Excellent build and video. If you re - ribbon a pro mic as I have, you'll find the fine mesh pop and blast cloth is on the the ribbon motor. The felt is too dense. You need a dust filter off a computer fan or similar. Or go the Neumann route and use two or three layers of different size mesh. Finally, ground the mesh - both sides and wrap the transformer in grounded copper foil. That should kill your hum pickup. Ribbon mics need a lot of gain!
Very cool! It’s great to see other women interested in things like this. Far too few take an interest in building things. And I love how unique and well-designed it is.
Wood and plastic will not protect against magnetic, microwave background and radio frequencies. Many people use three layers of mesh going from thick and dense inside the entire enclosure, with the thicker part closest to exterior and the thinnest part closest to the motor.
That is one sharp looking microphone! It’s nice to see good quality plywood without voids. I wonder if Boyd’s Gunstocks would sell a small block of their laminate for use in this project. They have some wild color combinations one could use in the construction of the case. I remember seeing some commercial two way radio mikes with a spring style strain relief on the connector. That wold be perfect for use at where the microphone cable comes out of the body. It would mimic some of the older mikes before the invention of plastic or vinyl strain reliefs. There are some companies out there that sell the ribbon motors and transformers for those who don’t want to go the extra mile in making the motor. A good coat of electrical shielding spray on the inside of all of the housing pieces will cut down on electrical interference, just make sure to bond all three pieces together and hook that shield to the ground line of the XLR connector. A strip of copper or brass foil can be used in one corner by a screw to link the shielding spray coated material to the ground line. Just a few thoughts for those interested in a similar project.
Surprising! I fell into the trap, I waited until the end of the video to hear the result without knowing that from the beginning I was listening to your microphone! Wonderful result by the way. Fraternal greetings from Mexico.
Take no notice of the ‘Know-All’s’ on here!🤦♂️ You did an amazing job!👏 Sounds great, that’s what matters, also wood enclosure just about eliminates all body resonance 👍 Brass screen (grounded) will act as magnetic shield! Very impressive!👍👏😘
The ribbon motor looks cool so I think removing the material behind the screen would be better. You can protect the ribbon by adding a small strip of felt over it. I did that with mine and it works great.
Made a few in my days, they are fun, you do need very powerful magnets only neodymium will work, aluminum foil is okay but too heavy I use to canabalise old capacitors for the foil, it cost nothing and for the transformer a 6v you get from any old adapter will work, wired reverse of course.
Excellent job! The audio level in your video is quite low, so it's not an ideal presentation of your work. Ribbon microphones are known for having a dark sound, so I think it's typical for vocals to use an EQ to boost the high frequencies some. I'm thinking the purple fabric you used to protect the ribbon might not be the best choice - it might be filtering out high frequencies further. The thoughts I had were to replace the fabric with mesh that will catch the puffs of air without altering the sound, replace the wooden stand with a way to attach it to a standard microphone stand, turn up the volume of the audio in your video and use an EQ to make the sound in your video brighter.
I had a neighbor build a similar one. Had similar buzz from it. He ended up painting the inside with guitar shielding paint and it cleared it up. Good job. Looks and sounds great. 👍
Great job on the build! I'm about to attempt building a ribbon mic myself, I'll probably end up 3D printing the body and motor housing as that is what I have the most experience with, and I don't have a CNC machine. Did you have any issues with electromagnetic interference? Most microphones have a metal body that is grounded to the xlr connector to mitigate this issue, but I've never tested a mic without a metal body. I'm thinking about trying to paint the 3d printed body with a conductive paint to act as the EMI shield but I'm not 100% if that will be the best way to go about it or if it's necessary.
Fantastic job. I love the extra work you did to make it look good... Most people would have stopped when they had the working mic. :) One minor thing... you used rubber bands to support the mic, but rubber bands can dry out due to evaporation of the volatile compounds in rubber. Have you considered any other materials for that, or are you just planning on replacing them every few months?
Very impressed! This may be a silly question but some very high priced audiophile speakers use ribbons of various sizes for some or all frequencies. How do you determine the optimal size of a ribbon for a microphone to cover the sound spectrum?
I respect to all job and the machines that you are using for making cover for mic. But please (the main job)help me with wire connection and how we connect to transformer???? Other question Is this need to 48 V fantom power also?? Please clear for me.
Usually it is caused by the cloth used to protect the motor from wind. It appeared to be too thick for this application. Most ribbon mikes use a denser metal cloth around the motor to help protect it. If you plan on using this mike indoors the cloth can be replaced with a silk cloth which is a lot more thinner and will allow a wider range of frequencies to pass through to the motor. Be sure to use a separate pop filter situated about three inches in front of the mike. Do not use these mikes outside in the elements, these are only designed as studio mikes due to the fragile ribbon element.
In a lot of cities there will be what I call "maker co-ops" that have the equipment available for a fee or by membership. From what I have heard they are also a great gathering place for makers and hobbyists to exchange thoughts on projects.
Awesome work! but the physics explanation is wrong. it is not the change in magnetic field causing induced voltage. At least not primary and intentionally, ideal the Ribon is in homogeneous find and is not experiencing a significant change in magnetic field strength. The principle here is "'Cutting Field Lines" E=BLv
The damage occurs when plugging or unplugging it due to the sudden impulse created when it sees power. The only time you need phantom power is if the mike has a built in active preamp board along with the transformer.
Cool project but the mic did not sound great, perhaps you should test it on louder sources like a guitar amp, bass amp, trumpet. there has to be some use to it. Good job though.
Excellent build and video. If you re - ribbon a pro mic as I have, you'll find the fine mesh pop and blast cloth is on the the ribbon motor. The felt is too dense. You need a dust filter off a computer fan or similar. Or go the Neumann route and use two or three layers of different size mesh. Finally, ground the mesh - both sides and wrap the transformer in grounded copper foil. That should kill your hum pickup. Ribbon mics need a lot of gain!
Very cool! It’s great to see other women interested in things like this. Far too few take an interest in building things. And I love how unique and well-designed it is.
Wood and plastic will not protect against magnetic, microwave background and radio frequencies. Many people use three layers of mesh going from thick and dense inside the entire enclosure, with the thicker part closest to exterior and the thinnest part closest to the motor.
That is one sharp looking microphone! It’s nice to see good quality plywood without voids. I wonder if Boyd’s Gunstocks would sell a small block of their laminate for use in this project. They have some wild color combinations one could use in the construction of the case. I remember seeing some commercial two way radio mikes with a spring style strain relief on the connector. That wold be perfect for use at where the microphone cable comes out of the body. It would mimic some of the older mikes before the invention of plastic or vinyl strain reliefs. There are some companies out there that sell the ribbon motors and transformers for those who don’t want to go the extra mile in making the motor. A good coat of electrical shielding spray on the inside of all of the housing pieces will cut down on electrical interference, just make sure to bond all three pieces together and hook that shield to the ground line of the XLR connector. A strip of copper or brass foil can be used in one corner by a screw to link the shielding spray coated material to the ground line. Just a few thoughts for those interested in a similar project.
Surprising! I fell into the trap, I waited until the end of the video to hear the result without knowing that from the beginning I was listening to your microphone! Wonderful result by the way. Fraternal greetings from Mexico.
Take no notice of the ‘Know-All’s’ on here!🤦♂️
You did an amazing job!👏
Sounds great, that’s what matters, also wood enclosure just about eliminates all body resonance 👍
Brass screen (grounded) will act as magnetic shield!
Very impressive!👍👏😘
You should add some kind of badge to the front. Maybe cut a small shape 1/8” or so thick with your initials or something on it. That would look neat.
The ribbon motor looks cool so I think removing the material behind the screen would be better. You can protect the ribbon by adding a small strip of felt over it. I did that with mine and it works great.
This looks like so much fun! Thank you for sharing your design and build process
Such a beautiful microphone! Thanks for sharing.
Great video. Interesting design. Thank you.
👌
Dark and vibey sound! great work!
So cool, I wish I had these skills & tools!
It's a bit dark/muted, perhaps in future builds the ribbon should be tensioned more with finer crimps?
What a nice job you did and the microphone is very beautiful.
Very good build, and a great video too! Thanks 😀 👍
Dead was really cool
so rad! just wished a side view was shown bc it looks so fabulous.
Awesome work!
Made a few in my days, they are fun, you do need very powerful magnets only neodymium will work, aluminum foil is okay but too heavy I use to canabalise old capacitors for the foil, it cost nothing and for the transformer a 6v you get from any old adapter will work, wired reverse of course.
Excellent job! The audio level in your video is quite low, so it's not an ideal presentation of your work. Ribbon microphones are known for having a dark sound, so I think it's typical for vocals to use an EQ to boost the high frequencies some. I'm thinking the purple fabric you used to protect the ribbon might not be the best choice - it might be filtering out high frequencies further. The thoughts I had were to replace the fabric with mesh that will catch the puffs of air without altering the sound, replace the wooden stand with a way to attach it to a standard microphone stand, turn up the volume of the audio in your video and use an EQ to make the sound in your video brighter.
To make it sound less dark, you can run it through an impedance controller at a higher impedance. It can do some wonders to the tone
I had a neighbor build a similar one. Had similar buzz from it. He ended up painting the inside with guitar shielding paint and it cleared it up. Good job. Looks and sounds great. 👍
Great job on the build! I'm about to attempt building a ribbon mic myself, I'll probably end up 3D printing the body and motor housing as that is what I have the most experience with, and I don't have a CNC machine. Did you have any issues with electromagnetic interference? Most microphones have a metal body that is grounded to the xlr connector to mitigate this issue, but I've never tested a mic without a metal body. I'm thinking about trying to paint the 3d printed body with a conductive paint to act as the EMI shield but I'm not 100% if that will be the best way to go about it or if it's necessary.
Great Job !
thank you!
Fantastic job. I love the extra work you did to make it look good... Most people would have stopped when they had the working mic. :)
One minor thing... you used rubber bands to support the mic, but rubber bands can dry out due to evaporation of the volatile compounds in rubber. Have you considered any other materials for that, or are you just planning on replacing them every few months?
Nice project! It seems to have a bit of a roll off in the higher frequency range.
PRO
Very impressed! This may be a silly question but some very high priced audiophile speakers use ribbons of various sizes for some or all frequencies. How do you determine the optimal size of a ribbon for a microphone to cover the sound spectrum?
I respect to all job and the machines that you are using for making cover for mic. But please (the main job)help me with wire connection and how we connect to transformer???? Other question Is this need to 48 V fantom power also?? Please clear for me.
You'll improve by a lot your magnetic field providing a return path between the magnets...👍
Thanks Maya⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PS haha the foil price!!!!!
pls explain transformer .... how many turns
For a fully self made microphone this isn’t bad sound, I wonder what is giving it such muddled highs
Usually it is caused by the cloth used to protect the motor from wind. It appeared to be too thick for this application. Most ribbon mikes use a denser metal cloth around the motor to help protect it. If you plan on using this mike indoors the cloth can be replaced with a silk cloth which is a lot more thinner and will allow a wider range of frequencies to pass through to the motor. Be sure to use a separate pop filter situated about three inches in front of the mike. Do not use these mikes outside in the elements, these are only designed as studio mikes due to the fragile ribbon element.
Easy diy just as long as you have a lazer cutter or 3d printer.
In a lot of cities there will be what I call "maker co-ops" that have the equipment available for a fee or by membership. From what I have heard they are also a great gathering place for makers and hobbyists to exchange thoughts on projects.
Awesome work!
but the physics explanation is wrong. it is not the change in magnetic field causing induced voltage.
At least not primary and intentionally, ideal the Ribon is in homogeneous find and is not experiencing a significant change in magnetic field strength.
The principle here is "'Cutting Field Lines" E=BLv
can this ribbon mic connect to sound card 48v phantom power?
Yes, it can, but it will probably damage it. So don't do it.
The damage occurs when plugging or unplugging it due to the sudden impulse created when it sees power. The only time you need phantom power is if the mike has a built in active preamp board along with the transformer.
Cool project but the mic did not sound great, perhaps you should test it on louder sources like a guitar amp, bass amp, trumpet. there has to be some use to it. Good job though.