It’s almost a year since I last produced and composed an original track.
During this year I…
I’m currently mocking up ideas for some fresh tunes. And will hopefully start producing new material soon. I’ll start by completing this website :)
Paul
After a few freak outs using the wm61a microphone assembly with Battlefield Bad Company 2, I think one of the components in the circuit died. Not sure which, and the way I had it taped together made it impossible for me to fix. Will have to build another one. Since I don’t have the materials yet, I decided to build one using 3.5mm jack that utilizes the power from the inline jack. Works just as well, I have noticed more high frequence responses. I don’t have any images of the internals since I forgot to take photos this time . Again, I failed to plan ahead with the wiring size, so unfortunately, the capsule itself portrudes the 3.5mm jack. I filled the rim with superglue to make sure it doesn’t move around.
Finished Product.
Stripped an old PC headset microphone foam.
This microphone will allow me to use mumble chat without wiring up my mixer just to play online games.
I noticed a few folks stumbled onto my site from google queries with WM-61a, I’m not sure if I’m providing any useful information but I believe I promised a sound sample. Here is a recording done with my guitar (I’m using guitar for most samples because it’s my current weapon of choice and I’m still learning it).
http://media.kaiyoti.com/WM61a-GuitarTest.ogg
The recording setup includes:
DIY Mic (WM-61a) ->
The Amp (from Christian’s Website) -> (using 1/4″ patch cable)
Behringer Xenyx 502 Mixer ->
Behringer U-Control 202 ->
My Sweet PC
Note that I’m not using the slot with the pre-amp on the mixer unit. The preamp on this mixer adds way to much static and interference so I turned it off. If you’re listening through headphones, you’ll notice a low volume noise which is partially attributed by my PC fans (There are 6 fans in total), that really can’t be helped. The guitar was about 3/4 of a foot away from the microphone. The amp/mic works just as well with a 1/4″ to 1/8″ convertor directly into the PC microphone port. Unfortunately, that setup does not include an attenuator, so the input is a bit loud.
You might also notice that the texture of the guitar sounds different from previous samples. This is because I replaced and readjusted both the nut and the saddle pieces to a more balanced height (weighing it against buzz amount). The previous condition was my brother’s handy work when he tried lower the actions by carving the string grooves deeper in the nut and the saddle. The poorly cut grooves resulted in more buzzing. I didn’t even realize that saddles aren’t supposed to have grooves until I saw another guitar in a store. I’ve also restrung the guitar strings to use one with a lighter sound. So the recordings will sound drastically different, and hopefully cleaner.
I’m going to work on the second mic to allow stereo recording. Will also see if I can add a potentiometer to the amp. And I actually have a drill this time to carve holes for the 1/4″ female outlet. At the same time, I’m trying different piezo elements to capture more sources for the final mix.
Paul
Microphone Capsule soldered and heat shrinked
Another shot of the prepared microphone capsule with leads
Two is better than one, one is shorter because I didn’t take into account that the leads were twised when measuring for the second.
This is actually the second circuit I made, the first one was horrible planned which gave me no room to fit into the enclosure. The actual schematics can be found here. I drew my own for future reference so I can plan the size of the circuit better for mark II.
After clipping off some pc board supports, I was able to fit everything into the box with the leads soldered onto 1/4” female jacks.
A finished product.
P.S – I will have another update with sound quality shortly.
After much thought on which audio gear to acquire for guitar recording, I came across forums discussing DIY condenser microphones. This is the one I purchased for around $12 CAD. You can also spend an extra 5 dollars for preassembled kit if you prefer not to solder all the pieces together. There are also schematics online without a big fat PCB board which I will attempt next time. Since I’ve yet a hardware mixer to plug with a better cable, I’ve wired this to a 3.5mm jack for the time being to test on my Auzentech Prelude sound card. It’s powered by a 9 volt battery, and the circuit seems to produce a really loud output. So the 3.5mm jack is actually connected to an audio cable with volume control to reduce the volume. And it works quite well.
Here is an audio recording sample of guitar: Mic Demo
The microphone capsules work well, but I’m wondering if it could be better by replacing them with the WM-61a panasonic capsules that majority of the DIY enthusiasts seemed to vote for. Those are in transit and will post updates later. I’ve also ordered 1/4″ inline jack for use when I get my hardware mixer. There’s still a fair bit of noise I must admit, but that may be attributed by various factors, once I have the mixer to test with, I will hopefully be able to reduce the noise.
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