DIY Recording: Make your own Ribbon Microphone

1. Introduction : Hi, I'm Giovanni lawyer. I'm a musician and I love unconventional recording. I became fascinated by the sound of ribbon microphones. So I wanted to learn more about them. In my research, I realized they're not complicated to make. So I spent some time trying and failing to create a ribbon microphone until I made this easy formula that I will share with you today. All the ODE in this class was recorded with my ribbon microphones. As you can here, you can achieve a high-quality sound with a homemade microphone. Are you ready to build your own microphone or restart your microphone collection? In the late US. Senate. Capillary GI tract can be tricky. 2. Types of microphones : Hi, In this class, I'm going to show you how to make a ribbon microphone from scratch. Before style. Let's take a look to the three different types of microphones. And the characteristics. Or microphones are basically transducers. They are able to convert acoustic energy into an electrical signal. Let's check how each type of microphone achieved that. Dynamic microphones dispose a membrane attached to a coil behind it. There's a magnet. Every time the membrane vibrates, the magnetic field is changed and an electrical signal is created. Dynamic microphones are very resistant to humidity. They can handle high pressure levels and they are very cheap, popular, and highly used in concerts. Next, we have condenser microphones. This type of microphones used two plates. One is electrically charged, the other one is usually made of a thin sheet of gold. When one of the plates vibrates against the other one, the magnetic field is changed and the electrical signal is centered. Microphone circuit, which use 40 able phantom power to amplify the signal. The type of microphones offer, high output, low noise, and high details. They are really good on studio recording applications. And last but not least, there are ribbon microphones. This type of microphones are called ribbon to do the aluminum foil use in them. Basically, a ribbon microphone consist in a corrugated aluminum foil between two magnets. The vibration of the aluminum foil change the electromagnetic field and the signal is sent it to a step up transformer, which amplify the signal. One of the reasons ribbon microphones, aluminum foil is to do the Lightweight of these metal, which make it easier to vibrate with sound waves. The characteristics of ribbon microphones are a vintage warm tone, a very natural sound, and a figure eight polar pattern, which I going to demonstrate right now. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. Now that we had a quick look into old type of microphones, Let's check the materials you'll need to build your own ribbon microphone. 3. Materials: To neodymium magnets. One aluminum foil from a trunk on package. Few ferrite cores. One corrugation 21, roll of zero-point 25 millimeter copper wire. One role of 0.05 millimeter copper wire, role of copper tape. That counter. Screws and screwdriver. The hot glue gun, shoulder solder wire, an XLR tripping connector, drill drill bits, a couple of tweezers. I, blade, and snake mesh. 4. Motor : Start cutting out of the cutting board, the frame where you'll fit the magnets. Plan beforehand the size of your frame. Depending on the size of your magnets, the length, and the thickness of your aluminum Raven. They should look like this. Here's the magnets inside the frame. Then per epoxy glue to secure the magnets in the frame. Make sure to use glove and open the windows. But you're using the epoxy glue, the glue sit all night. Use your copper tape for the contact points. Could your copper tape and wrap it around the frame like so. And avoid touching the magnets with your copper tape. You can sold or the wires to the copper tape like so, or sold them to the corporate table, glued to the buyer to secure the ribbon. Both ways works well. During the holes to screw, you're locking bars to the frame. You can make locking bars out of plastic or aluminum. I prefer aluminum. It's important to bear in mind that commercial ribbon microphones use premium materials. You can buy on the internet, some sheets of aluminum foil for ribbon microphones. But if you want to be more resourceful, follow these instructions. Look inside some chewing gum packages and remove carefully the aluminum sheet submerged in water for an hour. Place it on a flat surface with your fingertips. Remove carefully the paper. Use a cotton tip with alcohol to remove the glue remains. Next, sandwich the aluminum foil between two sheets of tracing paper, cut it to fit between the magnets. I recommend for it to be about six millimeter wide without touching the magnets. Pasture aluminum Raven through a corrugation to, I found this one inside of a printer. Hold the aluminum foil with two pegs like so. They will help you to place the ribbon in the right position. Lock the aluminum foil with your locking bars on one side of the frame and stretch gently the ribbon on the other side. Remember, it's important to take into account if you ribbon is to lose, the outer response will be weak and basic. And if is to tense, the output will be louder, but a bit harsh on the mid-high frequencies. So try to find a medium tension. At the time, you look the ribbon. 5. Transformers: For the transformer, you need to start with the 0.05 millimeter copper wire. You can use a large needle or make it with a wire as you prefer. Filter needle with a copper wire like so. Just really wrap around the needle carefully until you get a fair amount. Now start rolling it on the variety core. Leaf about device into meters of wire out of the core before the first term. You will need it later at the moment you sold or the electrical wire to it. 0.05 millimeter copper wire is very thin, easy to break. So be very careful at this stage of the process. You can use a counter to help you to keeping track while you turn 600 turns around the core. My method is to press the counter for each 100 turns until I get 600. And then roll each deep around your electrical wires. Good carefully until eight, cover a fair amount of the tip. Now sold or the wires carefully tried to find the best position when you're soldering the tips. On the core plays the electrical wire. The other electrical wire like so. Use the zero-point 25 millimeter copper wire for the next step. 3 times about 50 centimeter. Some security tips like so. Now about ten times. And do it carefully avoiding to break the 0.05 millimeter wider. After you've finished ten turns, cuts the left. And security tips. Cut a circle out of cardboard, slightly wider than the ferrite core. Put hot glue and place the transformer. Put more glucose inside the transformer. Another circle of cardboard and press it carefully. Now put some hot glue on the sides. And now you have your step up transformer sold or the zero-point 25 millimeter wire to the microphone. Solar wires from former two beams, 12 link being tree to the microphone case and make a breach between between 13 and your microphone is ready. 6. Microphone case : You can make your microphone case out of an aluminum bottle. First cut the neck and two spaces on the sides. You can make out of the same aluminum, two clips to hold the microphone in the right position. Remove the paint of the microphone using sandpaper and painted the color you like using spray paint. For the microphone mesh. I use snake and rats mesh. Ribbon microphones are very delicate. You can use stocking fabric to protect the aluminum foil. Make a frame, covered it with the fabric and screw it in front of the ribbon, like so. You can make the case for your microphone out of something else. For example, I made the case for this microphone out of an aluminum pipe by cutting it to the lens and drilling holes on the front and the back. Yeah. 7. Microphone test : Each microphone you make is unique with its own characteristics that can suit different kinds of applications. We made a test to demonstrate the difference between all a ribbon microphones. I have experimented with changing the length and the width of the ribbon. I've also experimented with the amount of terms in the transformer from 600 to 700 terms. You can hear the difference between them. Cook a virus it sanely, country Mary Mary King, the bush. Is he cook up real love cooker, Barry gay, your life mass be comparison. Certainly our country. Mary Mary King of the bush. He coca. Coca barricade your life. Must be. Cook. Said Sennelier country. Mary Mary King of the polish. Is he Coca Cola? Coca para k, your life must be coca viruses. Cilia, come to the bush. Is he Coca Cola? Coca barrier again, your life must be cook a virus it thin. They are country Mary Mary King of the parishes. He coca realm of cooker barricade your life months. 8. Your assignment : I hope you enjoyed this class. Your assignment is to make your own ribbon microphone. I would like to see progress images and a recording made when you're finished microphone. If you have any issues along the way, please leave a question and I will help. I look forward to seeing and hearing your homemade ribbon microphones. Bye and see you in the next class.