapeOp omnis, right? I made a couple of those when they were the craze around here... ended up putting them in a manikin head, with a wax-filled coconut shell for a skull and rubber elf ears, to make a binaural head. Works pretty well.

Anyone still rocking their ubertar ribbon mic? I keep meaning to make a new batch, but there are just too many other projects on the list, and too little time for non-work projects. The last ones I made were with 2 micron ribbons... much better fidelity than the early ones.

I wanted to pick one of those up but never did, as I wanted one of your 6 string / 6 output pickups but also never did.

Yeah, I may still have a Tape Op Omni somewhere. Powering them with a separate 9 volt was just kind of a PITA so I rarely used them.

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:43 am

I still make the hex pickups. It's how I make my living. Someday when things are slow I'll make some mics again.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:55 am

ubertar wrote:I still make the hex pickups. It's how I make my living. Someday when things are slow I'll make some mics again.

Congrats if you're making a living off something that cool.

I always figured it was a bad time to try to make real money from microphones, because the market is flooded with pretty good ones at insane prices. But as a hobby it does at least pay for the modest tools I've been using.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 3:13 pm

Scodiddly wrote:I still make the Alice mics, but I'm not sure I'd count them as crazy lo-fi mics. To me they are the mics that sound natural on guitars and a few other instruments.

Yeah Scott, I didn't mean to imply the Alice was Lo-Fi. just wanted to add it to the discussion because its so unique and offers a flavor you just don't get from mainstream manufacturers. Glad to know you still make them. I cherish mine.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 3:17 pm

ubertar wrote:The Alice was the precursor/inspiration for the TapeOp omnis, right? I made a couple of those when they were the craze around here... ended up putting them in a manikin head, with a wax-filled coconut shell for a skull and rubber elf ears, to make a binaural head. Works pretty well.

Anyone still rocking their ubertar ribbon mic? I keep meaning to make a new batch, but there are just too many other projects on the list, and too little time for non-work projects. The last ones I made were with 2 micron ribbons... much better fidelity than the early ones.

I still have my Ubertar ribbon mic but its not been happy for a couple of years now.

The Hex pickup (passive version) still works well.

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Thu Dec 31, 2015 3:40 pm

I wonder if i should get a bunch of Ubertar's two string pickups for my oud (really a Godin Inuk)?

It comes with a nice piezo and pre (if any piezo can be called nice), but it doesn't play well with my guitar pedals so i'm using a Krivo Nuevo stick on pickup, i wish it was just a tad thinner though, the Ubertar two string pups look pretty thin in the pics, but i'd need a bunch of them for the 5 double courses and one single string of the oud, that's a lot of cables dangling around...

The Krivo just sticks on with blue tack, that's probably what i'd do with the Ubertar pickups.

Just wondering out loud i guess...

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Fri Jan 01, 2016 9:44 am

The two-string Little Torpedoes are thin. You'll have no problem fitting them in on oud. But you'll need to use strings that will work well with electromagnetic pickups. There are acoustic guitar strings specially formulated to for e/m pickups (GHS White Bronze, for example) but I'm not aware of something similar for oud. These are for nylon string guitar, and I've been told they work well with e/m pickups: http://www.juststrings.com/toi-kr116.html

I'm now using sub-mini, super-flexible Mogami co-ax for the output cable, so it's thinner and better quality than what's in the pic on the site. If you want them to all output to the same jack, I can pre-wire them for you.

Kenny,
Yeah, the transformers sound great but the solder points where the wires meet the posts are fragile, and a lot of them ended up dying after being moved around. If I make more, I'll use the Mogami wire I mentioned above and hopefully avoid that problem. PM me your address and I'll send you a replacement transformer with wires pre-soldered.

blungo2 · Post by **blungo2** » Fri Jan 01, 2016 12:08 pm

ubertar wrote:The two-string Little Torpedoes are thin. You'll have no problem fitting them in on oud. But you'll need to use strings that will work well with electromagnetic pickups. There are acoustic guitar strings specially formulated to for e/m pickups (GHS White Bronze, for example) but I'm not aware of something similar for oud. These are for nylon string guitar, and I've been told they work well with e/m pickups: http://www.juststrings.com/toi-kr116.html

I'm now using sub-mini, super-flexible Mogami co-ax for the output cable, so it's thinner and better quality than what's in the pic on the site. If you want them to all output to the same jack, I can pre-wire them for you.

The Krivo is about 1/4" thick, if the Little Torpedos are a bit thinner, that would be great.

My oud is actually a hybrid oud/guitar so it currently has steel strings.

With a little luck, i should be able to afford six of the little torpedos by payday (jan.22).
Sounds like wiring them all to one jack would work well, again, depending on how thick they are? Would it be a pain to make a single pole torpedo for the one drone string?

I guess i should quit hijacking this thread.

Maybe you could email me?

On an on topic note, i should have a wasaphone mic coming next week, should be fun!

Message Board

Lo-fi Mics, Crazy Mics, Carbon Mics - What do you love?

Who is online