making a speaker into a mic

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I was reading lately in an EQ magazine that all you have to do to turn a speaker into a mic is reverse the wiring, which sounds pretty easy, but I'm not really sure that it can be THAT easy, and which wires. Or do I just plug it into the mic spot instead of the speaker spot? I'm not expecting it to sound all that great, but I've got a couple extra speakers lying around, so I thought I'd set it up for low-frequency micing on my kick drum. So if anyone's done this sort of thing before and can explain it better than just "reverse the wiring", that'd be great. Thanks.
 
It is pretty much that easy. We use an 8" sub to record the kick drum. Not alone, mind you. It just adds a nice extra bit of ooomf to the sound.
 
What kinda quality can you get with one??? If I bought a thift store 3-way... And made 3 mics ... Would they be worth the 5 dollars I paid? :)
 
peritus said:
What kinda quality can you get with one??? If I bought a thift store 3-way... And made 3 mics ... Would they be worth the 5 dollars I paid? :)
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that was pretty much how this one was made. I will try to find the plans for it. It is pretty simple. $12 pawn shop sub, some wood, and a mic cable. Good times. Like I said, it is not for a primary mic but it is fun to mess with adding a sort of boomy effect to the kick.
 
So the "mic" is placed in a sub box (as if it were still a driver)??
 
peritus said:
So the "mic" is placed in a sub box (as if it were still a driver)??
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of course, it does not have to be this elaborate. You can make the frame from wood.


kickmic.jpg
 
Sweet setup...

Am I wrong in assuming that a sub will pick up the low end, while a tweeter would be good for miking highs?
 
there is no tweeter. Just a sub. You can buy these two. I think Yamaha makes one called the Subkick or something.
 
One intersting comment I saw on this method is using a 6" speaker. The majority of hi-fi's have 6" woofers so by using a 6" speaker as your 'mic' it translates well in the real world. I don't know how true this is but the Yamaha SubKick is a 6" speaker a lot of people I have heard who have made them have gone 6"!

I believe you can just connect a 2 core guitar lead and use a DI box. Is this something anyone knows anything about?
 
Thunder33 said:
there is no tweeter. Just a sub. You can buy these two. I think Yamaha makes one called the Subkick or something.
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Whatcha mean man? :)
 
Yeah... didn't notice we already had this stuff up. Danke. Found the 1/4" stuff, which is really what I wanted (cheapo Sansui mixer... but it's got 12 inputs and it works, so I don't really care what kind of inputs it has)
 
Speaker Mic

I'd try to transform the signal up from 4-8 ohms to 150 ohms via a loaded transformer...

Or perhaps a common base transistor stage.
 
Perfect timing for this thread. Geoff Emericks book is due out shortly and from what I undestand he was he originator of this idea. For anyone that doesn't know - he was engineer on The Beatles' "Paperback Writer" and used the method to record Pauls RIC 4001......now there's a friggin bass sound! :eek:

Not sure if he did the same on "Rain" or not but I'm sure the book will be enlightening. ;)
 
TornadoTed said:
I believe you can just connect a 2 core guitar lead and use a DI box. Is this something anyone knows anything about?
Click to expand...

That's what I've done...works just fine.

Want to see this in action real quick? Take any unpowered speaker cabinet you have (guitar, bass, PA, whatever). Grab a cable. Plug one end into the speaker's input. Plug the other into a DI box. Run the DI to your board. Bring up the gain. Yell, tap, or just generally do something that will make the cone of the speaker move. You should see it moving on your meters. Simple.
 
Adam P said:
Want to see this in action real quick? Take any unpowered speaker cabinet you have (guitar, bass, PA, whatever). Grab a cable. Plug one end into the speaker's input. Plug the other into a DI box. Run the DI to your board. Bring up the gain. Yell, tap, or just generally do something that will make the cone of the speaker move. You should see it moving on your meters. Simple.
Click to expand...

You can also just plug your headphones into a 1/4" input on the board and use those :D
 
Ok so here's my last question then, can I just take a speaker cable and hook a 1/4" up to it? Or do I have to actually get some 1/4" cable? (I suppose the difference is really just that the actual cable is shielded? mostly I just don't want to spend more money on cables)
 
Either cable will work, though a shielded cable might be better suited for it. If you're plugging it into a DI box, the cable length from speaker to DI should only be a couple feet, max, so I doubt it'll make a difference either way.
 
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