#198

So I whipped up some sketches on how to physically mount stuff and will add a couple of ‘hot spots’ to my next Thomann order to start working on one. That will be an interesting thing in trying to somewhat surgically open up the shielded cable in order to mount to this without fucking up the contact mic. Early fingers crossed for when I get there.

I’m still left with not knowing how to best attach it to the cymbal.

What are you guys using to (semi-permanently) attach contact mics to metal surfaces without dampening the surface? I’ve often used thin double-sided tape to do so, but for the cymbal I don’t think that will work because of the curve of the cymbal, so I’m thinking it has to be something that has a bit of thickness to match the curve of the cymbal on one side.

I’ve got some foamy double-sided tape, as well as some kind of thick gel-like double-sided tape (inset with some fibers/string or something), but not really sure which would “sound” better, since I imagine both will absorb some of the high frequencies.

I also had a bit of an odd-ball idea of creating a mini ‘cast’ of a round area with epoxy or something similar that I pour into a tiny mold so it takes the shape of the cymbal, but is then flat on one side, and then using thin double-sided tape on both sides of that to ask as a kind of gasket/mount. (Or hell, 3-d printing something that accomplishes the same task, though trying to create an accurate model of that in Fusion scares the shit out of me, lol)

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#199

A small square of the gel-like double-sided tape does the trick for me. I experienced that the greater the contact surface and the thinner the tape the more it interfered with the sound of the cymbal.
Also I position the contact mic as far inward as possible as it interferes less with the vibrations.

However, I recon the best thing to do here is experiment with what you have.

Here a very crappy pic:

IMG_2748
IMG_27483024×4032 1.98 MB

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#200

Interesting!

I was going to go as far as possible too (just before the bell) to also avoid damping the cymbal, but I hadn’t thought about using a smaller piece of tape too. The k&k hot spots are pretty small (around 1cm diameter), so that helps on that front, but I wonder how much is “lost” by not using the whole surface area of the cymbal.

I’ll probably do a bit of testing to see what kind of difference position and tape makes sense.

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#201

So I wound up picking a pair of these up. Just very briefly testing them out so far, but I’m really impressed. Even using a very crappy piezo with a limited range it sounds great and incredibly sensitive. Very sturdy which is great for keeping in the gear bag as I’m afraid something like the mint tin preamps would get crushed pretty quickly. Also being able to just use normal cables without having to worry about thinks getting kinked/broken is really nice. Looking forward to trying these out more with some better quality piezos.

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#202

Would one of these https://www.tritonaudio.com/bigamp-piëzo.html give me much extra than my current setup which is straight into a Sound Devices Mix-Pre-D I like to keep things to a minimum if possible but if there’s a significant gain in detail or frequency response it seems well worth it.

#203

You’ll get much more bass and a more even frequency response with the big-amp.
I used one and it sounds really good, especially if you use piezo’s on acoustic instruments.

#204

I just received some Cold Gold buffered contact mics, which use phantom power. They sound fantastic.

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#205

Been :eyes: this one if anyone has any experience with it:

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#206

Dang, good looking out.
Those copper film contacts looks pretty fantastic as well.

#207

Definitely some people up thread! I was actually coming to the contact mic thread specifically looking for a link to these, really been wanting to try one.

#208

Awesome. I ordered one earlier today. :pray:

#209

I wonder if the short and sturdy cable might generate some noise due to movement if not secured well. Would love to know your experience with them when you get them!

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#210

so far it’s been a great experience. I use a 1/4" to 3.5MM TS cable and it works really well. I actually get a little noise from my recorders 3.5MM input (Sony UX570) when I’m walking around but not from the contact mic. I tried shaking it and swiveling it and nothing it’s got a solid connection. When I use it with my other recorder (Zoom H6) with a proper 1/4" cable I hear no noise at all. It’s really well made I’m quite impressed with the quality. I’m looking forward to getting some two-sided tape and hooking it up to some glass panels and recording the vibrations. Thought about trying this on the bus next time.

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#211

regarding the marshmallow mics, I found a very good price on a pair of the black, hi gain, version. some of you mentioned the red version being too sensitive. what do you think the black ones would could be used for more specifically, being so responsive? has anyone here tried them?

#212

I own this version of the Marshmallow mic. It’s really a marvelous mic. The charging method is pretty cool also. My one quibble is it’s rather awkward when it comes to affixing it to something. The manufacturer recommends using a combination of double-sided tape along with a deadening adhesive material, which produces a sticky wad you have to dispose of after usage. So not ideal in the field or for affixing to an expensive acoustic instrument.

#213

I wonder if the pair of Marshmallows you mention was from someone in Spain I just bought a bunch of other specialty microphones from yesterday. I saw he had a pair of those available as well (at least I think they were black ones!) but didn’t purchase them then, as I already have a single white one and at the most I’ll want is another white one at some point.

I think the best you can do is to try out different sound sources and see at which point the internal preamplifier starts to overload / clip in a nasty way. The designer says the gain in black version is designed for “very quiet sounds”, but based on the white Marshmallow I can’t really extrapolate what that would mean in practise.

At least you probably won’t need an additional mic / instrument preamp in the signal chain like you might sometimes do with the white version!

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#214

yeah, it’s probably the same guy :slight_smile:

bought them with the notion of what you said, testing them out and see what works!
I’m looking specifically for very quiet/“minimal” sounds, but got a bit confused about this version as the red one was described almost as being too sensitive for use… well, looking forward to trying them out anyhow, especially in stereo!

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#215

Hehe, I suppose the person in question must be happy for getting a lot of his gear sold at once :slight_smile: (If you’re a fellow Lines member and read this: hello!)

I was initially mistakenly thinking, that you could always pad down a too hot signal from the black version, or record it with something that has a lot of headroom. But of course, the limiting factor isn’t the recorder / mixer input, it’s when the internal preamp clips. So I guess you’ll just have to try. I have a habit of recording quite quiet household stuff etc., wouldn’t think the gain in black ones was too much for that…

#216

how safe is it to put the jrf contact mic in water? i know he doesn’t really advise it, but i assumed that was maybe because he didn’t want to be liable in the event that something did happen. plus he sells hydrophones

i want a hydrophone but only have the contact from him for now. i have used it in shallow water, like a stove pot with warm water and ice cubes. but to be safe, i put a latex gloves over it and tightened the seal a little with rubber bands

i’m also wondering if a hydrophone has a big advantage over a contact mic. it seems like it would have an advantage for picking up certain frequencies that aren’t usually captured. but i don’t know how wide of a range it is .if it’s only sub-frequencies i might have little use for it, sort of like the electromagnetic cheap phone tap mic i have. i love the idea of those sorts of things but i wonder how useful they would really be. same with the vrf mics that makenoise used to capture geophysical samples for morphagene reels from lightning etc.or whatever people use for capturing bat sounds.

i guess it’s probably worth trying out. just wondering if anyone had experience with both as a sort of just curious beginner field recording for experimentation and sound design. i would love to have all of them but it’s hard for me to justify buying the more pricey ones, so im sort of limited

a little further off topic, i saw clipping’s kexp show where one member used the cardiod mic from 12 Gauge Microhpones to shove in a bowl of glass and stir it. and i’m wondering, even though i have a zoom h5 and the contact mic, would that maybe be a more flexible option for lowercase style microscopic textures

this may be better suited for the field recording thread but i think it’s specific to the C-SERIES pro contact microphone that i have

#218

I don’t think a contact mic would yield the same result if you’re trying to emulate that container of broken glass in that Clipping live set. You have to remember that a contact mic picks up the vibrations in the object/surface, not the airborn sounds - so the sounds the contact mic would pick up would likely just be the same sound as if you were dropping the mic on a table.
My guess is you’d need to use a regular cardoid microphone to pick up the nice crunchy sounds of the glass pieces hitting one another. You could just use an SM57, but they use the shotgun shell mic because the mic is protected inside the shell and won’t be damaged by the glass + it looks cool

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