This is beyond impressive - as a voice actor and microphone enthusiast this is the first project I am interested in actually giving a shot! - Thank you for all your hard work, Matt.
Can we all just appreciate Matt for a second: he's spent who knows how many man hours researching, designing, and testing all of these builds, and then puts it out there for free when he could easily just sell them. He's not even selling the plans when they do truly belong to him. Matt, you're a super guy and I hope I can learn how to be more generous because of your example.
Could not agree more! Such a great chap consistently putting out excellent quality videos and brilliant projects that genuinely anyone could do with enough time!
damn he actually teach us how to build an entire high quality microphone from scratch, while also explaining the reason behind those parts that he used. What a rare gem on youtube nowadays.
@@Sillimant_it's just that the ass videos are more popular now, there's still PLENTY of brilliant content - more than before, it's just flooded out sadly
When does 5 min crafts ever have actual crafts? It's all just "here's a product on Amazon for this extremely specific scenario that you will probably never find yourself in or is very easy to deal with"
I came here expecting to see someone assembling a microphone kit. I did not expect to be taught how to build an entire microphone almost completely from scratch, while learning valuable info about electrical and audio interference and how to mitigate them. This is brilliant.
Pro Tip: Don't cut off the Bulk connector (2:14) leaving this pin floating will definitely worsen sound quality. Instead, connect it to the ground of the circuit. Otherwise the microphone performed is heavily influenced by EMV and room conditions
you can notice in the comparison at the end that yeah there is a slight little bit of room noise in the microphone along with a little harshness. Very good advice!
If you want to get really fancy about minimizing noise you’d also keep the digital conversion away from analog preamp circuit (not hot glued right next to it) and shielded. Also the grounds & shields should avoid forming loops and instead be tree shaped (going back to a central point of grounding ie the Audio ground)
…and this thread, to me, is why to buy a microphone. There’s a tremendous amount of experience built into a commercial mic beyond just making the electrical connections. Audio and RF is a whole different world than digital logic!
I definitely prefered the Neumann, but I suspect that his voice in person would sound more like it does from the microphone he built. So I suppose it depends if you want to sound like a normal person or like a radio voice.
I watched this video with ok earphones but I could ear a slight noise on the DIY mic that wasn't present in the Neumann, so if you compare the cost/quality ratio, the DIY mic wins by a substantial margin, but in terms of raw quality, Neumann stays king
@@TibiHell absolutely, the DIY one had a little pitched drone that it was probably picking up from the room, in a properly treated room, with some EQ and processing I think it could even be great to record vocals for a song. The neumann mic picks up a larger range of bass and sounds boomier compared to the crisp high end of the DIY one, I hear.
I used to be a marketing director. We had a "guy" that did all our voice over work cash. We used him for years and the quality was amazing. The radio ingest guys were always complimenting us on finding this guy. When I left the job we went for beers. He confessed that the entire time he was using the onboard mic on his iPhone hung by a coat hanger in his wardrobe. He was literally tweaking the levels in phone with some app, and dropping the wav straight onto our cloud. Didn't even touch a cable.
The channel Booth Junkie (he makes videos about mics and voiceover) has demonstrated this as well. Most people don't realize how important your environment (that guy's wardrobe as opposed to his living room) really is, and how similar microphones really are when it comes to sound quality!
I think the diy microphone sounds sharper, whereas the VERY expensive one sounds softer. For different things, one may be more preferable, but I still think paying 100 times less is a very good deal, for a similar quality. Congratulations!
The way I think of them is with the DIY setup, it sounds like you're talking into the mic at a really high quality -whereas with the very expensive mic, it sounds like you're actually talking directly to the person listening to what the mic pics up.
Just prefacing this with the fact I'm a professional audio engineer, with a Masters degree in microphone preamp design. For the price and required skills, this is AMAZING! such a cool build idea! I'm currently out on tour so don't have access to my workshop, but will be attempting to replicate this as soon as I get back home, with a few minor tweaks. 1) really simple, you even touched on it in the video. The rear porting for that capsule is compromised by the brass casing. Instead of using a brass ring with holes drilled into it I would suggest soldering the two brass grills together directly. A little bit of thought will have to go into shock-mount mounting rings but it will be worth it. You're effectively making the Mic HyperCardiod in its current format. 2) this will sound really stupid, but placing a stretched piece of thin breathable fabric such as a pair of low denin tights (stocking for my American readers) will really really help. As it stands the microphone is slightly more simple and than I would like it to be and I found myself noticing S's and the odd plosive here and there. the next two are completely optional but could be really cool additions to the project and help the sound quality. 3) whilst I can see you are using basic filtering in the preamp stage I would suggest adding an R/C C/R EQ filter to roll off everything below 30 Hz and everything above 18 kHz as the capsule will struggle to reproduce anything outside of this frequency range however the preamp will still be wasting energy amplifying noise you can't hear. These are a few of the additional components found on a lot of pro microphone circuit boards. a really simple step, massive quality difference. 4) sorry the audiophile in me had to... Try and use film capacitors where you can. Basically anything other than electrolytic as they start to introduce undesirable noise into the signal chain. On something like this, it wouldn't be the end of the world but when you get a few going into each other the effect really starts to add up. 5) I'd love to see this with the Texas Instruments INA217 mic preamp integrated circuit. It's quite possibly the best budget preamp circuit you can find, period. 6) I love your idea about using a simple premade USB to audio adapter, why don't you integrate the headphone output as well with simple passive volume control this would turn the unit into an amazing audio interface. I'll drop you an email with these comments and a few other really nerdy ones as well for you to use or ignore at your own call haha. But overall, I can't say how cooll this project really is! I'm going to try it out with the weeks mentioned above and see if it's worth it. Would you be interested in doing a comparison video? I have a couple of Neaumanns & AKGs in my touring kit and would love to do an A/B. All the best, Arran. P.S. If anyone else wants a list of the nerdy stuff just drop me an email: info@ArranHeaton.com
Great write-up, thanks. I'm learning quite a bit here. I'd love to see a proper audio engineer optimise the design and do some scientific comparisons vs $1000+ off-the-shelf mics.
I see you are good in this topic. Therefore, I would like to clarify about USB Audio interface. Is it just an adapter ? If not, then what function does this thing perform ? Thank you very much in advance.
I have no need for a quality USB-C microphone, but I will watch any video of DYI Perks building anything. This man passion & skills are inspiring (and a great watch)!
@AB Best course of action is to find other likeminded individuals in Brazil and find alternatives. Watching DIY videos from the UK is not how I would tackle this issue.
If he made another identical mic there's no way it would characteristically sound the same. Everything from all the variables in his making and assembly to the characteristics of the preamp and DAC components. Real mic designers are picky about these things and even profile and hand pick, or bin, capsules and FET's for their ideal sound.
@@_BangDroid_ unless you're able to create two and demonstrate that there's drastic differences between the two then is just speculation, regardless of manufacturing method there's always going to be some measure of error, however with The complete isolation of the capsule It's entirely possible that the majority of differences between multiple manufacturing runs would be insignificant enough to be near unnoticeable aside from simultaneous side by side testing. Until you can demonstrate this difference is drastic enough to become a problem then it's just speculation. Very important speculation that should definitely be considered, but still just speculation.
@@platinumsky845 Explain to me what the statement "Microphone design is more of an art than an exact science" means. If what you're saying is true, then designing microphones would be simple as can be and in fact the entire industry would be a scam. It's only speculation to you because you evidently have no experience in manufacturing, electronics or audio.
As a sound tech, I'd like to make one correction: the way that professional audio cables protect against electrical noise is not from the shield. That cable with the shield that was shown is for something else entirely, but it does often get used as an audio cable, because it works just as well. The way that professional audio cables actually protect against electrical noise in the cable is through basically sending 2 copies of the audio signal at the same time so the destination device can remove what noise it can. This is called a balanced cable. Audio University has a great video on the subject of Balanced/Unbalanced cables if you want to know more. However electrical interference shields are mostly used in digital signals such as those that get sent through USB, so without doing extensive testing on this build, the shields used aren't necessarily pointless or bad to have.
I really wish there would be something like "behind the scenes" for your episodes. This is a masterpiece. I cant even imagine how much effort you put in each episode. Great job Matt, as always.
I just posted a comment saying pretty much the same thing! I mean, I love the format of these videos, the way all the unnecessary stuff is cut out and everything looks pristine, but I know if I was doing a project like this there'd be messes and tools everywhere!
Particularly in this one he made a lot of effort to make it accessible to people. For once I think I might actually try following this build. Shows he has been reading comments and takin feedback. Its so nice to see someone with so much knowledge doing things so diligently.
Bravo! As an audio professional and microphone designer, I was really scared as I saw this video's title. You did a great job here. Your research seems do be at the highest level. No "Audio-Bush*t" found here. I really enjoy your overall quality, so it would have been a shame to see this video fail, but it didn't. Have a nice day and greetings from Germany :)
Thoose caps are just too big for the mic transients, probably with 470uF on both sides and 2 in parallel on the USB in would be better. I would have put some smaller ceramic cap parallel to the main bulk ones to filter out the DC DC converter noise. For the decoupling caps i would have choosen a polyester type one. But this is just a preference. (I try to avoid as much as possible electrolitics ones)
@@tuttocrafting I'm wondering is there any particular reason for avoiding electrolytic caps? Is it because they're generally more fragile/prone to blowing out like the ones on old pc mobos or is there another reason?
@@pigpiggig I'm not aware of the reason for avoiding them in audo gear, but the reason cheap capicators had a habit of failing in the past is due to industrial espianage gone wrong - a researcher from Japan defected to China with a design for long-life caps, who was paranoid about his lab assistants defecting in turn. To prevent this, he gave the assistants misleading designs, who then passed the designs on to Tiawan, who in turn gave it to their businesses to mass produce - end result was a flood of capacitors on the market that were designed to fail after a short period of time; this is also why there was a period when "Japanese capacitors" were considered better quality.
@@pigpiggig each capacitor kind have different characteristics. Electrolytic one are less precise than other types. They depends a lot by temperature and they al bulky. On signal paths it not necessarily at all to use hi grade electrolitic capacitors. Probably over there also a good ceramic one might have been enough. Generally electrolitic caps degrades more than others over time, especially if they are cheap. Anyway there is a great article on Altium websites that explain a bit the difference between capacitors types.
Professional electrical engineer here: -Twisting the 2 wires between the JFET and the PCB costs literally nothing and gives an additional protection against electromagnetic interference (emi). -Beautiful work on the soldering, are the grills also soldered to the brass ring and connected to ground? With corrosion, you could get some emi problems in the long run. -Circuit: You need additional 100nF Caps on your supply rails. Those electrolytic caps have a large series resistance, making your supply more noisy for higher frequencies.
How would one add a mute button this design? I would assume just adding a locking button of sorts to the audio output but I know very little basics of electronics. Also question about the additional 110nF caps on the supply rails. Are you talking about the +/- 15v rails? if so where and how do you add the caps? inline? does it matter if they are polarized?
So, I would say the unprocessed audio from the U87 definitely sounds better, but once they're both processed you could make them sound damn near identical. The DIY mic had pretty much the same level of low end as the U87 but had a lot more presence in the high end, which honestly unprocessed sounds a bit harsh, however it has more sonic information that you can play with in post. With the U87 you'd probably throw a boost on the high end to give it more of the air that the DIY mic already has, and with the DIY I would do some cutting in the high end to make it less shrill. In the end they'd sound pretty much identical though, which is incredibly impressive.
I have cosumer grade 150$ PC speakers and I couldn't hear a difference. I assume if you are a content creator 99% Of the viewers wouldnt notice the difference. Maybe its more audible on headphones tho. PS: Also tested with my Headphones as well. The difference is so miniscule I would be able to tell them apart.
Blown away by this, looks like the result of years of research. Can't imagine the number of prototypes there must have been, and you graciously only showed us exactly what works. Thank you ☺️
@Mr. Rich B.O.B That braid itself is conductive. It's made of copper after all. It has to be conductive in order to work as an RF shield. Also, the wires that go inside are enameled, so that is no issue at all.
**WARNING** If you are building this yourself, the 2 middle capacitors (2200uf 16v) on the diagram are backwards. If you follow the diagram, it will short, pop and you will see smoke when you give it power! Instead, use 12:45 in the video of the correct orientation of the capacitors.
@@rondonkulus right, but you literally just said all squares are rectangles while attempting to correct me for pointing out you're identifying one of many squares for the term defining all of them, which doesnt even apply as there isn't any steam. Additionally, the rectangle containing all those squares can be applied individually while referencing none of them. The fact you're lacking that much self-awareness is even worse than your original comment.
@@rondonkulus IMO this is too clean to be steampunk... The aesthetic is more like a refined early to mid-century vision of the centuries to come. Maybe bordering on atompunk? To pull it back to steampunk, chunkier brass fittings and some ornate stamped sheet brass ornaments for the base are in order.
Could’ve been really cool to add some kind of “pop stopper” using that same brass mesh further in front of the capsule to minimize the blow of air across the capsule during plosive sounds. I’d also recommend running a de-esser in your audio program to minimalist sibilance from your “s” sounds. This build is really beautiful and functional, and I am really blown away by the craftsmanship. Been binging your videos recently am now a proud follower. Look forward to seeing more!
He just proved that everyone claiming you can't get professional results with a usb microphones have no idea what they're talking about. The industry is going to get interesting.
great call comparing it against the U87. The Neumann definitely has a buttery smooth quality in the high end. The DIY mic has more sibilance and high end presence, but it doesnt sound bad. I wouldnt think there was a 99% price gap between the two based on the sound.
I was so surprised by the "you've been listening to it this whole time" that it put a great smile on my face. I truly love the elegance of the result and its quality. Well done mate!
Well... It being a surprise to some of us was a great thing. I’m glad some of you saw it coming, but I just don’t see the benefit of pointing it out as an obvious thing
The 3000 dollar mic is definetly better in quality of sound, but it is no 100 times better, with a little tuning of the DIY mic the average person would not hear much of a difference at all. This is amazing work Matt glad to see this project!
At least listening through my cheap phone dac and bassy PortaPros, I totally agree with you. The Neumann sounds like it's massaging my eardrums and like it had an integrated de-esser or something. No annoying frequencies at all. It's a beauty. The DIY has a really good sound, quite bright and with a nice low end as well, though it desperately needs a compressor and a couple of filters but it still sounds really good, especially considering that it's self-contained, cheap and with a DIY preamp.
to me the only difference is that the diy mic is more raw sounding, I think adding a very thinn tensed cloth in front of the brass mesh could go a long way softening that rawness.
the law of diminishing returns. its the same in headphones where a $1000 set will sound better than a $100 set, but not 10 times better. the 3 grand mic is a solid 1% (based on my very scientific calculations) better than the $30 one. in some situations that 1% is important.
@@iris657 any mildly decent mic that wasn't taken from the Alibaba trashcan will be competitive when it comes to human voice. The Neumann mic is meant for recording acoustic instruments, which is a much more challenging proposition due to the wider register and the resonances caused by the instrument on the mic's armature.
Professional Audio Guy here: The comparison from 21:57 pretty much knocked me out of the ballpark. Obviously the U87 sounds better. It has a bit more natural compression in the highs and it doesn't sound so harsh with the s-consonants. Also the resolution in the mids is much more articulated - this is very important for the character of a voice. With the DIY-Mic you have a bit less natural compression and a bump in the highs, which you would have to process in post. BUT! The resolution of the DIY is superb. I tried to make out a noise floor, which is impossible with the youtube compression and that is a very good sign. It also has a very smooth and buttery low-end which would make it perfect for other use cases. Investing a bit more time and much less money and making this Mic? Definitely worth it!!! Great Video through and through!
As a Professional Normal Guy here: I beg to differ. The U87 has much more mid to low range and makes his voice sound quite muddy for my taste. Now the $3000 microphone may pick up more and “cleaner” information which may be eq’ed/edited or whatsoever in post, but the space and higher end frequencies that the DIY mic picks up sound really good, and are much easier for me as a listener to enjoy. This is completely subjective to this video and I’m in no way a better professional audio guy than you haha. Have a good day :)
@@madoba8717 The u87 is definitively better. As he said, the highs aren't near as harsh and it's not as sibilant. Sounds less compressed and clippy in the high than the DIY, though I wonder if that's due to the pre-amp.
@@madoba8717 I've never watched a video from DIY Perks before. Hearing his voice through the whole video with the custom mic made the U87 sound muddy and not as clear as well. Perhaps its the sudden change in audio from listening to the same mic for 20 minutes and then hearing the U87.
@@jonasguthrie6129 me as well, i find the u87 a bit muddy and weird. Besides, the other one is only 30 dollars lol so its definitely better for the pricing
One of the only creators I've seen to include only accurate information as well as potential pitfalls of a sponsor in the middle of a sponsor spot. VPN and investment app talking points are almost always misleading or straight up incorrect so it's refreshing to see someone make sure their viewers are more properly informed. Good video too.
You're basically Colin Furze's calm and practical brother. Both are genius DIY builders, but extreme opposites in regards to aesthetics and build subjects Love and appreciate both of you!
@@chilio94 A water cooled computer powered by a jet engine... Likely also somehow in the form factor of either a lawn mower or a bicycle... But then covered in wood and brass... 🤔
Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I respect Matt and this video so much more than many youtube project videos. My mans actually did a ton of documentation for this and made it really easy to recreate. This is probably one of the best diy mics I have ever seen in terms of quality and feasibility to build. So, I built it. And yeah, totally sounds like he said. I’ll gas it up as much as he says, it’s really nice. I have been thinking about this project for three straight weeks now and I really do feel like the payoff was worth it. 90% of this project was waiting on parts and existing in a sunken cost fallacy purgatory, but overall, if you plan on doing this, most of the parts here take a good amount of time to get here (especially if you order from china, which is necessary for price efficiency). And that’s all I can really say about this. It’s a good mic, I rate what Matt is doing and the amount of time and research he put in. But there’s one big thing that bothered me about this project. The cost for all of these components is not ~$30. Not a chance. As you can see in my spreadsheet below, not 30, not even 100 dollars (accounting for possible currency conversions). If you don’t have a ton of brass, wood, and the proper capacitors lying around, you will be spending more. That as well as the fact that some components are just not available in the states. I traded the THAT1512 for a INA217 because of this. The INA217 has different resistances for gain but other then that it is largely the same (not really, I would still like a THAT1512 but they take 4 months to get here it seems). The finish of brass and wood is cool, but completely impossible for people that don’t have tools to work with them (also there’s no specs listed so I’m not sure how you would do that anyway), so I 3d printed everything (box and module holder) so I didn’t have to buy anything else. The cost I listed accounts for these even more budget considerations, so all in all I would call this a budget mic, but with a hard asterisk. I want to stress again, this project is so cool and I’m really happy I did it. Just do your own budgeting before hand and make sure you can sweat $150+. I included some pictures of my build and all the stls (as well as a fader knob I stole from thingiverse I cannot find the original link I will update if I find it)) Definitely worth the time put in. Here are some resources from my build: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ax8V7ID-nKL7wJXj9A7RIaR2wb1TqigN?usp=sharing Direct Link to my spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pQlkRerO5geoDNLEWXTUVbyJalM7nESn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114689008105602245905&rtpof=true&sd=true Edit: Here's a quick write-up I did on this with some sort of instructions-not-really that might be helpful: github.com/TrojanPinata/DIY-Mic Edit: As of writing this, t's been a little over a month now since I made this mic, and honestly it still holds up. I finally have a THAT1512 coming so I think that will fix some of my gain issues. Overall, I definitely still like this mic. I use it pretty regularly and get compliments on the quality. If I used it more then I do currently I'd suck it up and buy something really nice, but this will do for now. As for this project, I still really respect the original build. For those complaining about me saying I with there were more verbose instructions, I think you're missing my point. I just kind of with I had a better idea of some of the specifics. That being said, I'm probably never going to do this again, what with the posting my version of a project online. Some of you all are great, but the number of armchair engineers here is wild and I really would rather make things because I like them and not have to deal with people nit picking a writeup I did one morning before work. I mean, I don't know what I expected from the youtube comment section. Anyway, I'm done, enjoy your mic if you're building it, and if you aren't then I really don't care what you have to say about the way I did things. Later.
Also in the process of making it, and yeah, totally agree - I'd like to add that as a video this is a great, easy to watch and share bit of content. But as a tutorial? The circuit diagram and the circuit in the video doesn't match - some capacitors appear to have changed direction?, the parts list only consists of what he had to buy not what he used - and there are measurements missing like the length of the brass rods, the difficulty and process of each step didn't come off well - maybe I'm just supposed to know how to solder brass but he made it look easy so I didn't bother looking anything up and screwed it up a couple times, he skipped over the wiring for the analogue to digital converter, and to top it off there's an advert smack in the middle of it. I'm being really picky but having to follow the video has made these bits stand out
Honestly I would love to see people remaking this with whatever they have at their disposal. You have a 3D Printer, he has apparently access to a ton of brass and some wood, someone else might only have access to wood or plastic... It would be really fun to compare and contrast every version of this project. Also, great job with the "proof study" of sorts, this is what DIY builds should always have!
Love that you go out of your way to identify tools that are "good enough" as lots of DIY builds are like "$5 microphone using only $2500 worth of tools!"
@Miles Doyle Thanks, can you post the whole Bible next time? King James Version and English Standard Version should suffice. Maybe throw in the Old Testament in Hebrew as well for those who prefer a more retro vibe.
Apart from the excellent sound quality - this looks like art. It is astonishingly beautiful. I'm amazed by how many things you are able to make - and do them with exceptional quality and attention to detail.
It's an old design. Those mics were common in 50m in variety of applications were voice of speaker needed amplification of relaying over wire. Credit should be given there, he reproduces suspension harness (the purpose of which is stop vibrations to be carried through the stand to the mic) quite well.
This guy is Michael Reeves except he took his meds as a kid, paid attention in school, and can express self control. Love your works, insanely impressive as per usual.
The Neumann has a beautiful soft sound but the DIY one sounds stunning, especially considering the price difference. The only thing I'd possibly do is add a sort of those spongy or mesh things in front to reduce the plosives and the hissing from letters like 's'. All in all tho, I'm just surprised at the production quality of these videos as well as builds themselves.
Yer it just needs a pop filter and a bit of gain control and it would be golden. Like for the price you can't really complain at that. Though TH-cam doesn't do the Neumann any justice 😔
@@watchingtheworlduk5253 While yes, TH-cam has a limited bitrate, creators get to upload content for free and we consume it for... well free, excluding time, so in that sense it's amazing that we're getting even this quality of both video and sound. The amount of storage and processing power that would be needed for high bitrate stuff just isn't feasible. A lot of people also don't use/have studio headphones and say a 4k TV/monitor to reap the benefits of such content.
Next week: Matt rebuilds the hydraulic system from London’s Tower Bridge in miniature with brass and I somehow convince myself that I can do it too. Great vid as always 👍
You can remedy that out of place silver knob pretty easily with a classic blacksmith's trick. Heat up the part and brush it with a brass wire brush. The brass leaches onto the part, giving it a brassy finish for no real cost. Super useful for detail pieces. The channel "Pask Makes" has a good video on it if you want a visual demonstration.
@@rumbust7793 You could electroplate it with copper, then again with zinc and heat it up afterwards with a small (!) blowtorch so they fuse together. Tried that once, it works, but the problem is to get the heat just right and evenly. I think the youtuber "Cody's Lab" did that with chainmail once, he used an oven to fuse the platings. But that's not possible with a plastic insert. I think the best way is to machine a knob out of brass and maybe 3d print an insert if needed.
This is *incredibly* cool, and as a person who already has the audio interface and no need for the USB bit, seems like something that would be totally doable with an XLR connection. It seems like it's prone to picking up plosives - you can hear some of those almost getting through even at the distance you're using it at - but maybe it could be modified to integrate a pop filter as well.
I'm just beginning to educate myself on this stuff in more depth so sorry if this is a dumb question but would you need to adjust the preamp design for this as an audio interface would provide a higher voltage than the usb cable?
You've outdone yourself this time, Matt. All your builds are brilliant, however this one has the added benefit of uncovering how much margin the audio companies put on their products. I'm also mindblown by the stellar quality of this beaut!
I mean this really doesnt show the margin as mass producing mics you have marketing, packaging, production lines, enginering... All you have to pay for.
It's not that expensive for the cheaper mics and interfaces, all of which cost less then 200 bucks each. But when you get to the higher end ones, yea there's no reason to charge so much. It's mostly them doing endless QC and tinkering with minute details in the frequency response. Also Neumann hand-makes those mics. Which is a bummer. Just mass produce them so everyone can get one.
This genius actually used solder sponge around the wire. And omfg he's so good at making this seem like the easiest thing that he finished in only like an hour lol
Haha right? Just bending one nof those pieces of brass into the right shape probably would have taken me several hours of trial and error and reshaping until it's smooth
Such a sweet build, almost like a mini microphone ballista :O I'd love to see your take on a DIY ribbon mic some day, always wanted to try make one from scratch! EDIT: To me the neumann sound fuller on studio monitors, but those bass frequencies can make audio muddy on tiny phone speakers, so the DIY one wins for 90% of TH-cam consumption!
I like how you could've easily just show this and let people awe at how cool it is. But instead you provide guides and legitimately want others to build it as well.
Me halfway through the video: "I'm surprised he doesn't show us how to build the amp too" DIY Perks: "unfortunately this is going to mean we have to build this from scratch"
Well you came cheaper considering the time this would've taken you but if ur into hard diy projects this would've saved you a little bit of money ngl the product is outstanding
Its a good circuit, but i have some suggestions: - put a ~220nf ceramic capacitor RIGHT across the leads of the ic. - component selection is important for the ac-pass capacitors. Non-polar electrolytic is fine. Tantalum is very bad. Ceramics can also work, but bear in mind ceramics may have a microphonic effect as well. - place everything that connects between the ic and the microphones as close as possible to each other, and make sure the connection between the mic cable ground and the amplifier ground is as short as possible.
@@link3457 I don't think this one will require phantom-power. I would have to take a closer look at the capsule pins (and probably some tests with a scope) to know whether you could just bolt on an XLR cable.
i know almost nothing about electronics, just basic common sense mostly, and its astounding how much I learnt from a video that isn't even solely educationally directed
The Neumann sounds warmer and fuller, the DIY one sounds sharp and punchy with louder top-end. I'd say it's down to preference or use case, which is insane considering the 100x cost difference. In terms of audio the DIY one definitely wins as a streaming mic
Yeah I like the 30 dollar one the best. For voice it need to be that crisp. The 3k one sounds like it would be used in some werid deep love song.. Crisp for the win!
@@BloodSprite-tan i think out of the box the neumann sounds like it has a little more body and is a little smoother, but honestly, a little bit of EQ and compression and i think the DIY could sound equally as good or better (if you don't already like it better)
That's actually crazy how the DIY mic is actually kinda on the same level as the 3000 dollar mic. And you could make sound similar if wanted too which is insane. He got my respect and probably everyone in the comments for making this. nice video and super educational.
@@FuIIDiveVR Well, As a DIY person, maybe you won't need that quality. So, being able to almost replicate the sound of a professional mic is more than enough. (Just a comment. If you have headset, you can hear a clearly difference. It's like the DIY one is more "aggressive".)
@@FuIIDiveVR obviously its more expensive but the DIY which is, in my opinion, sounds like its on the same level. you can agree that even though its cheaper it sounds great with no filter or add-ons.
I love how the design of this mic looks like something out of the experimental stages of the mic back in the late 1800’s or even in the early stages of analog radio! Lovely build and great sound quality considering it’s only like 50 CAD to build!
Half the battle is knowing that these components exist. I remember spending literally days with the RS and Farnell catalogues putting together bills of materials (after having sent off for the datasheets to be posted to me and designing the circuit on paper because Racal REDAC cost the same as a car; now we have free CAD/CAM like KiCAD or Eagle and ngspice for modelling and all the datasheets are online). Since then, the space of available components has exploded, and there's also so much more modularisation. It's very hard to see the wood for the trees. So having the heavy lifting done here is amazing. Plus, the build quality on all these projects is just outstanding.
There's a reason why retro designed audio equipment sounds so amazing. This build had me smiling from ear to ear because I just knew you'd been recording the entire narration with it during the entire video. Amazing job with this build and I'm sure there's even more room for improvement. Your build sounded so much better that the $3000 microphone! Your craftsmanship with brass was a nice touch in the polished and retro mechanical and wood look and finish. Audiophile quality in every way! Bravo!
Don't be delusional lmao. It did not sound better than the Neumann. The build was impressive though and has a very cool aesthetic. Sounded pretty good too.
@@AbdoZaInsert There is a level of objectivity to this. That's why people have jobs in the field. If you wanted to record professionally, that microphone is not on the same level as the Neumann. You can have your personal opinion about what you'd rather use or hear for a voice over like in the video but there are many things that make the Neumann considerably better. I am no audio engineer so I couldn't go into all the details and intricacies and we also only heard a particular sound - the same person's voice and nothing else. However, even I can tell you that the levels (in terms of EQ and pickup) aren't quite right. Compared to the Neumann, the clipping on the home made was quite bad, for example. In a professional environment, I'd expect some would call that audio almost unusable.
@@sebastian-benedictflore What makes you think this is not a professional environment? Dude is literally manking content - high quality content. Like with most things, you get a pretty steep diminishing returns for more than 100x the price.
@@ecoista1373 yes, you get diminishing returns but that does not mean that this is at the same level of audio quality as the Neumann. What on earth are you talking about (referring to the "professional environment" point). Whether or not that is a professional environment doesn't even matter since he uses a better microphone anyway. No, that microphone is not adequate for a professional environment and when I say that, I'm not referring to any job. I'm referring to music production, a high profile/quality radio station or other such situations. That microphone is not versatile enough and there is quite a bit of clipping and I'm sure that a professional audio engineer, unlike myself, could find more problems. It simply doesn't have the quality and versatility that some applications demand. It's ridiculous to say that it is as good as the Neumann here. As for the quality:cost ratio, that is an entirely different matter.
As an audiophile with quite expensive equipment and a musician with 12 years of experience I consider myself an enthusiast to say the least. And honestly, wow! I own 3 microphones spanning from 200 to 1.5k USD each with unique sound signatures (no flex, context) and if anything would LOVE to try on this DIY setup. Between the Neumann and the DIY though there is definitely a nuanced difference in frequency response, but for podcasting and home studio's its nowhere near worth the price (not even close!) and the difference is really so slight that it would only be worth the cost for really professional work. Plus the DIY setup allows for INCREDIBLY CHEAP maintenance!! (Just the repairs of a Neumann would cost 10 times the price of this build lol!) So really, Matt - incredible job with this. I definitely see it as a no-compromise build for an incredible price.
There is another aspect of your DIY mic to take into consideration... Aesthetics. Yes, the Neumann mic is technically slightly better in sound quality, but your mic completely crushes it from an aesthetic perspective. It looks amazing.. stylish.. unique.. literally a piece of art in itself. Incredibly well done!
Speaking as a sound engineer, the quality of your mic is definitely surprisingly good! There are a few issues it certainly suffers from, but overall you've done very well. It certainly seems very useful in a voice over or streaming set up, and certainly exceptional for a usb mic. I was surprised by the frequency response, it is genuinely very clear. The high mids (from what I can tell purely based on the audio from your video) seem to occasionally be a little harsh, and the low mids can get slightly muddy, but that might be an issue with youtube, or worse, me nitpicking. I think it has a great amount of low end of a vocal mic, enough to clearly pic up the full bottom end of voices without overdoing it. It feels almost unfair to put it up against the u87, it's a truly gorgeous vocal mic, even to untrained ears. the u87's only real downside is that price tag, but then again, that's basically everything in the sound industry! I think this was a really cool project and an awesome result! and it's just made even more impressive by the low price tag. Love the look as well!
Agreed on all points. It's pretty gorgeous. I think it sounds great, considering there's no EQ circuit. I'm very impressed. I could work with this signal. Cheers, Lydia! Pleased to meet you!
The U87 has a warmer sound and I would definitely prefer to hear it on a radio station but I think the DIY mic is a big step forward for many youtubers and streamers that don't have a good microphone yet.
@@jantube358 yes the u87 has a much warmer and pleasing sound compared to this DIY microphone, but pair it with some EQ and filter and you probably can sound as good as that u87
@@siontheodorus1501 I would really like to see a video where an audio engineer tries to do this. It will never sound as good as the U87 but maybe it will become a lot warmer.
the fact that he not only showed us how to make it, but also put links to everything he used in the desc makes this a very good tutorial and learning/entertaining video
As a retired sound engineer i admire Matt's skills. And the microphone is sounding great However, from a professional perspective, i shall say that the Neumann is definitely sounding a bit better Better bass and more importantly better defintion and impulse response (it is related to the difference between a real condenser capsule and a self polarized one) BUT a brilliant project ! Philippe
Philippe, I'm sure if you use the same designs and just changed the capsule, a more "Neumann" sound could be achieved, yes the price would increase, but how much would depend on the capsule purchased. If you had a Neumann though that was otherwise broken somehow but the capsule was intact and functional, it would be the perfect recycling project for that microphone ...
@@richcodesweb This is certainly exact but purely hypothetical Neumann has worked on condenser capsules since 1928 and there are few if any prepolarized capsules that could beat this sound quality Although everything depends on what you need the microphone for. When you record a sound there are usually a number of post processing steps coming after and the better the quality at the beginning, the better it will sound on the finished product No wonder it is a standard in the industry (along with one or two other brands) (pardon my bad english !!) Philippe
@@mylittlehomeinparis agreed, nothing beats 90 years of experience in microphone making, research and design. But ... somewhere someone has a broken neumann microphone with a working capsule, I'd be willing to wager if you put that capsule into this design the sound would be a lot closer to the neumann as demo'd also don't forget this was usb-c which will also affect sound quality ... I really want to see an XLR version of this that takes phantom power from the mixer ... making the test a true A/B test
With a full matte black finish, it would be quite discreet even if placed almost exactly between someone's face and the camera, that thin minimalist structure with the floating capsule, barely causes any occlusion; something like this design might get popular with streamers and such, I think.
The year is 2030. DIY Perks just uploaded a tutorial on a DIY fusion reactor. It's made from a combination of brass and wood, and some LEDs to give it a beautiful finish.
One thing i think people dont value from this when they tell you to just dump cash on something on a shelf, is the fact that videos like this are also trying to encourage you to build your skills and your confidence to DIY. I wish more people trusted themselves to learn more its invaluable
Ya, I've always been kinda handy, fixed my own cars etc. even fixed my family's cars with my grandfather's help before I was old enough to drive, and being shown that I could do that from a young age, has, I think led me to be relatively fearless in taking on things. Was noticing I was catching a lot of errors in self published books, and decided, "Hey, if I'm gonna notice, I may as well get PAID to fix them." so I put myself out there and have made a lot of money editing e-books. Then through that I met a guy who owns an audiobook production company, and one day, was like, "Hey you need some help proofing audio? I've caught a few errors in your stuff." I'd never more than played with audio editing software as a teen, to make it sound like people were saying weird things. Now I have creeping up on 20 audiobook proofing credits to my name, and have been asked to work as the proofing manager, to help develop tools and systems for new proofers, because it never once entered my mind that I couldn't do it. And that's all in addition to teaching myself how to do spreadsheets, from scratch over the last couple years, etc.
The Neumann definitely sounds better imo, but if I'm not listening to them side-by-side, I might have a harder time telling a difference, which says a lot given the price differential. I know that if somebody gifted me the diy mic, I'd love the heck out of it. I have a few friends who would benefit from a higher quality mic, so maybe this could be a fun project for making Christmas gifts (I know there are people who feel that homemade gifts are more meaningful, and this definitely beats knitted socks.).
@@aristide4505 not sure you could EQ that clarity into the Neumann. I think the DIY mic is more precise, if you want to soften it more add a little foam and/or boost mid bass slightly. The DIY is better.
Neumann had much softer highs, they didn't go away they were just softer and more leveled with the of the frequencies, it's probably better for studios because of its more level sound, while staying very clear.
Words cannot describe how good everything that goes into these videos is. The production values are so high, but not as high as the level of genius that is always on display
I LOVE THIS CHANNEL: the simplistic “art-attack” vibe combined with the positive cheap and reciclable mood style makes me happy and confident even in the hardest DIY project. It screams: YOU TOO CAN DO IT. Kudos.
I mean the Neumann has a bit more resolution, so your EQ has a bit more impact in post. But the difference is like comparing a Ferrari with a stunningly self made Jaguar.
@@Joel-Monterra Honestly yeah. If you are a youtuber that does voice over the DIY Mic is likely never going to be outpaced by your work. hell 90% of all things you can di with these you aren't going to notice the difference between the 3k mic and the 30 dollar diy, and when you do you'll be making enough to warrant the 3k mic. This is really an incredible value for money this.
For straight talking, in an acoustically sound space, that 40 euro microphone is equally as good as the 3k usd one. Astounding. You sir, are changing the world for the better.
This is where a better audio system would help your ears - or hurt them, depending on your perspective. I won't go into detail on mine, but the DIY mic is closer to 90% the quality at 1% the price. Still an unbelievably massive win. The expensive one is warmer and the DIY one has some high frequency hiss - which could be eliminated with a low-pass filter in a future circutboard design(which would mean an extra resistor and tiny capacitor on the board) - or maybe even a ferrule on the cable. Hard to know where the hiss comes from without personally diagnosing it. This is of course totally pointless unless you're a content creator aside from the fun of pushing things to perfection. There won't be a noticeable difference in the bitrate of a discord call.
@@elibeeblebrox1084 also it doesnt make full justice to put the neumann in a scarlett. Agree with the comments, and at 40 bucks this design is still astonishing and super good!
The neuman actually sounded a tad mid heavy whilst the diy mic sounded well balanced across the spectrum at least with his voice. Think he beat the neuman already, no eq needed, just a job bloody well done.
@@miscostsmusic1880 equalization. It's referring to audio engineering/mixing/mastering. You can boost or cut different audio frequencies to change the sound characteristics.
Despite watching this in the first half hour of its upload, I am already excited to re-watch it multiple times in the next 5 years without ever actually attempting the project
I really wish there was more footage at 4:31, glosses over how exactly you got the feeble wires to attach well to the audio cable wires of a much greater gauge... Brilliant video so far, never thought i wanted to build a mic until now and this is captivating for me from the first second.
The $3k Mic does sound a bit clearer, but... not 100x clearer. Like the difference is almost up to preference. Wonderful job Matt! You never cease to impress with your ingenuity and hard work.
@@howardbaxter2514 Decent?... The DIY mic beat the 3/4 mic on the market High End included and for only 40$ That's far from decent in my opinion! Yes the 3k mic is better but just check the price difference, that don't seems right to buy it.
The Neumann sounds a bit 'fuller' in the deeper frequencies, though not 100x the price deeper. Myself not having any of the required materials or workshop equipment at home, this thing would probably cost me an initial $800 to build (though I could keep the equipment as well obviously)
Why does it even matter on TH-cam lol. This diy mic is the best choice as it's cheap and Sounds good. And youtube compresses any audio to the same bitrate, we can't find a difference unless we hear of both is them simultaneously
@@themanofmarvels6573 None of us really stated it mattered, that's just you reading into it. You are correct that youtube compresses audio and makes for a bit of a hard comparison, though hearing a difference is definitely a valid statement. I'm mostly interested in how the actual sound quality (raw formats) compares, I'm sure a lot of empoverished yet thrifty people would love high quality mics for the price of two books.
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
This is beyond impressive - as a voice actor and microphone enthusiast this is the first project I am interested in actually giving a shot! - Thank you for all your hard work, Matt.
i love your vids man.
Ayyy
Same tho
I didn’t expect to find the voice of dr. Millar here of all places.
Hope you’re having a great day.
Think you'll be doing some narration with something like this? Might want to shout it out in the description if you do so we can compare :P
Can we all just appreciate Matt for a second: he's spent who knows how many man hours researching, designing, and testing all of these builds, and then puts it out there for free when he could easily just sell them. He's not even selling the plans when they do truly belong to him. Matt, you're a super guy and I hope I can learn how to be more generous because of your example.
I imagine he makes a fair bit of revenue from his videos about it. But yeah, anyone else would've made you pay for the template
Agreed 100%
@@johnfran3218 :/
@@johnfran3218 Were talking about a DIY Microphone, that has nothing to do with this.
Could not agree more! Such a great chap consistently putting out excellent quality videos and brilliant projects that genuinely anyone could do with enough time!
This guy really has a keen eye for industrial design, would love a coffee table book with blueprints, schematics, building & product photos.
Yes please!
Same, I'd definitely buy that
With a brass cover right 😆😅
Would buy it
I would buy that!!
damn he actually teach us how to build an entire high quality microphone from scratch, while also explaining the reason behind those parts that he used. What a rare gem on youtube nowadays.
god, that's a depressing thought. I remember when practises like that were the norm, this platform really has gone to shit
@@Sillimant_it's just that the ass videos are more popular now, there's still PLENTY of brilliant content - more than before, it's just flooded out sadly
@@Sillimant_ there are plenty of these types of channels, just need to sort through the shite
All his videos are like this :D DIY perks is the man
I WAS 100% WAITING FOR THE "I've been talking into this the whole time" AND I WAS EXACTLY RIGHT. Love this video!
Same here!
He literally showed it at the beginning though....
yep, i knew it! but this is Matt, of course he did it that way
Saaaaame.
5 Minute crafts: _gluing pipe cleaners to a tin can_
DIY Perks: Here's the 10th free tutorial for a literal market beating product this year
Mega flip reset master watching DIY perks? Swweeeeettt.
Also unlike 5 Minute Crafts if you follow this tutorial properly it will A) Work and B) Not kill you.
When does 5 min crafts ever have actual crafts? It's all just "here's a product on Amazon for this extremely specific scenario that you will probably never find yourself in or is very easy to deal with"
I still love the beamer I build with one of his video's seriously this guy saves money around the world.
Should be called 5min craps lol but they get their views which is sad.
I came here expecting to see someone assembling a microphone kit.
I did not expect to be taught how to build an entire microphone almost completely from scratch, while learning valuable info about electrical and audio interference and how to mitigate them.
This is brilliant.
Some issues though like being harsh.
@MLGJoeisback yeah it would be very bright and likely tinny. Almost like a piezo mic, very harsh n brittle sounding.
@@tomi-jon8798 Any tips to reduce it?
right , we need more of this type of content but across many more categories
A kit would be handy for those of us who aren't good with the metalworking.
Pro Tip: Don't cut off the Bulk connector (2:14) leaving this pin floating will definitely worsen sound quality. Instead, connect it to the ground of the circuit. Otherwise the microphone performed is heavily influenced by EMV and room conditions
I can tell that has something to do with the harshness of the mic.
you can notice in the comparison at the end that yeah there is a slight little bit of room noise in the microphone along with a little harshness. Very good advice!
If you want to get really fancy about minimizing noise you’d also keep the digital conversion away from analog preamp circuit (not hot glued right next to it) and shielded. Also the grounds & shields should avoid forming loops and instead be tree shaped (going back to a central point of grounding ie the Audio ground)
…and this thread, to me, is why to buy a microphone. There’s a tremendous amount of experience built into a commercial mic beyond just making the electrical connections. Audio and RF is a whole different world than digital logic!
@@joshcarter-com but these types of videos will help make the DIY version better with comment sections exactly like these.
This man just allowed people with time on their hands and passion in their hearts to corner an entire market lmao, love this
How many people do you think will actually make this?
@@Rig0r_M0rtis toddlers obviously
@@Rig0r_M0rtis At least one; me.
Tbh im thinking of making it. I'll save it. But I'm living abroad now, without any tools so I can do it at home.
@@kookaburra574 exact situation here my guy
I hope jlielectronics is ready for the traffic. This is a great build
Already ordered one 😂😂😂
Out of stock in 3 2 1...
@@tf_d You ordered a U87 Ai!
@@CarbonPanther Mate. There is no such thing as a Scalper to buy stock and parts
A few hundred individual orders over the thousands they would get from commercial suppliers... I think they'll be fine lol.
I was waiting for the reveal of the audio to be utterly garbage.
*SURPRISE. YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO IT THIS ENTIRE TIME*
What an OJ comment with 5 likes
The crossover we never expected
Same wtf.
I knew it wasn't going to be garbage but the reveal was a clever twist.
I actually expected that from the beginning.
Dude, if this mic was available without the DIY aspect, I would definitely pick one up. It's a work of art.
Fr I’m looking for someone to build this for me 😅😅
@@dericmedley8800build it yourself
@@dericmedley8800 Someone already did most of the work you just need to unbox it and screw in a couple screws its pretty cheap too
@@MoonlessSolaceshare link pls
@@MoonlessSolacesend something that i can Google and get that site
"Well you've been listening to it the entire time."
I figured you'd say that! It sounds amazing!
I was suspecting this. I can hear a lot of noise in the audio. Not very clean, but good sound!
This channel feels like if Leonardo da Vinci had a TH-cam channel
he didnt invent something so far
Maybe not da Vinci, but Eiffel or Van Gogh maybe.
Da Vinci? More like Macgyver! =P
It do be like that
Nope, that’s URI Tuchman’s channel. This is Michelangelo quality refinement.
The neumann definitely has a really deep thick calming sound to it. But the DIY one is very clear and crisp.
I think I prefer the diy one for voice but the Neumann sounds like how I like my eq for music. That little mic is extremely impressive!
I definitely prefered the Neumann, but I suspect that his voice in person would sound more like it does from the microphone he built.
So I suppose it depends if you want to sound like a normal person or like a radio voice.
I watched this video with ok earphones but I could ear a slight noise on the DIY mic that wasn't present in the Neumann, so if you compare the cost/quality ratio, the DIY mic wins by a substantial margin, but in terms of raw quality, Neumann stays king
Thou like for 30 dollars that's like black blacker blackity market😂😂
@@TibiHell absolutely, the DIY one had a little pitched drone that it was probably picking up from the room, in a properly treated room, with some EQ and processing I think it could even be great to record vocals for a song. The neumann mic picks up a larger range of bass and sounds boomier compared to the crisp high end of the DIY one, I hear.
Bro could just literally start selling those yet still shows us how it's done in detail... You're the best!!
I used to be a marketing director. We had a "guy" that did all our voice over work cash. We used him for years and the quality was amazing. The radio ingest guys were always complimenting us on finding this guy. When I left the job we went for beers. He confessed that the entire time he was using the onboard mic on his iPhone hung by a coat hanger in his wardrobe. He was literally tweaking the levels in phone with some app, and dropping the wav straight onto our cloud. Didn't even touch a cable.
Interested in the tweaking though
It's amazing how much quality is gained more in room conditioning over what microphone you use.
To be fair Apple does know how to make those tiny shitty mics sound great lol
Exactly why its more about voice, room and some tricks than expensive tech.
The channel Booth Junkie (he makes videos about mics and voiceover) has demonstrated this as well. Most people don't realize how important your environment (that guy's wardrobe as opposed to his living room) really is, and how similar microphones really are when it comes to sound quality!
I would love to see a whole DIY streaming setup done by Matt. Imagine all the brass and having that antique feel
full steampunk stream setup
This
100% agreed
This comment. Yes.
Yeah that would be great!
Pretty much everything you build looks like a piece of art.
Exactly.
I think the diy microphone sounds sharper, whereas the VERY expensive one sounds softer. For different things, one may be more preferable, but I still think paying 100 times less is a very good deal, for a similar quality. Congratulations!
You're right and With a single Vst plugin knob they can both sounds same
The way I think of them is with the DIY setup, it sounds like you're talking into the mic at a really high quality -whereas with the very expensive mic, it sounds like you're actually talking directly to the person listening to what the mic pics up.
Just prefacing this with the fact I'm a professional audio engineer, with a Masters degree in microphone preamp design. For the price and required skills, this is AMAZING! such a cool build idea! I'm currently out on tour so don't have access to my workshop, but will be attempting to replicate this as soon as I get back home, with a few minor tweaks.
1) really simple, you even touched on it in the video. The rear porting for that capsule is compromised by the brass casing. Instead of using a brass ring with holes drilled into it I would suggest soldering the two brass grills together directly. A little bit of thought will have to go into shock-mount mounting rings but it will be worth it. You're effectively making the Mic HyperCardiod in its current format.
2) this will sound really stupid, but placing a stretched piece of thin breathable fabric such as a pair of low denin tights (stocking for my American readers) will really really help. As it stands the microphone is slightly more simple and than I would like it to be and I found myself noticing S's and the odd plosive here and there.
the next two are completely optional but could be really cool additions to the project and help the sound quality.
3) whilst I can see you are using basic filtering in the preamp stage I would suggest adding an R/C C/R EQ filter to roll off everything below 30 Hz and everything above 18 kHz as the capsule will struggle to reproduce anything outside of this frequency range however the preamp will still be wasting energy amplifying noise you can't hear. These are a few of the additional components found on a lot of pro microphone circuit boards. a really simple step, massive quality difference.
4) sorry the audiophile in me had to... Try and use film capacitors where you can. Basically anything other than electrolytic as they start to introduce undesirable noise into the signal chain. On something like this, it wouldn't be the end of the world but when you get a few going into each other the effect really starts to add up.
5) I'd love to see this with the Texas Instruments INA217 mic preamp integrated circuit. It's quite possibly the best budget preamp circuit you can find, period.
6) I love your idea about using a simple premade USB to audio adapter, why don't you integrate the headphone output as well with simple passive volume control this would turn the unit into an amazing audio interface.
I'll drop you an email with these comments and a few other really nerdy ones as well for you to use or ignore at your own call haha. But overall, I can't say how cooll this project really is! I'm going to try it out with the weeks mentioned above and see if it's worth it. Would you be interested in doing a comparison video? I have a couple of Neaumanns & AKGs in my touring kit and would love to do an A/B.
All the best, Arran.
P.S. If anyone else wants a list of the nerdy stuff just drop me an email: info@ArranHeaton.com
Great write-up, thanks. I'm learning quite a bit here. I'd love to see a proper audio engineer optimise the design and do some scientific comparisons vs $1000+ off-the-shelf mics.
wasn't the THAT512 built to *replace* the INA217? why would you want to get the less refined version of the same product? why not an SSM2019?
Will be following this thread for build updates. :D
I see you are good in this topic.
Therefore, I would like to clarify about USB Audio interface.
Is it just an adapter ?
If not, then what function does this thing perform ?
Thank you very much in advance.
dudee you should remake this video with your suggestions once you have access to your workshop again. Im def gonna watch that
I have no need for a quality USB-C microphone, but I will watch any video of DYI Perks building anything. This man passion & skills are inspiring (and a great watch)!
@AB Best course of action is to find other likeminded individuals in Brazil and find alternatives. Watching DIY videos from the UK is not how I would tackle this issue.
@AB Maybe use earphones mic? Usually they record sound better than built in mic. Also important, FORA BOLSONARO! ;)
You are no longer a DIY guy. You’re literally a product designer at this point.
I love the aesthetics of these new projects !!
I guess that's just a diy "perk"!
Ok I'll see myself out now.
It's still diy tho
If he made another identical mic there's no way it would characteristically sound the same. Everything from all the variables in his making and assembly to the characteristics of the preamp and DAC components. Real mic designers are picky about these things and even profile and hand pick, or bin, capsules and FET's for their ideal sound.
@@_BangDroid_ unless you're able to create two and demonstrate that there's drastic differences between the two then is just speculation, regardless of manufacturing method there's always going to be some measure of error, however with The complete isolation of the capsule It's entirely possible that the majority of differences between multiple manufacturing runs would be insignificant enough to be near unnoticeable aside from simultaneous side by side testing. Until you can demonstrate this difference is drastic enough to become a problem then it's just speculation. Very important speculation that should definitely be considered, but still just speculation.
@@platinumsky845 Explain to me what the statement "Microphone design is more of an art than an exact science" means. If what you're saying is true, then designing microphones would be simple as can be and in fact the entire industry would be a scam. It's only speculation to you because you evidently have no experience in manufacturing, electronics or audio.
As a sound tech, I'd like to make one correction: the way that professional audio cables protect against electrical noise is not from the shield. That cable with the shield that was shown is for something else entirely, but it does often get used as an audio cable, because it works just as well. The way that professional audio cables actually protect against electrical noise in the cable is through basically sending 2 copies of the audio signal at the same time so the destination device can remove what noise it can. This is called a balanced cable. Audio University has a great video on the subject of Balanced/Unbalanced cables if you want to know more. However electrical interference shields are mostly used in digital signals such as those that get sent through USB, so without doing extensive testing on this build, the shields used aren't necessarily pointless or bad to have.
I really wish there would be something like "behind the scenes" for your episodes. This is a masterpiece. I cant even imagine how much effort you put in each episode.
Great job Matt, as always.
I just posted a comment saying pretty much the same thing!
I mean, I love the format of these videos, the way all the unnecessary stuff is cut out and everything looks pristine, but I know if I was doing a project like this there'd be messes and tools everywhere!
Particularly in this one he made a lot of effort to make it accessible to people. For once I think I might actually try following this build. Shows he has been reading comments and takin feedback. Its so nice to see someone with so much knowledge doing things so diligently.
@@kanishcktewatia597 ye
Bravo! As an audio professional and microphone designer, I was really scared as I saw this video's title. You did a great job here. Your research seems do be at the highest level. No "Audio-Bush*t" found here. I really enjoy your overall quality, so it would have been a shame to see this video fail, but it didn't. Have a nice day and greetings from Germany :)
Thoose caps are just too big for the mic transients, probably with 470uF on both sides and 2 in parallel on the USB in would be better.
I would have put some smaller ceramic cap parallel to the main bulk ones to filter out the DC DC converter noise.
For the decoupling caps i would have choosen a polyester type one. But this is just a preference.
(I try to avoid as much as possible electrolitics ones)
@@tuttocrafting Cool to hear from some actual audio experts and glad to see you aren't totally rubbishing Matt's efforts here 🙂
@@tuttocrafting I'm wondering is there any particular reason for avoiding electrolytic caps? Is it because they're generally more fragile/prone to blowing out like the ones on old pc mobos or is there another reason?
@@pigpiggig I'm not aware of the reason for avoiding them in audo gear, but the reason cheap capicators had a habit of failing in the past is due to industrial espianage gone wrong - a researcher from Japan defected to China with a design for long-life caps, who was paranoid about his lab assistants defecting in turn. To prevent this, he gave the assistants misleading designs, who then passed the designs on to Tiawan, who in turn gave it to their businesses to mass produce - end result was a flood of capacitors on the market that were designed to fail after a short period of time; this is also why there was a period when "Japanese capacitors" were considered better quality.
@@pigpiggig each capacitor kind have different characteristics. Electrolytic one are less precise than other types. They depends a lot by temperature and they al bulky. On signal paths it not necessarily at all to use hi grade electrolitic capacitors.
Probably over there also a good ceramic one might have been enough.
Generally electrolitic caps degrades more than others over time, especially if they are cheap.
Anyway there is a great article on Altium websites that explain a bit the difference between capacitors types.
Professional electrical engineer here:
-Twisting the 2 wires between the JFET and the PCB costs literally nothing and gives an additional protection against electromagnetic interference (emi).
-Beautiful work on the soldering, are the grills also soldered to the brass ring and connected to ground? With corrosion, you could get some emi problems in the long run.
-Circuit: You need additional 100nF Caps on your supply rails. Those electrolytic caps have a large series resistance, making your supply more noisy for higher frequencies.
How would one add a mute button this design? I would assume just adding a locking button of sorts to the audio output but I know very little basics of electronics. Also question about the additional 110nF caps on the supply rails. Are you talking about the +/- 15v rails? if so where and how do you add the caps? inline? does it matter if they are polarized?
@@robertsnyder4480 just in parallel with the 2200u caps. Use ceramic, or better foil type
@DIY Perks - a follow up with the above additions would be neat, perhaps make a 2nd one so you don't need to borrow the 3K mic
By “2 wires”, did you mean the thin enamelled wires?
@@pk_xiv2856 yes
So, I would say the unprocessed audio from the U87 definitely sounds better, but once they're both processed you could make them sound damn near identical. The DIY mic had pretty much the same level of low end as the U87 but had a lot more presence in the high end, which honestly unprocessed sounds a bit harsh, however it has more sonic information that you can play with in post. With the U87 you'd probably throw a boost on the high end to give it more of the air that the DIY mic already has, and with the DIY I would do some cutting in the high end to make it less shrill. In the end they'd sound pretty much identical though, which is incredibly impressive.
I have cosumer grade 150$ PC speakers and I couldn't hear a difference. I assume if you are a content creator 99% Of the viewers wouldnt notice the difference.
Maybe its more audible on headphones tho.
PS: Also tested with my Headphones as well. The difference is so miniscule I would be able to tell them apart.
Blown away by this, looks like the result of years of research. Can't imagine the number of prototypes there must have been, and you graciously only showed us exactly what works. Thank you ☺️
@Laura Brown scammer
He is the diy Jedi. He just knows how to do it bacause of the force
@Laura Brown bro stop messing with people's lives
i was waiting for "youve been listening with the DIY mic"
bro literally just before he was bout to test it I said to myself "I have been listening to it, haven’t I?"
@@vader567 lmao same
mic drop moment
edit: it has an arm so it wouldn't drop, i see now my folly.
Your comment had 777 likes on my screen)
19:05 - Lol.
Using the braided de-soldering wire in the way you have is a masterstroke. Incredible.
I was stunned and overwhelmed by ideas.
how does it not short the circuit?
@@Pe721 The wires inside are enameled.
@@oddvoid just noticed him sayin it. Ups my english just aint good enought. Thx a lot. Gonna post here once i build this thing myself.
@Mr. Rich B.O.B That braid itself is conductive. It's made of copper after all. It has to be conductive in order to work as an RF shield. Also, the wires that go inside are enameled, so that is no issue at all.
**WARNING** If you are building this yourself, the 2 middle capacitors (2200uf 16v) on the diagram are backwards. If you follow the diagram, it will short, pop and you will see smoke when you give it power! Instead, use 12:45 in the video of the correct orientation of the capacitors.
do you mean the schematics? or the assembled circuit?
What a MASTERPIECE
Sorry, did you say BRASSTERPIECE?
@@TheLegendOfLem lmaoooo
MATTsterpiece :)
This man is single-handedly reviving the retro-futurism aesthetic
@@rondonkulus steampunk and retrofuturism are waaaaaay different things.
Steampunk, that's the term.
@@rondonkulus right, but you literally just said all squares are rectangles while attempting to correct me for pointing out you're identifying one of many squares for the term defining all of them, which doesnt even apply as there isn't any steam. Additionally, the rectangle containing all those squares can be applied individually while referencing none of them.
The fact you're lacking that much self-awareness is even worse than your original comment.
@@rondonkulus IMO this is too clean to be steampunk... The aesthetic is more like a refined early to mid-century vision of the centuries to come. Maybe bordering on atompunk? To pull it back to steampunk, chunkier brass fittings and some ornate stamped sheet brass ornaments for the base are in order.
Retrofuturism? Steampunk? Atompunk? It just looks like an old mic from the 1920s - 1930s. The things you read sometimes.
When you said: "And because this is a DIY Perks video..."
I thought you were going to say: "We will be water cooling it..."
LTT moment
Could’ve been really cool to add some kind of “pop stopper” using that same brass mesh further in front of the capsule to minimize the blow of air across the capsule during plosive sounds. I’d also recommend running a de-esser in your audio program to minimalist sibilance from your “s” sounds.
This build is really beautiful and functional, and I am really blown away by the craftsmanship. Been binging your videos recently am now a proud follower. Look forward to seeing more!
Yeah the plosives and sibilance is pretty bad.
Yeah, I could hear it in his voice a lot. @@biscuit715
This man is the definition of quality over quantity
Every video he releases is an epic discovery
So is the mic!
Both.
Not without that brass knob
@@LetoZeth typical cringe edgelord
Dayummm! What a piece of design! Can't believe that cost you $30 to make.
Cheers James! Going to have a full brass PC setup soon xD
Don't forget the several man hours invested in designing and making it.
@@vishalpranav9490 an the pre-owning of soldering iron and consumable, drill, tap sets , the various other tools .. and talent and experience
@@TheOneAndOnlySame those tools are cheap though. However his talent is definitely the coolest
Spoiler alert!
This man is a wizard
You’re a wizard hairy
Hi mr verifcation check
He is Dwemer. Dwemer love their brass. Plus I’ve never seen him stand. He’s probably really short.
He just proved that everyone claiming you can't get professional results with a usb microphones have no idea what they're talking about. The industry is going to get interesting.
l literally thought of you... Some work came in & left the video halfway. Today you're already here...
Tech Angels are hearing my voices.. 😇
great call comparing it against the U87. The Neumann definitely has a buttery smooth quality in the high end. The DIY mic has more sibilance and high end presence, but it doesnt sound bad. I wouldnt think there was a 99% price gap between the two based on the sound.
I was so surprised by the "you've been listening to it this whole time" that it put a great smile on my face. I truly love the elegance of the result and its quality. Well done mate!
I saw that twist coming a mile off 😂
it is nice dont get me wrong, but it was clear to me from the start of the vid that this will be the demo the mic gets.
Well... It being a surprise to some of us was a great thing. I’m glad some of you saw it coming, but I just don’t see the benefit of pointing it out as an obvious thing
@@CristobalFuenzalidaMarin theres no benefit, just an observation ;)
I thought all along that a plot twist like this will come
The 3000 dollar mic is definetly better in quality of sound, but it is no 100 times better, with a little tuning of the DIY mic the average person would not hear much of a difference at all. This is amazing work Matt glad to see this project!
They're like on par with each other
At least listening through my cheap phone dac and bassy PortaPros, I totally agree with you. The Neumann sounds like it's massaging my eardrums and like it had an integrated de-esser or something. No annoying frequencies at all. It's a beauty.
The DIY has a really good sound, quite bright and with a nice low end as well, though it desperately needs a compressor and a couple of filters but it still sounds really good, especially considering that it's self-contained, cheap and with a DIY preamp.
to me the only difference is that the diy mic is more raw sounding, I think adding a very thinn tensed cloth in front of the brass mesh could go a long way softening that rawness.
the law of diminishing returns. its the same in headphones where a $1000 set will sound better than a $100 set, but not 10 times better. the 3 grand mic is a solid 1% (based on my very scientific calculations) better than the $30 one. in some situations that 1% is important.
@@iris657 any mildly decent mic that wasn't taken from the Alibaba trashcan will be competitive when it comes to human voice.
The Neumann mic is meant for recording acoustic instruments, which is a much more challenging proposition due to the wider register and the resonances caused by the instrument on the mic's armature.
Professional Audio Guy here: The comparison from 21:57 pretty much knocked me out of the ballpark. Obviously the U87 sounds better. It has a bit more natural compression in the highs and it doesn't sound so harsh with the s-consonants. Also the resolution in the mids is much more articulated - this is very important for the character of a voice. With the DIY-Mic you have a bit less natural compression and a bump in the highs, which you would have to process in post. BUT! The resolution of the DIY is superb. I tried to make out a noise floor, which is impossible with the youtube compression and that is a very good sign. It also has a very smooth and buttery low-end which would make it perfect for other use cases.
Investing a bit more time and much less money and making this Mic? Definitely worth it!!!
Great Video through and through!
As a Professional Normal Guy here: I beg to differ. The U87 has much more mid to low range and makes his voice sound quite muddy for my taste. Now the $3000 microphone may pick up more and “cleaner” information which may be eq’ed/edited or whatsoever in post, but the space and higher end frequencies that the DIY mic picks up sound really good, and are much easier for me as a listener to enjoy.
This is completely subjective to this video and I’m in no way a better professional audio guy than you haha. Have a good day :)
@@madoba8717 The u87 is definitively better. As he said, the highs aren't near as harsh and it's not as sibilant. Sounds less compressed and clippy in the high than the DIY, though I wonder if that's due to the pre-amp.
@@madoba8717 I've never watched a video from DIY Perks before. Hearing his voice through the whole video with the custom mic made the U87 sound muddy and not as clear as well. Perhaps its the sudden change in audio from listening to the same mic for 20 minutes and then hearing the U87.
@@jonasguthrie6129 me as well, i find the u87 a bit muddy and weird. Besides, the other one is only 30 dollars lol so its definitely better for the pricing
@@jonasguthrie6129 as he shows, u87 isn't his regularly mic but one he borrowed.
One of the only creators I've seen to include only accurate information as well as potential pitfalls of a sponsor in the middle of a sponsor spot.
VPN and investment app talking points are almost always misleading or straight up incorrect so it's refreshing to see someone make sure their viewers are more properly informed. Good video too.
You're basically Colin Furze's calm and practical brother. Both are genius DIY builders, but extreme opposites in regards to aesthetics and build subjects
Love and appreciate both of you!
They should both work on a project together! I wonder what they would build...
@@chilio94 A water cooled computer powered by a jet engine... Likely also somehow in the form factor of either a lawn mower or a bicycle... But then covered in wood and brass... 🤔
I think matt should help colin to finish his tunnel.
Long time due now
Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I respect Matt and this video so much more than many youtube project videos. My mans actually did a ton of documentation for this and made it really easy to recreate. This is probably one of the best diy mics I have ever seen in terms of quality and feasibility to build.
So, I built it.
And yeah, totally sounds like he said. I’ll gas it up as much as he says, it’s really nice. I have been thinking about this project for three straight weeks now and I really do feel like the payoff was worth it. 90% of this project was waiting on parts and existing in a sunken cost fallacy purgatory, but overall, if you plan on doing this, most of the parts here take a good amount of time to get here (especially if you order from china, which is necessary for price efficiency).
And that’s all I can really say about this. It’s a good mic, I rate what Matt is doing and the amount of time and research he put in. But there’s one big thing that bothered me about this project. The cost for all of these components is not ~$30. Not a chance.
As you can see in my spreadsheet below, not 30, not even 100 dollars (accounting for possible currency conversions). If you don’t have a ton of brass, wood, and the proper capacitors lying around, you will be spending more. That as well as the fact that some components are just not available in the states. I traded the THAT1512 for a INA217 because of this. The INA217 has different resistances for gain but other then that it is largely the same (not really, I would still like a THAT1512 but they take 4 months to get here it seems). The finish of brass and wood is cool, but completely impossible for people that don’t have tools to work with them (also there’s no specs listed so I’m not sure how you would do that anyway), so I 3d printed everything (box and module holder) so I didn’t have to buy anything else. The cost I listed accounts for these even more budget considerations, so all in all I would call this a budget mic, but with a hard asterisk.
I want to stress again, this project is so cool and I’m really happy I did it. Just do your own budgeting before hand and make sure you can sweat $150+.
I included some pictures of my build and all the stls (as well as a fader knob I stole from thingiverse I cannot find the original link I will update if I find it))
Definitely worth the time put in.
Here are some resources from my build:
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ax8V7ID-nKL7wJXj9A7RIaR2wb1TqigN?usp=sharing
Direct Link to my spreadsheet:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pQlkRerO5geoDNLEWXTUVbyJalM7nESn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114689008105602245905&rtpof=true&sd=true
Edit: Here's a quick write-up I did on this with some sort of instructions-not-really that might be helpful: github.com/TrojanPinata/DIY-Mic
Edit: As of writing this, t's been a little over a month now since I made this mic, and honestly it still holds up. I finally have a THAT1512 coming so I think that will fix some of my gain issues. Overall, I definitely still like this mic. I use it pretty regularly and get compliments on the quality. If I used it more then I do currently I'd suck it up and buy something really nice, but this will do for now.
As for this project, I still really respect the original build. For those complaining about me saying I with there were more verbose instructions, I think you're missing my point. I just kind of with I had a better idea of some of the specifics. That being said, I'm probably never going to do this again, what with the posting my version of a project online. Some of you all are great, but the number of armchair engineers here is wild and I really would rather make things because I like them and not have to deal with people nit picking a writeup I did one morning before work. I mean, I don't know what I expected from the youtube comment section. Anyway, I'm done, enjoy your mic if you're building it, and if you aren't then I really don't care what you have to say about the way I did things. Later.
This should be pinned tbh
Yeah, it's great that he's doing this but i feel like it could be a bit more open
Thanks for sharing!
Also in the process of making it, and yeah, totally agree - I'd like to add that as a video this is a great, easy to watch and share bit of content. But as a tutorial?
The circuit diagram and the circuit in the video doesn't match - some capacitors appear to have changed direction?,
the parts list only consists of what he had to buy not what he used - and there are measurements missing like the length of the brass rods,
the difficulty and process of each step didn't come off well - maybe I'm just supposed to know how to solder brass but he made it look easy so I didn't bother looking anything up and screwed it up a couple times,
he skipped over the wiring for the analogue to digital converter,
and to top it off there's an advert smack in the middle of it.
I'm being really picky but having to follow the video has made these bits stand out
Honestly I would love to see people remaking this with whatever they have at their disposal. You have a 3D Printer, he has apparently access to a ton of brass and some wood, someone else might only have access to wood or plastic... It would be really fun to compare and contrast every version of this project. Also, great job with the "proof study" of sorts, this is what DIY builds should always have!
Love that you go out of your way to identify tools that are "good enough" as lots of DIY builds are like "$5 microphone using only $2500 worth of tools!"
It's like jimmy rigging it... except Jimmy is a genuis
@Miles Doyle Thanks, can you post the whole Bible next time? King James Version and English Standard Version should suffice. Maybe throw in the Old Testament in Hebrew as well for those who prefer a more retro vibe.
@@adygombos4469 I think he did
@Miles Doyle I could not be bothered to read all that, so I'm just gonna assume you said "this is a really nice microphone"
@Miles Doyle thankfully, one of the few Hebrew words I know is perfect for my reaction to this. ?מה
Wow wow wow!!!
This is one of the best builds I’ve seen on TH-cam.
Well done. You should be proud.
Apart from the excellent sound quality - this looks like art. It is astonishingly beautiful. I'm amazed by how many things you are able to make - and do them with exceptional quality and attention to detail.
It's an old design. Those mics were common in 50m in variety of applications were voice of speaker needed amplification of relaying over wire. Credit should be given there, he reproduces suspension harness (the purpose of which is stop vibrations to be carried through the stand to the mic) quite well.
This guy is Michael Reeves except he took his meds as a kid, paid attention in school, and can express self control.
Love your works, insanely impressive as per usual.
Should we commission michael to make a taser mic that will tase you if you stopped talking?
And both of them are just as entertaining!
@@rhaven090 the perfect podcast mic
Dont shittalk matt like that.
Michael Reeves is just some "inventor" on ADHD, nothing to compare to DIYPerks.
@@xcruell I mean Michael started in software dev and programming so it's not exactly a fair comparison with Matt's technical skills
He is the bridge between art and technology
@@tantra9844 BEGONE THBOT
This is by far the most elegant microphone built i ever seen. Congrats it really worth multiple times what you spend
The Neumann has a beautiful soft sound but the DIY one sounds stunning, especially considering the price difference. The only thing I'd possibly do is add a sort of those spongy or mesh things in front to reduce the plosives and the hissing from letters like 's'. All in all tho, I'm just surprised at the production quality of these videos as well as builds themselves.
A pop filter?
Matt should make his own pop filter with vinyl pantyhose.
Yer it just needs a pop filter and a bit of gain control and it would be golden. Like for the price you can't really complain at that. Though TH-cam doesn't do the Neumann any justice 😔
@@watchingtheworlduk5253 While yes, TH-cam has a limited bitrate, creators get to upload content for free and we consume it for... well free, excluding time, so in that sense it's amazing that we're getting even this quality of both video and sound. The amount of storage and processing power that would be needed for high bitrate stuff just isn't feasible. A lot of people also don't use/have studio headphones and say a 4k TV/monitor to reap the benefits of such content.
@@dudo626 TH-cam doesn’t do the Neumann any justice 😔
Next week: Matt rebuilds the hydraulic system from London’s Tower Bridge in miniature with brass and I somehow convince myself that I can do it too.
Great vid as always 👍
Out of brass
You can remedy that out of place silver knob pretty easily with a classic blacksmith's trick. Heat up the part and brush it with a brass wire brush. The brass leaches onto the part, giving it a brassy finish for no real cost. Super useful for detail pieces. The channel "Pask Makes" has a good video on it if you want a visual demonstration.
Old hot rod trick also
Everything Pask Makes is excellent!
Those knobs usually have a plastic insert, but shouldn't it be possible to electroplate it but brass is difficult, perhaps copper?
Well time to get the lathe hummin..😚
@@rumbust7793 You could electroplate it with copper, then again with zinc and heat it up afterwards with a small (!) blowtorch so they fuse together. Tried that once, it works, but the problem is to get the heat just right and evenly. I think the youtuber "Cody's Lab" did that with chainmail once, he used an oven to fuse the platings. But that's not possible with a plastic insert. I think the best way is to machine a knob out of brass and maybe 3d print an insert if needed.
This is *incredibly* cool, and as a person who already has the audio interface and no need for the USB bit, seems like something that would be totally doable with an XLR connection.
It seems like it's prone to picking up plosives - you can hear some of those almost getting through even at the distance you're using it at - but maybe it could be modified to integrate a pop filter as well.
I'm just beginning to educate myself on this stuff in more depth so sorry if this is a dumb question but would you need to adjust the preamp design for this as an audio interface would provide a higher voltage than the usb cable?
You've outdone yourself this time, Matt. All your builds are brilliant, however this one has the added benefit of uncovering how much margin the audio companies put on their products. I'm also mindblown by the stellar quality of this beaut!
@Ackim George If you bought this handmade brass mic made from an artist it'd cost a lot. Doing things yourself saves money.
I mean this really doesnt show the margin as mass producing mics you have marketing, packaging, production lines, enginering... All you have to pay for.
It's not that expensive for the cheaper mics and interfaces, all of which cost less then 200 bucks each.
But when you get to the higher end ones, yea there's no reason to charge so much.
It's mostly them doing endless QC and tinkering with minute details in the frequency response. Also Neumann hand-makes those mics. Which is a bummer. Just mass produce them so everyone can get one.
Just wait until u find out about the smartphone industry
This genius actually used solder sponge around the wire.
And omfg he's so good at making this seem like the easiest thing that he finished in only like an hour lol
Haha right? Just bending one nof those pieces of brass into the right shape probably would have taken me several hours of trial and error and reshaping until it's smooth
You can't make everything with brass, Matt.
Matt: And I took that personally.
🤣 👍🏼
I feel for the aluminium
Don't you know, he has a child entirely made of brass
@@kaushalsuvarna5156 when matt plans to builds big gadgets, aluminum cries in fear.
Matt: hold my artificial sun lol
Wow, i listened to this on the best headphones I have and am absolutely blown away with the quality. I'm 100% going to build one
I swear, your DIYing skills are getting noticeably better with each project.
At this point this guy can compete with premium manufacturers
I hope its not a case of "my next video MUST be better than the last" cause Ive heard youtubers who've been through that say it leads to burnout
I love that he keeps his methods accessible though, not going pricey.
@@raedjameel9899 He can compete on quality but not on volume. He cannot make dozens of it a day, 5 days a week, for months. A manufacturer can.
They really are! His videos also teach me things I’d never know. Like, who else cared how a braided cable was made until you watched this?
Such a sweet build, almost like a mini microphone ballista :O I'd love to see your take on a DIY ribbon mic some day, always wanted to try make one from scratch! EDIT: To me the neumann sound fuller on studio monitors, but those bass frequencies can make audio muddy on tiny phone speakers, so the DIY one wins for 90% of TH-cam consumption!
I think a lot of that would be the pop screen or lack therof in the DIY one
@@DnBastard could mount one to one of the arms and articulated in front of it. Or even make a hinged version from the main arm.
A ribbon mic has been on my list for a while actually!
@@DIYPerks keen!
If Joerg Sprave ever needed a new mic, this would be it!
I like how you could've easily just show this and let people awe at how cool it is. But instead you provide guides and legitimately want others to build it as well.
I've never seen someone so enthusiastic about a sponsorship. Such professionalism
Me halfway through the video: "I'm surprised he doesn't show us how to build the amp too"
DIY Perks: "unfortunately this is going to mean we have to build this from scratch"
hahhahahahah🤣😂
He didn't have to at all... Better served buying your own preamp.
i just bought a brand new mic and interface and this video is making me regret it lolll. that mic sounds great!!
Well you came cheaper considering the time this would've taken you but if ur into hard diy projects this would've saved you a little bit of money ngl the product is outstanding
Same
Its a good circuit, but i have some suggestions:
- put a ~220nf ceramic capacitor RIGHT across the leads of the ic.
- component selection is important for the ac-pass capacitors. Non-polar electrolytic is fine. Tantalum is very bad. Ceramics can also work, but bear in mind ceramics may have a microphonic effect as well.
- place everything that connects between the ic and the microphones as close as possible to each other, and make sure the connection between the mic cable ground and the amplifier ground is as short as possible.
Is it possible to plug the mic into an audio interface with phantom power, instead of making the pre-amp?
@@link3457 I don't think this one will require phantom-power. I would have to take a closer look at the capsule pins (and probably some tests with a scope) to know whether you could just bolt on an XLR cable.
Yeah, long paths mean more interferences
@@ClokworkGremlin how would I check if it needs one or not?
What does leads mean? Refering to across the leads of the ic. Sorry.. newbie here
i know almost nothing about electronics, just basic common sense mostly, and its astounding how much I learnt from a video that isn't even solely educationally directed
The Neumann sounds warmer and fuller, the DIY one sounds sharp and punchy with louder top-end. I'd say it's down to preference or use case, which is insane considering the 100x cost difference. In terms of audio the DIY one definitely wins as a streaming mic
Agreed. But I'm sure it can be tidied up with sound processing.
Yeah I like the 30 dollar one the best. For voice it need to be that crisp. The 3k one sounds like it would be used in some werid deep love song.. Crisp for the win!
I can immediately hear the difference but they both sound great so, it's not a huge issue.
@@BloodSprite-tan i think out of the box the neumann sounds like it has a little more body and is a little smoother, but honestly, a little bit of EQ and compression and i think the DIY could sound equally as good or better (if you don't already like it better)
both sound 100% identical...
That's actually crazy how the DIY mic is actually kinda on the same level as the 3000 dollar mic. And you could make sound similar if wanted too which is insane. He got my respect and probably everyone in the comments for making this. nice video and super educational.
Not even close to same level. He only tests voice and the expensive microphone can pick up much more dynamic range than the diy.
@@FuIIDiveVR Well, As a DIY person, maybe you won't need that quality. So, being able to almost replicate the sound of a professional mic is more than enough.
(Just a comment. If you have headset, you can hear a clearly difference. It's like the DIY one is more "aggressive".)
@@FuIIDiveVR obviously its more expensive but the DIY which is, in my opinion, sounds like its on the same level. you can agree that even though its cheaper it sounds great with no filter or add-ons.
DIY sounds cleaner. Other microphone sounded muddy. DIY wins.
@@honestpolicy5031 headphone issue lol
I love how the design of this mic looks like something out of the experimental stages of the mic back in the late 1800’s or even in the early stages of analog radio! Lovely build and great sound quality considering it’s only like 50 CAD to build!
greyjoy is really applying himself in building cool stuff
Dude, you're an artist. This one is a must build.
Half the battle is knowing that these components exist. I remember spending literally days with the RS and Farnell catalogues putting together bills of materials (after having sent off for the datasheets to be posted to me and designing the circuit on paper because Racal REDAC cost the same as a car; now we have free CAD/CAM like KiCAD or Eagle and ngspice for modelling and all the datasheets are online). Since then, the space of available components has exploded, and there's also so much more modularisation. It's very hard to see the wood for the trees. So having the heavy lifting done here is amazing. Plus, the build quality on all these projects is just outstanding.
There's a reason why retro designed audio equipment sounds so amazing. This build had me smiling from ear to ear because I just knew you'd been recording the entire narration with it during the entire video. Amazing job with this build and I'm sure there's even more room for improvement. Your build sounded so much better that the $3000 microphone! Your craftsmanship with brass was a nice touch in the polished and retro mechanical and wood look and finish. Audiophile quality in every way! Bravo!
Don't be delusional lmao. It did not sound better than the Neumann. The build was impressive though and has a very cool aesthetic. Sounded pretty good too.
@@sebastian-benedictflore I am not joking, but for me its much better.
@@AbdoZaInsert There is a level of objectivity to this. That's why people have jobs in the field. If you wanted to record professionally, that microphone is not on the same level as the Neumann. You can have your personal opinion about what you'd rather use or hear for a voice over like in the video but there are many things that make the Neumann considerably better.
I am no audio engineer so I couldn't go into all the details and intricacies and we also only heard a particular sound - the same person's voice and nothing else. However, even I can tell you that the levels (in terms of EQ and pickup) aren't quite right. Compared to the Neumann, the clipping on the home made was quite bad, for example. In a professional environment, I'd expect some would call that audio almost unusable.
@@sebastian-benedictflore What makes you think this is not a professional environment? Dude is literally manking content - high quality content. Like with most things, you get a pretty steep diminishing returns for more than 100x the price.
@@ecoista1373 yes, you get diminishing returns but that does not mean that this is at the same level of audio quality as the Neumann.
What on earth are you talking about (referring to the "professional environment" point). Whether or not that is a professional environment doesn't even matter since he uses a better microphone anyway. No, that microphone is not adequate for a professional environment and when I say that, I'm not referring to any job. I'm referring to music production, a high profile/quality radio station or other such situations. That microphone is not versatile enough and there is quite a bit of clipping and I'm sure that a professional audio engineer, unlike myself, could find more problems. It simply doesn't have the quality and versatility that some applications demand. It's ridiculous to say that it is as good as the Neumann here. As for the quality:cost ratio, that is an entirely different matter.
One of the most unique builds I've seen. Fantastic!
As an audiophile with quite expensive equipment and a musician with 12 years of experience I consider myself an enthusiast to say the least.
And honestly, wow! I own 3 microphones spanning from 200 to 1.5k USD each with unique sound signatures (no flex, context) and if anything would LOVE to try on this DIY setup.
Between the Neumann and the DIY though there is definitely a nuanced difference in frequency response, but for podcasting and home studio's its nowhere near worth the price (not even close!) and the difference is really so slight that it would only be worth the cost for really professional work. Plus the DIY setup allows for INCREDIBLY CHEAP maintenance!! (Just the repairs of a Neumann would cost 10 times the price of this build lol!)
So really, Matt - incredible job with this. I definitely see it as a no-compromise build for an incredible price.
There is another aspect of your DIY mic to take into consideration... Aesthetics. Yes, the Neumann mic is technically slightly better in sound quality, but your mic completely crushes it from an aesthetic perspective. It looks amazing.. stylish.. unique.. literally a piece of art in itself. Incredibly well done!
Speaking as a sound engineer, the quality of your mic is definitely surprisingly good! There are a few issues it certainly suffers from, but overall you've done very well. It certainly seems very useful in a voice over or streaming set up, and certainly exceptional for a usb mic.
I was surprised by the frequency response, it is genuinely very clear. The high mids (from what I can tell purely based on the audio from your video) seem to occasionally be a little harsh, and the low mids can get slightly muddy, but that might be an issue with youtube, or worse, me nitpicking. I think it has a great amount of low end of a vocal mic, enough to clearly pic up the full bottom end of voices without overdoing it.
It feels almost unfair to put it up against the u87, it's a truly gorgeous vocal mic, even to untrained ears. the u87's only real downside is that price tag, but then again, that's basically everything in the sound industry!
I think this was a really cool project and an awesome result! and it's just made even more impressive by the low price tag. Love the look as well!
Agreed on all points. It's pretty gorgeous. I think it sounds great, considering there's no EQ circuit. I'm very impressed. I could work with this signal. Cheers, Lydia! Pleased to meet you!
Totally agree. :-)
The U87 has a warmer sound and I would definitely prefer to hear it on a radio station but I think the DIY mic is a big step forward for many youtubers and streamers that don't have a good microphone yet.
@@jantube358 yes the u87 has a much warmer and pleasing sound compared to this DIY microphone, but pair it with some EQ and filter and you probably can sound as good as that u87
@@siontheodorus1501 I would really like to see a video where an audio engineer tries to do this. It will never sound as good as the U87 but maybe it will become a lot warmer.
the fact that he not only showed us how to make it, but also put links to everything he used in the desc makes this a very good tutorial and learning/entertaining video
Don't bother, it doesn't work
As a retired sound engineer i admire Matt's skills.
And the microphone is sounding great
However, from a professional perspective, i shall say that the Neumann is definitely sounding a bit better
Better bass and more importantly better defintion and impulse response (it is related to the difference between a real condenser capsule and a self polarized one)
BUT a brilliant project !
Philippe
Philippe, I'm sure if you use the same designs and just changed the capsule, a more "Neumann" sound could be achieved, yes the price would increase, but how much would depend on the capsule purchased. If you had a Neumann though that was otherwise broken somehow but the capsule was intact and functional, it would be the perfect recycling project for that microphone ...
@@richcodesweb
This is certainly exact but purely hypothetical
Neumann has worked on condenser capsules since 1928 and there are few if any prepolarized capsules that could beat this sound quality
Although everything depends on what you need the microphone for.
When you record a sound there are usually a number of post processing steps coming after and the better the quality at the beginning, the better it will sound on the finished product
No wonder it is a standard in the industry (along with one or two other brands)
(pardon my bad english !!)
Philippe
Aaahh yess... Microphones
Yes, but it sound 100 times greater, like his price?
@@mylittlehomeinparis agreed, nothing beats 90 years of experience in microphone making, research and design. But ... somewhere someone has a broken neumann microphone with a working capsule, I'd be willing to wager if you put that capsule into this design the sound would be a lot closer to the neumann as demo'd also don't forget this was usb-c which will also affect sound quality ... I really want to see an XLR version of this that takes phantom power from the mixer ... making the test a true A/B test
With a full matte black finish, it would be quite discreet even if placed almost exactly between someone's face and the camera, that thin minimalist structure with the floating capsule, barely causes any occlusion; something like this design might get popular with streamers and such, I think.
I give it a few weeks before someone tries to mass manufacture a similar mic and stand and sell it.
Yeah sure .. OK I suppose should you happen to be a podcaster in Frank Herbert's Dune.
Definitely, i wonder how much one this nice would sell for if a big company sold it though
@@asdafafsafda i hope so
@@shkididepoppop6166 200 - 250 easy.
The year is 2030. DIY Perks just uploaded a tutorial on a DIY fusion reactor. It's made from a combination of brass and wood, and some LEDs to give it a beautiful finish.
LOOOOL 🤣
And it's 1/10th of the cost and 3 times the performance of commercially available fusion reactors.
One thing i think people dont value from this when they tell you to just dump cash on something on a shelf, is the fact that videos like this are also trying to encourage you to build your skills and your confidence to DIY.
I wish more people trusted themselves to learn more its invaluable
well im building plane tomorrow
For repair stuff as well.
Some shops charge an arm and a leg for easy repairs where the parts cost a fraction of the price they quote you.
Ya, I've always been kinda handy, fixed my own cars etc. even fixed my family's cars with my grandfather's help before I was old enough to drive, and being shown that I could do that from a young age, has, I think led me to be relatively fearless in taking on things.
Was noticing I was catching a lot of errors in self published books, and decided, "Hey, if I'm gonna notice, I may as well get PAID to fix them." so I put myself out there and have made a lot of money editing e-books.
Then through that I met a guy who owns an audiobook production company, and one day, was like, "Hey you need some help proofing audio? I've caught a few errors in your stuff."
I'd never more than played with audio editing software as a teen, to make it sound like people were saying weird things. Now I have creeping up on 20 audiobook proofing credits to my name, and have been asked to work as the proofing manager, to help develop tools and systems for new proofers, because it never once entered my mind that I couldn't do it.
And that's all in addition to teaching myself how to do spreadsheets, from scratch over the last couple years, etc.
Matt's microphone actually looks more expensive than any of the other examples he has shown, it even looks like a piece of art.
It’s kind of Matts MO! I’m glad there’s still people like him who can create things that marry form and function so beautifully
The Neumann definitely sounds better imo, but if I'm not listening to them side-by-side, I might have a harder time telling a difference, which says a lot given the price differential. I know that if somebody gifted me the diy mic, I'd love the heck out of it. I have a few friends who would benefit from a higher quality mic, so maybe this could be a fun project for making Christmas gifts (I know there are people who feel that homemade gifts are more meaningful, and this definitely beats knitted socks.).
Tbh the DIY has better high end. Better for commentary
@@aristide4505 I agree
@@aristide4505 not sure you could EQ that clarity into the Neumann.
I think the DIY mic is more precise, if you want to soften it more add a little foam and/or boost mid bass slightly.
The DIY is better.
@@aristide4505 imo there were a little too much highs, could be the difference in headphones though
Neumann had much softer highs, they didn't go away they were just softer and more leveled with the of the frequencies, it's probably better for studios because of its more level sound, while staying very clear.
Dude ive seen this almost 5 times and yet every time im amazed with how cool this is
Matt, if you keep doing stuff like this youre gonna end up in Sillicon Valley
Tomat
Probably gonna be brass valley instead
tomatoes are disgusting
I love tomat
Hey , know you....!
Words cannot describe how good everything that goes into these videos is. The production values are so high, but not as high as the level of genius that is always on display
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 👉 *ME.SV/NUDE-GIRLS* 💜 PRIVATE S*X
LES'T MAKE LOVE BABY 💜
#ライブ配信の再編ありがとうです！#この日のライブ配信は、#かならりやばかったですね！１#万人を超える人が見ていたもんね（笑）#やっぱり人参最高！#まさかのカメラ切り忘れでやら1かしたのもドキドキでした！#今後は気を付けないとね5). .
!💖🖤❤#今後は気をライブ配信の再編ありがとうです！#この日のライブ配信は、#１万人を超える人が見ていたも ん（#笑）#やっぱり人参最高！#まさかのカメラ切り忘れでやら1かしたのもドキドキでした #今後は気をライブ配信の再編ありがとうです！（ #笑）#垃圾
I LOVE THIS CHANNEL: the simplistic “art-attack” vibe combined with the positive cheap and reciclable mood style makes me happy and confident even in the hardest DIY project. It screams: YOU TOO CAN DO IT. Kudos.
@miko foin I have the exact same question, would love to see this in xlr
The one build of yours I think I might actually try out, this could prove to be wildly useful in my life
The neuman does have more of a mid low boost.
But honestly, I'm freaking doing this mic, you can eq later so whatever. Thank you so so much matt!
I mean the Neumann has a bit more resolution, so your EQ has a bit more impact in post. But the difference is like comparing a Ferrari with a stunningly self made Jaguar.
@@Joel-Monterra Honestly yeah. If you are a youtuber that does voice over the DIY Mic is likely never going to be outpaced by your work. hell 90% of all things you can di with these you aren't going to notice the difference between the 3k mic and the 30 dollar diy, and when you do you'll be making enough to warrant the 3k mic. This is really an incredible value for money this.
3 great tastes that go great together: that smooth British accent, genuine enthusiasm, and of course: copious amounts of polished brass.
For straight talking, in an acoustically sound space, that 40 euro microphone is equally as good as the 3k usd one. Astounding. You sir, are changing the world for the better.
Exchange rates amirite.
This is where a better audio system would help your ears - or hurt them, depending on your perspective. I won't go into detail on mine, but the DIY mic is closer to 90% the quality at 1% the price. Still an unbelievably massive win. The expensive one is warmer and the DIY one has some high frequency hiss - which could be eliminated with a low-pass filter in a future circutboard design(which would mean an extra resistor and tiny capacitor on the board) - or maybe even a ferrule on the cable. Hard to know where the hiss comes from without personally diagnosing it.
This is of course totally pointless unless you're a content creator aside from the fun of pushing things to perfection. There won't be a noticeable difference in the bitrate of a discord call.
@@elibeeblebrox1084 also it doesnt make full justice to put the neumann in a scarlett. Agree with the comments, and at 40 bucks this design is still astonishing and super good!
@@elibeeblebrox1084 Yeah, the hiss is quite noticeable for me which is unfortunate, because it otherwise sounds pretty good
I am blown away, WOW. Have seen majority of your designs, this one is just another level
Brass: exists
Matt: "I'll take your entire stock!"
How much brass would you like?
Matt: YES
Lol the craziest thing is that the mic he made sounds so good that spending a few mins EQing it can have it sounding near identical to the U87
The neuman actually sounded a tad mid heavy whilst the diy mic sounded well balanced across the spectrum at least with his voice. Think he beat the neuman already, no eq needed, just a job bloody well done.
@@terminuscoagule3059 what's eq again? Haven't come across that term before.
@@miscostsmusic1880 equalizer
@@miscostsmusic1880 equalization. It's referring to audio engineering/mixing/mastering. You can boost or cut different audio frequencies to change the sound characteristics.
pair it with dbx286 and it's golden
Despite watching this in the first half hour of its upload, I am already excited to re-watch it multiple times in the next 5 years without ever actually attempting the project
I wish I had the skills or time and energy to develop them, to do this kind of work.
I really wish there was more footage at 4:31, glosses over how exactly you got the feeble wires to attach well to the audio cable wires of a much greater gauge... Brilliant video so far, never thought i wanted to build a mic until now and this is captivating for me from the first second.
The $3k Mic does sound a bit clearer, but... not 100x clearer. Like the difference is almost up to preference. Wonderful job Matt! You never cease to impress with your ingenuity and hard work.
The $3K mic sounds a lot more high end professional, while the DIY mic sounds like a decent set up you would find from your average TH-camr.
@@howardbaxter2514 Decent?... The DIY mic beat the 3/4 mic on the market High End included and for only 40$ That's far from decent in my opinion! Yes the 3k mic is better but just check the price difference, that don't seems right to buy it.
The Neumann sounds a bit 'fuller' in the deeper frequencies, though not 100x the price deeper.
Myself not having any of the required materials or workshop equipment at home, this thing would probably cost me an initial $800 to build (though I could keep the equipment as well obviously)
Why does it even matter on TH-cam lol. This diy mic is the best choice as it's cheap and Sounds good. And youtube compresses any audio to the same bitrate, we can't find a difference unless we hear of both is them simultaneously
@@themanofmarvels6573 None of us really stated it mattered, that's just you reading into it. You are correct that youtube compresses audio and makes for a bit of a hard comparison, though hearing a difference is definitely a valid statement.
I'm mostly interested in how the actual sound quality (raw formats) compares, I'm sure a lot of empoverished yet thrifty people would love high quality mics for the price of two books.