Is this a marketable idea?

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PhilGood

PhilGood

Juice box hero
Just wanted to bounce an idea off you guys.

In my quest to mic drums with limited channels I had an idea. What if someone were to come up with a dual clip-on mic system that had a balance control and phase switch between two mics to a single XLR, would people be interested in such an item? Would there be problems with impedance etc.? It would certainly make micing snare drum alot easier, wouldn't it? You could control the balance between top and bottom heads, plus phase. I think it might have other implications such as two toms on a single channel or guitar cabs.

It's probably a stupid idea, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

What do you think? Is it possible? Sorry if it seems dumb.
 
PhilGood said:
What do you think? Is it possible? Sorry if it seems dumb.
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I don't know... maybe... depending how well it worked and etc. Anything is possible... and don't be sorry, asking is how we learn, just wondering and never asking would be dumb. :)
 
Might work, but I think many people would like to be able to control all the mics individually in post production. Like the snare, I'd want to EQ the top and bottom mics differently, not to mention verb / compression.
 
I think this would be a great question for Walters.


He could then start one one of his classic threads:

I want get dual mic with phase and balance control how I do this?
 
or you could just use the phase button and faders on the mixer.
 
slobbermonster said:
or you could just use the phase button and faders on the mixer.
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How about those with limited channels? I'm sure YOU have a nice 24-channel board, but some folk don't.

Don't go off the deep end flaming this. It's just an idea I'm not too serious about.
 
chessrock said:
I think this would be a great question for Walters.


He could then start one one of his classic threads:

I want get dual mic with phase and balance control how I do this?
Click to expand...

I usually tend to ignore your wise-crack posts because I can't really tell if you just have a superiority complex or if you just think you're really funny.
 
I just like to rip on Walters. All kidding aside, I like your idea.

It's usable and functional.

As far as it's marketability, though, I have some doubts. Reason I say this is because your target audience would be mostly people with limited setups, right? Those who want to conserve on their number of channels, or who don't have many channels to begin with, etc. So in other words, home and projects studios basically.

And unfortunately, I think something like this might be a little too complex for that market. :D I can just see the typical customer asking the Guitar Center employee: "Why do I need this, again? " Only to have the monkey boy try in vain to remember what phase means. Then I can see a lot of people mis-using them, not realizing they're intended for snare mic'ing, etc.

Now on the positive side, I can definitely see them working in certain niche markets. For example: Live sound. Honestly, I can see this as being very useful for touring acts. Simple to set up, allows them to get better sound, and saves a lot of time. The question is does that represent a large enough market?

Secondly, I can see this as being a great thing to sell at drum shops. The same question has to be begged, though: How many specialty drum shops are there in the country, and of them, how many sell drum mics? Will this represent a significant enough market?

I like the idea, though. Question is whether the market is there. Would be interesting to find out.
 
i think it's a good idea,
but........
i don't think thare really a big enough market to validate anyone mass-produceing it. :o
 
I could have condensed my response to exactly what Giraffe just said.
 
chessrock said:
I just like to rip on Walters. All kidding aside, I like your idea.

It's usable and functional.

As far as it's marketability, though, I have some doubts. Reason I say this is because your target audience would be mostly people with limited setups, right? Those who want to conserve on their number of channels, or who don't have many channels to begin with, etc. So in other words, home and projects studios basically.

And unfortunately, I think something like this might be a little too complex for that market. :D I can just see the typical customer asking the Guitar Center employee: "Why do I need this, again? " Only to have the monkey boy try in vain to remember what phase means. Then I can see a lot of people mis-using them, not realizing they're intended for snare mic'ing, etc.

Now on the positive side, I can definitely see them working in certain niche markets. For example: Live sound. Honestly, I can see this as being very useful for touring acts. Simple to set up, allows them to get better sound, and saves a lot of time. The question is does that represent a large enough market?

Secondly, I can see this as being a great thing to sell at drum shops. The same question has to be begged, though: How many specialty drum shops are there in the country, and of them, how many sell drum mics? Will this represent a significant enough market?

I like the idea, though. Question is whether the market is there. Would be interesting to find out.
Click to expand...

Now THAT's an answer!! Thanks! Same to giraffe!

That's what I thought. I might try building just a box just to plug two mics into, just to see if it would work. if it did, I'd probably just post the schematic for DIY-ers.
 
Two problems:

1) It places control of mic balance at the mic rather than the board. That seems less than ideal. True, mics have pads and such on them, but that's a more limited and predictable control than a balance. To overcome that you'd have to have a pretty good explanation of the advantage.

2) It's a very simple circuit, so Behringer will copy it.

Sudden useful thought:

Expand the idea a bit to become "drum submixer for idiots": have channels for top/bottom snare, kick, and stereo overheads, and put simple, relevant controls for each channel, like predetermined EQ curves activated via switch, phase on bottom snare, and output a stereo mix. Silk screen a diagram of a typical drum mic setup on the thing.
 
it sounds like a good idea for us low budget folk. it would have to be cost effective though. i think anyone that can afford a conventional setup would probably be reluctant to try it. it does'nt really sound like a bad idea to me especially after reading a post a while back about a guy wanting to put mic capsules in a pair of drum sticks.......ha, ha. funny shit.
 
mshilarious said:
Two problems:

1) It places control of mic balance at the mic rather than the board. That seems less than ideal. True, mics have pads and such on them, but that's a more limited and predictable control than a balance. To overcome that you'd have to have a pretty good explanation of the advantage.

2) It's a very simple circuit, so Behringer will copy it.

Sudden useful thought:

Expand the idea a bit to become "drum submixer for idiots": have channels for top/bottom snare, kick, and stereo overheads, and put simple, relevant controls for each channel, like predetermined EQ curves activated via switch, phase on bottom snare, and output a stereo mix. Silk screen a diagram of a typical drum mic setup on the thing.
Click to expand...

I can just see Uli's next staff meeting agenda :

TOPIC : A new drum accessory - DSI-101

A "drum submixer", with channels for top/bottom snare, kick, and stereo overheads, and simple, relevant controls for each channel, like pre-determined EQ curves activated via switch; phase on bottom snare, and output a stereo mix. Silk-screened diagram of a typical drum mic setup on the top panel. MSRP : $2,000 - Street price : $49.99

;)
 
mshilarious said:
2) It's a very simple circuit, so Behringer will copy it.
Click to expand...
Or JoeMeek, Nady, and etc... lol.
PhilGood said:
I might try building just a box just to plug two mics into, just to see if it would work. if it did, I'd probably just post the schematic for DIY-ers.
Click to expand...
And I bet you will have a lot of fun learning too... I'll be looking forward to seeing the schematic if and when you ever get it working. Good luck and best wishes. :)
 
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