Making a Piezo Pickup Instrument
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- Continuing our musical journey in this episode we're exploring piezo devices, and even make a small song towards the end! Hope you enjoy! And remember to support our sponsor, PCBWay!
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The song featured in this video is available for both listening and download over on Sound Cloud: / contact
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The primary reason you are not getting a balanced sound, is that you are not impedance matched. Piezos need a preamp of some sort to impedance buffer before going into a 1/8" or 1/4" jack like you have. Effectively, it creates a high pass filter with the mismatched impedance, and that's what's making your sound tinny and full of harsh high frequencies.
Rod Elliott on ESP did a really good write up about this titled "Piezo pickup preamplifiers".
You basically have two options. One is to present a very high input impedance to the piezo (probably 10Mohm or more). The other is to build a slightly unusual circuit called a charge amplifier that presents near 0 impedance to the piezo. If you're handy with electronics it's a good DIY project because there aren't many off the shelf options.
That's cool and helpful. However it's hard to beat the simplicity of this device for those of us with zero electronics knowledge.
@@erickborling1302 you have to start somewhere!
god i love everything digial so i never have to learn any of this
don't get me wrong i like making analog stuff but audio is just beyond me
I like this for many reasons. Too many to list!
It's the face I made after testing the siren, isn't it? 😉
Yeah during uni myself and a few friends made about 20, then turned a moving wall room into a sonic art installation with various items for users to interact with. We made them all waterproof and had sections of it that were large water containers with rocks and stream sounds, sections of the floor that made sound when you walked over them and interactive plants. All running into a few laptops then with the sounds processed and being sent out of one of the 4 speakers in each corner.
Good fun.
Thanks! This project is just what I was looking for to experiment with my kids. It's a great entry point into analog electronics and the link to physics :)
Not sure how well it would reproduce with a piezo, but hang a metal coat hanger from a string and flick the hanger. If you want to hear what it’s supposed to sound like, wrap the string around your finger, stick your finger in your ear, and flick. It sounds pretty amazing
"anecdotal evidence"
That's brilliant, I'll have to start using that expression now :D
Anecdotal evidence is a real term.
@@Tunkkis yes, but it has no scientific merit, and one could apply it to everything to make it sound better. Like it has some weight in an argument, but it's really just hot air.
@@EkelundDK Oh, absolutely. I wasn't arguing for the use of anecdotal evidence, though I can see how someone could interpret my comment that way. I only wished to point out that he didn't come up with the term.
Ah, I understand now, heh. Have a great day, man :)
This is so well made. I really appreciate all the information. It took me a lot of time to find all the necessary information about piezos and how they work and this explains basically everything you need to know.
Thank you, that's the aim of my videos. Not to be exhaustive but to give enough information to get started, and get a general knowledge to be able to create and research further if needed.
I gotta ask - are you happy with your septum piercing?
Exactly what I was looking for. Excellent with clear visual instructions.
Phantastic! Lots of brilliant ideas!👏🏼👍🏼
this is so creative and inspirational, countless directions these ideas could go! thanks for making this video ^w^
Didn't imagines something so useful might be created with such a trivial device
Thanks for sharing this information with us! I very much enjoyed your sense of humour as well as how well you simplified this technical info.
Love the final music.
I was so looking forward to you pressing the puck against the elephant :(
Great video, thank you! Loved the little tune you played, go on producing music, I am listening forward to it!
should make a collaboration with Simon the Magpie 👍🏽👍🏽
Would be awesome
I think you can also put it in the sea and listen.
Thanks for the useful video! I have been trying to figure out how to hold objects... i finally know you use a grounding bar!!! Thanks
so clear, now is time to create sounds, thank you for sharing
that piezo puck looks really useful
I made similar piezo pickups to detect the vibrations for a mass balancing instrument :p
Would love a full album, reminds me of "Human" from Freeform. You have serious talent.
I did this years ago to some guitars just with super glue and the audio jack, the quality of the sound wasn't the best but it was still a nice project and gave me an "electroacustic guitar" for almost free.
Great video! I love the simplicity of those devices. I recall the first time I encountered these (late 1970s) in the fire alarm panels we maintained. I was new in the field of electronics and had not seen one before, they were used as audio trouble indicators in the fire panels. I thought they were some kind of modern day “black magic”, kind of like LEDs and Peltier devices. Put a little voltage in and out comes something totally different!
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clarke
Yeah, they've always been a mystery to me too. I know that they worked, but not how, so I figured that's a great excuse to make a video and do my research! Especially so after finding that piezo siren and realizing just how freakishly loud they can be.
You can even make your own piezo crystals, as this mad genius is doing.
th-cam.com/video/K3G2QM5a-9U/w-d-xo.html
Using your dullest drill is best tip!
Great video, very enjoyable. Great song at the end :)
I have what appears to be a two tone piezo disc that I salvaged from an old smoke alarm (don't worry, I was careful with the radioactive bit). I think its two tone since it has two separate crystal areas, both of which have wires going to them, plus a third to the metal disc. I only mention this because I didn't know there were such things and thought it was interesting.
Yeah, I’ve seen those before, it’s not a two tone piezo. It’s actually a self driving piezo. More information can be found about them here: makezine.com/2009/12/03/ask-make-three-legged-piezo/
Always well produced videos! So entertaining and instructional. Mahalo for sharing! : )
Cheers!
Yessss!!! The song at the end rules!!
So cool! I learned a bunch from this, thanks for sharing!
Marvelous! I´ve learned a lot with your video! Thank You, very much!
Excellent video. Excellent music.
Love it! Thank you for the tips on making the pick ups! Love the stand-alone idea. Seems obvious now, but it wasn't before you showed it. :)
This is actually a very good tutorial video. Thank you!
Cool. Thank you.
Glue or tape on some mass to the air side of the piezo for a stronger signal and some interesting effects. Glue on a spring any I would guess you might have some echo.
That’s interesting. I may have to play around with that.
I made one on bare copper board, in electronics class a few years ago, and it had a lovely distorted sound. I only had a ukulele to try it on, and black metal ukulele is a fantastic combination. Sadly, when I made a proper perf board version, the distortion went away, and now it sounds clean and smooth. What a shame, that noisy mishap was better then expected.
If you want to hear something really cool dangle a slinky over a balcony and hold one end to your ear!
I'm excited to make one. Thank you!
Love this channel!!
Kram från Stockholm.
I couldn't get any useful sound out of the piezos that I bought, even with a mini amp with 9v battery so I got the premade ones off ebay (red and black). Supposedly these will work a lot better according to other videos. If you're having issues then try that or maybe leave me a reply and I'll let you know how it went.
this is amazing! love your videos and love the message at the end. i've been trying to learn an instrument for years, on and off. it never occurred to me that our skill level or knowledge is irrelevant to enjoy making music until i read "how music works" by david byrne. music is really for everyone in the same way love and food is. we don't discuss talent for those. it's part of being human.
I'll add that to my reading list. I do want to learn more about making music, since I've kind of given up learning how to play an instrument I want to explore the side of music production more.
That book is great.
found you at last very funny but totally informative hopefully will solve my amplifying issues on my harps happy new year from tasmania
Awesome stuff! 😃👍🏻👊🏻
9:10 sounds like a fever dream feelslike
That was very cool. Learnt a lot thanks for sharing
It looks like you're in Giaco Whatever's makerspace, or one similar to it?
He works with Giaco.
AWESOME vid!
The friend could have connected to this pickup a reverb pedal, of those used in guitars, of the type "Pitch Shifter Delay PS-3 Boss", it would make very cool effects!
The song is awesome
Creative Genius
Awesome little project, you got my sub!
Have you tested wiring piezo pickups in series? All the know-how on the internet says to do it in parallel, but I can't find a single comparison of someone actually doing it!
In magnetic pickups in guitars, wiring in series "doubles" the output of a single pickup while parallel halves it; in piezos it also halves it, which is why series sounds so compelling; piezos already have very low output and every bit helps.
very good, thank you
Great stuff!
I have to admit, that was a pretty clever ad segue haha
Great stuff
Very very very very good!
Beautiful! :D
The answer to can one build a pcb for its musical properties is yes.. the lenght and thickness will change its harmonics so you can fine tune a pcb if you wish.
Love it!
This is ingenious in its simplicity. Also, ever build a Theremin, it would probably make for a good video, too
Here we see the world's only man who can actually pronounce 'piezo'
There are two pronunciations both are equally as correct, one has British origins the other American.
Brilliant - I’m doing a video soon that will need some piezos so this was a really useful inspiration :)
Excellent content. Excellent script and pacing. I truly want to build the stuff I see in your videos.
You're likely gonna wake up one day in the future, though, and wonder what the hell you were thinking with the septum hardware.
But excellent content anyway.
You know what, I am absolutely bewildered how someone can leave such a nice and supportive comment only to do a complete 180 and become offensive and think that your opinion about my life choices, vis a vis my piercings, is in any way welcome. Stop focusing on other people's bodies, it's rude and offensive. I do wonder what the hell you were thinking in writing your comment, it's such an alien thing for me, to even fathom how someone can be so focused on other people like that. It does not sound healthy.
"Septum hardware" is a new term for me. Thank you, might name a band after that in the future.
Cool stuff.
love it!
very cool project! :-)
I Like the sound the tooth brush makes
You should explain how you changed pitch on the wire and piece of wood to make the melody.
Thank you!
great!
Clean!
Amazing
Have you experimented with different types of surfaces any to see what materials communicate sound more clearly? Plastic, metal, wood, tile, etc...?
Also what materials dampen signal better? Rubber, foam, cork, etc...?
Very cool video!
Literally no headphone warning for your super loud piezoelectric alarm
The funny thing is, if you actually look at the audio levels the volume of the alarm isn't louder than the peaks during the rest of the video. Just because you imagine it's loud doesn't mean it is. I lowered the volume significantly from the original recording.
@@SwitchAndLever I guess it must be an illusion of the mind lol
@@SwitchAndLever I guess it also could be that my speakers are boosted in that range
Edit headphones
I appreciate that Anchorman reference.
Seriously funky! This is very tempting to try. I kind of wish you had attached one to an elephant though. ;)
I ran out of elephants just before this project, so unfortunately I had to skip that particular test.
@@SwitchAndLever Darn. Maybe next time.
Hi thank you very much indeed for this very interesting video. I wonder how much the material of the box will impact the sound. I would like to build a pickup to be used in an electric guitar ... i think that finding the oprimal placement of these piezo disks will take a lot of time A lot of trials. Regards, gino
nice job
boy... you are a musician!...
Cool 🎼
Using a dull drill bit will also maximize the risk to your personal health and safety, so that's a twofer!
Thanks for this great video, it helped me!
I wonder if a flat magnet under the _Puck_ could help to a better contact (on metal)?
Congrats on the new theme song
Haha! Nooooo...but, without spoiling too much, my next video will have a different theme song!
Hi @Switch & Lever! This looks fun, thought I give it a try. What's your go to store(s) for the components needed here?
eBay and Amazon 🙂
What do you use as a pre-amplifier and amplifier? What audio gain can you achieve? I want to record all the noises that are present in my home ......... . I have several of these 34mm piezo ones and I need to try!!! Any suggestions? Thank you.
I’ve seen that all of contact piezo mics are soldered to mono cables and mono jacks, but it looks here you did it with stereo, am I correct? If so, could I know why?
I’ve been making own (both mono and stereo using single piezos) and to be honest still don’t know if there is benefit or if it useful at all.
I would like to know your opinion.
Loved the video, very inspiring.
looking for a full range contact mic for a double bass on what size should I go?
Great! What's the five hole holder called, and where can I get it?
The one looking like a piece of Lego Technic, but with screws in it.
SOLVED: Grounding Bar, now I heard it in the video.
Humbly, Ylan
how would you make a piezo into a speaker? could it be as simple as wiring it to a male 3.5mm jack and plugging it into a mixer? then manipulating the frequencies at different amped up db levels?? curious about that for a personal project...
Without increasing the voltage of the piezo how do I make the piezo louder? Do you think adding a cone to the piezo would make it louder?
Can someone make a “10 hour of switch and lever dancing” video, please? Thank you
I don't think that would be good for the general sanity of the internet.
Great video as always. My greatest question is how did you edit the song? Did you use a daw and matched it afterwards (that must be horrendous) or is there a (not so) secret way to do it?
Yes, that's exactly how I did it. Yes, it was horrendous (well, tedious mostly). I exported each track separately for matching purposes, so it was easier to match each individual "instrument" to its own sound. Making the song and editing the video for it took longer than making the rest of the video.
@@SwitchAndLever my compliments for you good and brave sir.
You had me at toothbrush.
Ace! Thanks. Lee (subbed)
trying to make one of these - could I use a 3.5 sourcing map instead of the 3.5 mm audio jack - having trouble figuring this out! thanks
0:54 Miss RadioShack
Greattt
I'd really love to make one of those :D but I don't have any fancy recording devices. Would it work if I just connect it to a speaker that has "microphone in" port? Also can I use it as a PC microphone to record stuff?
The best answer I can give is: it depends.
You're just going to have to try. You can definitely hook them up to an amp (or a speaker with a built in amp) for live performances for instance, but whether it will work as a PC input I would guess depends on your computer and its inputs.
@@SwitchAndLever To update the topic the PC worked fine as a contact mic recorder. I used a bit older windows 7 machine with Audacity.