As promised, here are samples of my two red shrink-wrapped (normal gain) Marshmallow contact microphones in a stereo configuration. Each sample here is a stereo recording that was captured with the mics plugged directly into norns using its tape function and running off its own battery. Nothing else was plugged into norns at the time, but a pair of headphones.
I have only recently received these contact mics, and feel that I have yet to find the best techniques and applications for them. I have only used Blu Tack to mount them so far, and it seems to be working just fine. Thankfully it’s re-usable and hasn’t damaged any surfaces or become too cumbersome to work with.
The Marshmallow mics are incredibly sensitive. The red shrink-wrapped version’s preamp have a shockingly high level of gain. I found it difficult to capture the toy piano samples without causing them to clip. Given, the source was extremely rich in bass because I mounted both mics directly to the soundboard of the toy piano, and then I proceeded to remove the soundboard from the body of the piano to play the tines directly… with grilling tongs. You may need your bite guard for those particular samples, despite that I’ve removed the parts where it clips for your listening (pleasure?).
The Kalimba is homemade from a piece of wood I found at the beach one day at a friend’s summer home. The rain on glass pane was recorded in my back-yard with a flat 2 1/2’ x 3’ pane of glass horizontally positioned upon a glass jar with a plastic lid as a buffer between them. You can hear the A/C unit running in the first half of that sample, and the sound of traffic passing by.
Feel free to use these samples for whatever experiments you may have in mind. Headphones recommended, or course, and thank you for listening.
Kalimba:
Toy Piano Part 1:
Toy Piano Part 2:
Rain On Glass Pane:
Rain In Gutter:
