Building a DIY Ribbon Mic

Never made one of these before and if I ever do again will likely do things differently. That said, I am happy with the sound of it. I'm sure someone is screaming at their keyboard with everything I did wrong on this.
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Update the day after uploading initial video....I have discovered wrapping the transformer in a few layers of tinfoil then grounding that and the rest of the microphone to the ground wire of the xlr dramatically improves any background noise ultimately cleaning up the signal. Normally in metal enclosures the casing itself acts as a faraday cage but, since this was a wooden box, I ended up using the metal mesh puff screens as grounding.

[@deancoyle]

Great project - the mic sounds really good!

[@nahuelloza]

Felicitaciones! Es todo un éxito!

[@evolvingevrday]

Not a preampt. Will not clean up your signal. DI boxes , used for guitars until that SM 7 POS started selling after 45 years for some reason , used to only sell 180 units per year for two decades, They were on eBay in 2009 for $30-40 bucks still. I despise what that thing has done . Back to the cloud lifter, There's no way for it to clean up a signal if you're just boosting it, which is exactly what that thing does. The power comes from the preamps, so all the does is amplify. Technically, it adds a noise. Minimum of 1.5 decibels of self-noise out of the 24 available.

[@in.der.welt.sein.]

With the geistnote transformer, did you try flipping the transformer 180 degrees?

[@SubbParProductions]

I tried a bunch of different combinations after the initial wiring didn’t work well

[@rafremafetei]

Are you happy with such a noisy mic?

[@SubbParProductions]

Ouch, well I’m happy learned a lot in this processed and have an extra mic in my locker. The disclaimer in the description does also say the noise is much better after I put some shielding around the transformer.

[@rafremafetei]

@@SubbParProductions
You might try to shield the entire mic altogether to reach commercial ribbon mic noise level. A wood microphone is never a good idea.

[@SubbParProductions]

@@rafremafeteiI agree, still surprisingly the metal screen on both sides is tied to ground which helps, as well as shielding the transformer now makes a world of difference. I have plenty in my mic locker and this was a great learning experience.