There are a number of good Instructables on how to solder.īefore you connect the wire leads to the terminals of the jack, you should "tin" the wires by applying a small amount of solder to the wires. This transfers a lot of heat quickly and melts the solder fast, which I prefer. I use a temperature controlled iron set at 700 degrees with a chisel tip. If you plan to do a lot of soldering, it's worth investing in a good iron, as well as a good set of strippers and wire cutters. The figure above is of the pocket variety. The shield terminal is usually a long strip of metal that may have a folded tab that forms a "pocket" for connecting the ground wires, or there may be a small hole in the bottom of the strip. If the jack is a mono jack, then you may connect the signal to either one of these. The signal terminal is usually a metal tab connected to the body of the jack with a small hole in it. The jack has two terminals: a signal terminal that goes to the tip of a plug and a shield terminal that goes to the grounded plug housing and the cable shield. Do not use guitar cable for this project-it has a very different arrangement of a single conductor surrounded by a shield which is not appropriate for connecting to a contact mic in the manner we suggest. You can buy bulk microphone cable from online suppliers such as Redco or Parts Express, or else you can just buy a mic cable from your local music store and just cut it. It doesn't matter which type you use for this project-if your cable has filler in it, you'll just need to snip it off before soldering your connections. This filler may be plastic lines or bundles of thread, as pictured above. In addition to the 2 conductors and the shield, mic cables may also have "filler" that helps the cable maintain its round shape. (Foil shields are also used for cables that a part of permanent installations, but are not appropriate for this project.) Audio technicians typically agree that the highest quality (and most expensive) mic cables use braided shields, but spiral wound shields are perfectly fine for this project, and are somewhat easier to work with. Shields are typically made of thin copper wire that is either wound in a spiral or braided around the conductors. To counteract this, you need to use shielded cables that have a sheath of wire surrounding the conductors. You might think that simple speaker wire would do, but there's another consideration-cables can act as antennas that pick up stray electrical signals in the environment that can cause audible hum when plugged into an amp. Since a piezo has 2 terminals, we need a cable with 2 conductors to connect to it. A good discussion of piezo elements and how they work can be found at Open Music Labs. A piezo element has 2 terminals: the inner circle which is the signal terminal and the metal disk which is ground. Conversely, if you apply an oscillating voltage to a piezo element, it vibrates-that's why they also work as buzzer elements. When the crystals are made to vibrate, they produce an oscillating voltage. 1/4" inline female mono jack (sometime called TS or "tip-shield"), such as Rean/Neutrik NYS2202P Ī piezo element is a metal disk with a circle of piezoelectric crystals in the middle.8" length of 2-lead, shielded balanced microphone cable, such as Mogami W2582.27mm diameter piezo bender, also known as a "buzzer element", such as this part from Digi-Key.To learn more about about the common ground between technology and percussion music, including tips on composing your own works from ensemble Third Coast Percussion, see this Instructable on the WAVES project. This particular version of a contact microphone was designed for the premier of The Immortal Flux, a composition for drum kit and prepared drumhead orchestra written by Glenn Kotche, drummer for the band Wilco, at the Solid Sound Music Festival, sponsored by D'Addario. It has a 1/4" female jack so that you can connect it to an amplifier with a standard guitar cable. In this Instructable, we show you how to construct a professional quality contact mic that is very rugged and sounds good. Here's a demo of a contact mic attached to an alarm clock, along with finger tapping on the table about a foot away from the clock: A contact microphone is a type of microphone that picks up vibrations from contact with objects, as opposed the the more common type of microphone that picks up pressure waves in air.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |