imagination transducer (diy contact microphone)

[vivektprasad]

nice video dude. loved it

[VioletDeliriums]

yay!

[genspike1]

Cool video. I went to radio shack today to get one. The guys there said they had never heard of it. I've bought them there before. They would'nt help me find it. I felt like I was in Walmart. They would'nt even look it up. The website says that store has them in stock too. Going back to fling it in there stupid faces.

[alexisonfire123]

Dude! Don't take it down :) Awesome video, very helpful for me! Thanks for making this :)

[kvsuprise]

hipster on crack.....good job tho

[doubleplussgood]

I love this, but doesn't that foam distort the sound of the contact mic a bit? could i just use some electrical tape (applied somewhat heavily) to the contact mic instead of using the foam?

[Mourad1EL]

Good video , thnx for sharing

[Prohl84]

@mrshiz111 is your dare shirt worn ironically? and... I taped my contact mic to the bottom of a drumhead and play my Kalimba on top of the drum and it sounds magnificent. The drum/ table/ or any other solid surface adds loads to the acoustic properties plus you simply rock the kalimba or gently push in on the drumhead for vibrato.

[ANGELIK900922]

what's the name of the thing you have amplified, that sounds like a marimba or xylophone?

[floozies]

@ANGELIK900922 that's a kalimba, or "thumb piano". There are other names but those are most common.

[ANGELIK900922]

@floozies thank you ;)

[alienheadfrommars]

use gorilla glue too much tape

[navejmart]

Great video.

[L0GAN811]

could you use this as a throat mic?

[ObakeGodOfShrink]

@L0GAN811 Yes you can. I think so, at least. Why not try?

[skruffymutt]

Nice video. I'm making a plate reverb which is why I'm checking out piezo mic's. One tiny correction - solder does conduct,so things don't have to be in direct contact for current to flow, it's good if parts have a physical connection, wires wound around each other etc. but not absolutely necessary.

I learned a few useful things here, also from the comments below, so thanks.

[shaynegryn]

The polarity doesn't matter. The only difference depending which way you hook it up will be the phase of the waveform. i.e. inverted or otherwise.

[speck444]

holly kalimba how loud can you get the pick up

[BabaBooey00]

you're tha man!

[williamthomasmi10]

haha that would be hilariously ironic

I'm pretty sure its just generic foam, however.

I used to use sleeping pads for camping that looked like that lol

[rottenrobbie7]

Transducers are easily pulled from alarm clocks as an alternative to buying.

[twoboots4you]

How odes it sound if you don;t add padding around the element? I would think unpadded would help the vibration transfer better... No?

[OrbVroomer]

Nice demo.Look on my channel to see a very unique e-drum trigger I built with these piezos.I use it to perform one-handed rolls & arpeggios on my electronic drum rig.

[Fabiopassaro]

nice vid. i'm from portugal and i started to make my first cigar box guitarbut near by there is no shop that sells piezo transducers. can you get it from an older speaker?

thanks

[jjuup]

I have a Hugh Tracy kalimba with a built in piezo transducer mic. This DIY tutorial is great for adding a mic to kalimbas that don't have a piezo built in.

Try adding some guitar effects like compressor, phaser, delay, reverb etc to the Kalimba signal! You can get some of these guitar pedals for quite cheap. 10-20usd.

[lookoutamouse]

neat glasses

[iAkkordeon]

ok, thank you very much.

[iAkkordeon]

I have a question. If you solder the wires of multiple transducers to the same output jack, will it still work? (so you will have a contact microphone with multiple heads)

[muckleberryblim]

you'd need to include a basic mixing circuit

(basically a couple of resistors)

[chipontachipon]

hey there. YOU CAN BUY A PIEZO WITHOUT THAT BLACK PLASTIC AND ITS MUCH CHEAPER!!! In Europe it costs like 5 cents of Euro moreless the same in bucks....Thanks for the video

[jayslavick]

thanks

[Twinhit]

Also, look up Dean Markley piezo acoustic guitar pickups. Kid you gave away their trade secret.

[Twinhit]

What your doing when testing the piezo is really about polarity, me thinks.

Good job, kid. You're going to go far in life.

[mechaghostman2]

Scratching a piezo or bending it a little bit won't hurt it that bad.

[EadNomad]

good video, very clear. but 2 questions:

1. what kind of instrument was that u used?

2. why use a jack and add a wire/cable? but directly link it with a plug?

[pigface72]

i love how to videos, good job

[fionnymurf]

Good work.

The reason you can solder the wires in either arrangement is because one is positive and the other negative. All you are doing is changing the polarity. Exact same sound, opposite wave form. If you wanted to attach a "ground" or "shield" wire it (XLR for example) it would need to attach to a metallic surface nearby (mic casing, usually). Also there are devices for soldering that hold your wires and connectors that are very useful. They just clamp onto things. They're great.

[Fichtezxc]

Pretty awesome video. I'm going to try this.

[Greenjah81]

don't understand on thing. Why do you need a clamps for. You can just figure out the Tip - Sleeve. It's only positive and a ground. So it doesn't really matters which side you gonna put in. It's and unbalanced connector. Anyways pretty nice and sensitive mic.

[SirTifacate]

Is it possible to hook this up to a volume knob? if you wanna make another vid, one showing how to do that would be great

[SirTifacate]

This is a fantastic video, goes at the perfect pace to teach someone like me, who doesnt know much about electronics, how to do it. Im making one of these for my uke as soon as i can get to a store. Thanks!

[satchisthebest]

Well, i could make the first part, but how does he make those piezos sound like finger piano, I suppose he connects them to a drum module or to the pc line in/microphone, but what does he use to assign each piezo a different sound?

[mrgreanjeans]

its a diy kalimba,also pretty easy to make

[NYtoPDX]

thanks man, this vid helped a bunch,

[ableite]

He is more to Mr. Bean

XDDD

[infiniterealitiesOrg]

thankyou! i have sound on my guitar now! thanks for teaching me!

[tubemech]

Radio Shack (US) and Maplins (UK) supply the piezo discs on their own. They're cheaper and you don't waste time removing the plastic casing from the buzzer.

[killergirls]

Thanks! I built a piezo today after watching your honest and down to earth video. you rock man!God bless ya.

[OCeruleanFoxO]

Aww, you're super adorable.

This was really really helpful.

=]

[SticksHicks]

much easier to buy a red dot drum trigger and tape or glue it to something.

[pheenix42]

SticksHicks, sure, you can BUY...but, it's always nice to use one's head and have some fun making something--you invest yourself in the project as opposed to just your wallet!

[quickandalivenotdead]

Some people just don't get it man.

[Richbrows]

crocidile clips can be helpfll for holding stuff in place , like stuff you need to solder together, cheaper than a spare handy thing

Hope this helps

[stopglobalswarming]

Cool. I just bought a suction cup style contact microphone (expensive). I expect it to perform superbly. But your idea can be very useful for budget guitars or homemade and modified instruments.

[veerlekraj]

Woow!, really cool

I'll go make one for myself and try it on my cello:) a lot cheaper than buying those piezo-things in a musicstore, of which I even doubt if it is as good as it says..

thanks!,

Veerle

[capo420420]

why don't you just rub the edge of that plastic enclosure on a belt sander or the sidewalk outside haaha .. then the edges would be gone and no damage could occur to the piezo ..

Jeff Williams / guitarist

[AppA]

Very very nice tutorial, I want to get into electonix and combine that with audio technology, and this tutorial is a welcome guide for me :)

[AppA]

Very very nice tutorial, I want to get into electonix and combine that with audio technology, and this tutorial is a welcome guide for me :)

[squidskunk]

thats coooooooll

[thermaldog]

get serious and show us how to use this to make a ''listen through wall'' device, lol..they piezo transducers too....more fun maybe..

[mohag519]

put dist on it and see how it sounds.. like a wierd rock sound :D

[aliquidcow]

I like contact mics. Did you know that they made the lazer gun noise for Star Wars by putting a contact mic on a metal slinky?

[pandamonium333]

She's right. You're very cute.

[namitra]

you are cute!

[tofuCKYOU]

this video is well good man , thank you for sharing it !

[nophil]

Hi fellow. I gotta thank you: I prepared a contact microphone following your instructions. It's fantastic. I like it very much on my guitar and I can't wait to hear what it sounds like on my drums. And you are very handsome :-) Greetings from Sicily

[JamieBarnes11]

useful though

[glitchesandglitter]

thanks for this

[toamaori]

cool vid.... :)

its funny how american english 'solder'

is pronounced 'sodder"

soldering = soddering

is it the same with the world

Colder? or Older?

funny hehe

i may just make a pickup for my sons acoustic guitar using your method thanks :)

[abyssalservant]

Nope, "colder" and "older" are still "colder" and "older." I have no idea why we say "sodder." *laughs* nice video. I think I'll go try to make one now ^.^

[simpleicon]

What i want to know is how you talked without moving your mouth at the end..

[toamaori]

yeah!!!?? lol

[TomLaMotte]

That sounds gorgeous...btw

[jmdonovan]

When I originally saw the video's duration, it seemed long for demonstrating just how to make a contact mic. You do bring in extra commentary, but it is amusing to watch. You could cut things like testing with the alligator clips down to "it could work either way".

In reality I've heard you should wire the middle to hot/red and the black to the outer ring (ground). The way you talk and look reminds me of myself 20 years ago. HAHAHAHA

[LONGBROCCOLI]

nice one, thanks for the info

[soukous70]

No,the more thorough the tutorial,the better.Good job!

[mrshiz111]

Do you think this video drags on? Should I cut out the Soldering part and trim the shockmount part?

[lepup348u]

@mrshiz111 no. the vid was good. It was kind of a relief to watch a yt vid with nothing pseud 4a change. I can get dejourno supreme pizzas from the local Skagway Shack but a one buck piezzo transducer? that's somethin' else. I'll take a look.

man, u made that thumb pianno sound tremendous. it's a good accompaniment for poetry performances and stuff like that.

anyway thanks for the info.

[LightsGoneWild]

@mrshiz111 Try cutting the first 8:33 out and it will be perfect. Seriously.

[mrshiz111]

@LightsGoneWild funny. i would take this down, but it seems to steadily get hits, good feedback, and be useful to people

[LightsGoneWild]

@mrshiz111 There's just so much WRONG with this video that I'd hate to see someone screw up perfectly good parts trying to reproduce your marginally useful result.

[joeeeeeeeeeeeee66666]

@mrshiz111 i found it useful!