how to make your own internal mic system.

NUTHA JASON

Senior Administrator
i hope this is a useful idea. a year ago i really wanted may internal mics. but they are ridiculously over priced. i hated to have to mic my kit night after night and fiddle with bits of wire and hape the mics knocked off during the show and have to wind the cables up afterwards. so i made my own internal micing system. here pictured is the one in my timbale. in my rack tom i fixed a sunken XLR jack in the tom holder (mounting) hole and then mounted the tom with a rim mount. i commited the cardinal sin and drilled a hole on my floor tom the size of an xlr and used a sunken xlr there. the mics are all the same though. even my bass drum is a plug in now. the sound and set up speed are brilliant.

j
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it was loads of fun. i drew loads of pictures of my designs from all angles.

one weird lesson i learned is this. although the clip ons are designed for close micing it is not so when they are inside. the get a distinct click sound if they are too close. and then i found out why. the head is depressed by my stick when i hit it ... a far larger amount than i though possible. the wire mesh on the capsule was flattened after one gig and the mic was about 1.5cm away from the skin. so the skin moves a huge distance when hit from above. now they are all three cm away and the sound is warm and clear.

j
 
Do you use the same beyer microphone in your bass drum? I would have thought that without a larger diaphragm some of the lower end would not be picked up.
 
Good choice. I think we used a set of C1000's at school, I'm not sure, but certainly some kind of AKG overhead. Very good microphones I seem to recall.
 
only the best for me ... otherwise i take flack from my band leader. anyway. with mics as with so much else in life buying cheap is false economy. the general rule in music purchase is always buy the best you can afford. one paiste 2002 crash may be worth as much as five paiste 402 crashes but it will out last all of them and sound better. credit cards were made for drummers.
j
 
When you say 'industry standard' bass microphone, you're referring to the AKG D112 right?

At school we used the D12, it's old but it sounds great; there's an internal mount for the capsule which separates it from the casing, which means that vibrations from the ground don't get into the capsule. I'm not sure if the D112 has that... my teacher (who's the music technician) said he preferred the D12, even though it was about 30 years older because of the ground vibration reducing functions of it.
 
I'm going to be designing my own Internal system but will be approaching it a little differently. I'm going to disconnect my mics from the xlr plug and run the wires through the vents of my drums so I can minimize any additional contact on my shells I'll post pics of this when I'm done.
 
own internal mic - new design

bigger diaphragm for more low end. so i mounted it inside the floor tom. yep that is a bicicle spanner bolted with the lug screw. the rubber shure mic clip is bolted to the other side and then taped for extra durability and good looks. the mic actually moves just freely enough to take shock and also not be affected by vibrations. the cable is attached to a sunken xlr jack in the shell so all i have to do is plug my drum in.
j

 
Re: own internal mic - new design

That is a cool idea. It occurs to me (looking at the design and frequency response) many mikes just don't pick up frequencies below 60hz all that well. And I have seen that drum micing is an art lost but to a few.

Will you be posting recordings?

And FWIW: IMO that is a better idea than a "Subkick" or other external device.
 
Re: own internal mic - new design

ta thinshells.
yes, if i could afford it i would put a kick drum mic in my floor tom. this one has been designed by shure for toms. for drums big diaphragms are cool for puch and low end. prologues for cymbals. i personally love akg and shure. if both offered me endorsement i would be seriously torn.

i'm going into studio in a few weeks for our demo. definite post then of songs etc.

j
 
Re: own internal mic - new design

It seem that you are inspired of the may internal mikrophone systems... I have Audix D4 for the toms, Shure SM57 For the snares and a Shure Beta 52 for the bassdrum. All with the May system. I can reconmend the vent connector
 
Re: own internal mic - new design

yes maymics were my inspiration but they are so way overpriced. my shells came with old tom holding holes already drilled so i just bought sunken XLR jacks and left the vent holes as they were.

besides, as i have said before on this forum, i really love tinkering and making my own stuff. i bought an 8'' remo rototom on ebay and when it comes i can't wait to make it a cool mounting system. going to reorganise the whole kit.

j
 

Creative approach but there are cleaner ways to do it - although you need at least some soldering skills and, ideally, very basic metalworking.

This is how I miked my bass drum. No drilling or holes. I first bent and threaded a 3/8 inch rod and screwed that into one of the internal lug mounts and put an adaptor fitting on the end to hold the mic mount.

I cut the XLR cable and soldered it to a Tip Ring Sleeve socket (looks like quarter-inch input, but it's not) at the air vent hold. On the outside, a TRS plug goes into that and leads to the XLR input of the sound board. Very tidy and easy to hook up.

www.terrasonus.com

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