tookatooka
3440 posts
Aug 14, 2013
6:58 AM
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There's a demo recording at the end which will let you hear what it sounds like in use with the harp.
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tookatooka
3443 posts
Aug 15, 2013
5:24 AM
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Bumping in case Oldwailer passes by.
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SergZZZ
84 posts
Aug 15, 2013
5:36 AM
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Electret microphone is a good inexpensive microphone for home recording. It is about 1.5 times more sensitive dynamic.
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www.ermonica.com
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oldwailer
1976 posts
Aug 15, 2013
10:46 AM
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Hey, tookatooka!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this video! It is very clear and to the point--and the playing at the end is so good even my wife (who has a problem with harp music sometimes) liked it.
I'll be getting the parts for the next day or two--then I'll throw it together and see what happens--I'll let you know what happens with it--thanks again!
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"Too Pretty for the Blues."
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tookatooka
3444 posts
Aug 15, 2013
11:18 AM
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My pleasure Oldwailer. I've experimented further and found that you can use virtually any resistor up to 10K and capacitor up to 10uF. Good luck.
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Greg Heumann
2320 posts
Aug 15, 2013
8:43 PM
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First - thank you for taking the time to document your efforts! Great stuff.
Clarification please. You say the "3V-" is the "minus side of the 3V battery." Yet the schematic, interpreted literally, implies this is a 6V circuit. I suspect what you show as "- 3V" is simply the negative side of the 3V power supply. In that case you should label it simple as ground without the "-3V". It is in fact the 0V level, not -3V.
Also - if a 10K resistor works - use it! 10x less current draw, I would expect.
Finally - three you refer to the capacitor as a 1uF verbally, but you have it drawn as a 10uFd. I would expect this value has a fair bit of impact on the frequencies which are passed.... ??
Electret condenser mics are generally held to be good for acoustic amplification, but not so good when overdriven so less good for a chicago blues sound. But hell - you've made it easy enough for us all to find out for ourselves.....
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***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
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Last Edited by Greg Heumann on Aug 15, 2013 8:45 PM
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tookatooka
3445 posts
Aug 16, 2013
3:31 AM
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Hi Greg,
Thanks, all good points which I'll try and answer.
1. I know I said -3v and it was a mistake on my part. I should have said the negative side of the 3v battery or ground. My excuse is I was doing it on the fly for the video and slipped up. I have corrected the video with a note which should make it clear.
2. You are correct again. I gave the values which were specified by an electret mic manufacturer. I've used from 1k to 10k and found the circuit to work OK apart from the obvious current consumption being higher with the 1k resistor. I'm not sure of the difference in consumption but I may check that later. I doubt it's a great deal but enough to go with the 10K I'd say.
3. Eh? I have drawn it as a 1uF. It may be that I have almost closed the top of the 'u' which makes it look more like 10 Farad. I experimented with capacitors ranging from a few tens of pF up to about 33uF and to my inexperienced ears didn't notice a great deal of difference although the 33uF was more bassy and cut out some of the higher frequencies. Be nice to get an oscillascope to test them in more detail. Once again I used the values recommended by a manufacturer.
Hope that clears up some of the doubts. It would be good if other tinkerers played around with these mics and posted their findings. As you say, no good for the over-driven chicago blues but they are really good for players like me who can't afford to go down the valved amp path but still want to get a reasonable quality of sound where the mic doesn't have to be 1 inch away from the mouth.
Personally I feel I can play so much better without having to hold a mic and do like to get the sound of the wah's and stomping which these mic's will pick up even from a distance. Feedback may be a problem though depending on how they are being used.
Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and comment Greg. It's only right that these things should be put right and I can only be pleased that someone with your credentials and microphone background would take time out to do it. Thankyou.
Last Edited by tookatooka on Aug 16, 2013 3:34 AM
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tookatooka
3446 posts
Aug 16, 2013
12:54 PM
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I checked the battery consumption Greg and it was 166uA for the 10K and 280uA for the 1K so there would be a power saving which would extend battery life. I thought of combining 2 Electret elements both with different capacitors and resistors because they do affect the frequency range. It would be an interesting experiment which I'll try.
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fred_gomez
150 posts
Aug 16, 2013
1:18 PM
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eletrets suck i have like 25 of em who wants to trade?
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geordiebluesman
761 posts
Aug 17, 2013
1:24 PM
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Well if you ever needed an example of the true spirit of this Forum and our worldwide Harmonica Brotherhood then you have it right here. Truely an outstanding act of altruism from Took, well done that man.
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tookatooka
3447 posts
Aug 17, 2013
2:37 PM
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:) Thanks Geordiebluesman. I've learnt a lot from the guys here so it's nice to be able to give a little back.
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oldwailer
1978 posts
Aug 17, 2013
5:37 PM
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I built one of these gizmos today--tucked it all inside an Altoids tin with a 1/8" (.3175 cm) for the input and one for the output. I haven't had time to debug it yet--but it doesn't work with this little mic I have.
I'm thinking that it's just a special mic to be used with the little amp it came with--so I'm going to get a real electret mic and try it with that.
If I get something working, I'll post a sound clip or something--this is fun stuff to play with--thanks again, Tooka!
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"Too Pretty for the Blues."
Last Edited by oldwailer on Aug 17, 2013 5:38 PM
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tookatooka
3449 posts
Aug 18, 2013
3:22 AM
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If you search for "Electret Condenser Microphone Cartridge" on ebay, you can pick them up for a couple of $. Probably get them from radio shack too.
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