telephone microphone

[wildflower soul]

is there an easy way to convert a telephone into a microphone, or a microphone that sorta sounds like one?

[vangore]

you can get a telephone sound with eq quite easily bud

[wildflower soul]

but its not the same

[timboZ]

Try singing or talking into something like a Hohnner Blues Blaster 1490 (Harmonica mic). It is a Hi-Z mic you will need a XLR to 1/4 cable.
Go into a guitar amp then mic the amp.

I also made a mic from a old phone handset. I used the speake part not the mic part and put a XLR cable on it I also tried it with a 1/4 guitar cable on it.

I picked up my Blues blaster for $30.00 used

[OneRoomStudios]

I just made a mic using the speaker out of a cheap set of headphones, talk about low fi! The only problem is that the out put is really low - have to crank my pre to get anything usable. Still fun to play around with though.

[Adam P]

Try wiring the terminals of the telephone's microphone to a 1/4" TS jack and plug it into a passive DI, and then into your preamp.

Or just do it with EQ...

[rdozz]

With-in reason I can supply telephones to anyone on this board that needs one. I am a test engineer and I get a lot of proto-types to test acoustically. I fill up a large garbage can about every 2 weeks with cordless and corded telephones that work just fine. The company I work for is Clarity a division of Plantronics. We build amplified telephones for people with hearing impairments check out our web site.....If you need a phone all you need to do is pay shipping, I will be glad to dig the phone out of the garbage.

BTW. This is not a general-waste only phones and such.....

sorry US only shipping

Rob

[applejax]

I have a thing that i bought at Radio Shack a while back and it has a suction-cup on it and you put it on the back of the telephone where the ear piece is and it has an 1/8th in jack connector so i have to use a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter then run it into my VS2480 and record phone calls MU HA AHHAHAHA...just joking i only record certain telephone parts for some songs with it...but i have IN THE PAST recorded actual calls...

but Vangore is right...every1 usually uses the telephone EQ effect...if your using a DAW there is usually preset eq's that u can swap onto the input!

[vangore]

Originally Posted by applejax

I have a thing that i bought at Radio Shack a while back and it has a suction-cup on it and you put it on the back of the telephone where the ear piece is and it has an 1/8th in jack connector so i have to use a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter then run it into my VS2480 and record phone calls MU HA AHHAHAHA...just joking i only record certain telephone parts for some songs with it...but i have IN THE PAST recorded actual calls...

but Vangore is right...every1 usually uses the telephone EQ effect...if your using a DAW there is usually preset eq's that u can swap onto the input!

ya if you have a channel strip plug-in there should be a preset for telephone efect and it sounds very convincing

[Innovations]

if you have an old-style handset you can screw off the mouthpiece cover and clip onto the wires. If you have a phone with a separate handset there is a cheap adapter you can plug the handset into.

[tallman]

I am a true believer that the best way to get any effect is to really do whatever it is you are trying to do. If you want a vocal to sound like a phone call, then get on the phone, and have a microphone answer the call at the other end.

The microhphone in your telephone isn't solely responsible for the quality of the call. Your call gets seriously downsampled before being pumped into the reciever at the other end, and the earpiece also plays a big role. So do the amps in the telephones.

[vangore]

Originally Posted by tallman

I am a true believer that the best way to get any effect is to really do whatever it is you are trying to do. If you want a vocal to sound like a phone call, then get on the phone, and have a microphone answer the call at the other end.

The microhphone in your telephone isn't solely responsible for the quality of the call. Your call gets seriously downsampled before being pumped into the reciever at the other end, and the earpiece also plays a big role. So do the amps in the telephones.

ya tallman has a very good point its primarily the downsampling that take of the bottom and the top and makes it sound the way it does

[tallman]

Thanks vangore. Last time I had to use this trick, we were stuck with only one phone line, but my guitarist had a cellphone with a speakerphone in it. Because there is so much lag in the cell-network, we had to shift the track to make it synchronize properly later, but with a little eq'ing (just enough to give it a pocket in the mix) it sounded great. If you use all your EQ's on making something sound like a phone call, you might have none left to make it sit in the mix.

[DJL]

Checkout the telephone patch setting in the Boss VF-1.

[Warhead]

It's been a while since I recorded a telephone part for real...but last time I did we took the phone off the hook until the annoying "brrp brrp brrp" stopped then just talked / sang through it with a mic on the receiver on another phone in the place.

War

[tallman]

Originally Posted by Warhead

It's been a while since I recorded a telephone part for real...but last time I did we took the phone off the hook until the annoying "brrp brrp brrp" stopped then just talked / sang through it with a mic on the receiver on another phone in the place.

War

Good tip.. at least that way it goes through most of the phone circuitry before hitting the other end.

[noodles2k5]

It was more fun to make than it was to use.
Yeah, it's got XLR.

[sleego]

You can obtain 99% of the effect w/lots more headroom w/an EQ and a virtual amp like AmpFarm or Amplitube. No wiring necessary!