The telephones acting as room mics could be of good use when u wanna record drums for an intro of a song. And then you would switch to the better quality mics... if anyone gets what I mean.
Dude, you make it all look so possible. Honestly I wouldn't have ever desired to own 90% of the tools that pop into these videos, but marrying them to drums and recording equipment has me now thinking about all these potential new uses for old gear that's just laying around from childhood. I love sharing your channel with friends. One of the coolest things going on UA-cam. Do you ever accept old gear from subscribers to have a swing at making into something new? Like capturing a struggling bug inside the house to release back outside, I like the idea of at least giving something a fighting chance to live another day in whatever capacity that may end up being
If you had a of these mics what would you do with them? *For those asking why I used the speaker and not the microphone,* they are the same thing essentially. Mics pick up vibrations and speakers play those vibrations. So if you were to plug a mic into an output it would act as a speaker (and probably ruin the diaphragm) and if you were to plug a speaker into an input, it would act as a mic. If youre familiar with subkicks, they are just speakers used as mics!
i always thoroughly enjoy how watching your videos gives me a perfect idea of how my kit would sound with the various setups you experiment with because we set our kits up literally EXACTLY the same way, right down to the cymbal placement and cymbal/drum angles, with the ONLY exception being that my ZIL-BEL is stacked on top of my ride. 👍
There is not one video of yours that I wasn’t fully interested in ! 😄 your awesome at editing and your projects are awesome! And I love the way you customize your drum symbols so professionally
I have a suggestion. Similarly to the functional theory of the *speaker* side being used as a *mic* (just like a subkick), headphone drivers also work in reverse, as input side devices, and if you take all your broken old headphones and bust out the working drivers, you will have the capsules of several different mics. The smaller drivers, mounted in a well vented cylindrical chassis of some sort (I recommend plumbing parts from the hardware store like PVC piping with holes drilled every square inch or so, a layer of foam as your internal "wind-screen" and a layer of mesh from a spatter-screen as a grille) will sound like fairly standard small capsule dynamic mics, while the 40 or 50 mm drivers can actually sound like ribbons if you put them in a breathable cube or block shaped chassis with *no part of the driver itself touching the outer body or chassis.* My sister and I used these back when we had only one Unidyne "pistol grip" 57 type thing and a cassette 4 track. We actually got shockingly good results, better for vocals than the 57.
You could have asked your fans or looked it up before mangling so many phones. BTW, the shielding on the cable should be left cut off when you don't have a mental case on the mic side. This will keep you from turning it into an antenna and putting tons of noise on the shielding that could cause noise on your mic cable.
I made one of these a while back using one of a pack of cheap cables I bought from amazon. After I opened up the cable I was shocked that it DID NOT have a ground cable in it. I had been using these cables on some pretty expensive mics like a TLM 103 and KMS 105. Fortunately, they weren't damaged. But the lesson was to buy quality cables and don't try to skimp with cheap cables. As far as the telephone mic; I love placed about three feet in front of the kick with a strong high pass and slammed with a compressor. Additionally, it works as a cool snare bottom mic for a very niche sound.
Just gotta say man I cant wait for your videos to come out. I've watched most video of yours twice cause I always walk away with some new info. Thanks man keep it up.
The solo'd phone mics sounded really good for lo-fi/shoegaze/dreampop stuff. Shame that i suck at tools because those are definitely in my top threes for larger music genres
first : DON'T THROW THE MIC PART AWAY ! For old phones, it's often coal mics (or charcoal, I don't know, I'm french), so it's rather strange sounding, but also rather hard to emulate. And then, just my opinion, but I prefer them in close miking position. It really adds "grit" to the snare.
Surprisingly nice sound, I've made about 5-6 telephone mics yet and I find that I like using old carbon telephone mics (instead of turning the speaker into a mic), it needs phantom power (if you can't lower the voltage it can bare the 48V but you'll probably need to pad it down from your interface), but there's less hiss and noise, the sound is way more detailed and with wider freq response. They can be very useful as crushed room mics and as secondary mics for pre-'50s vibe productions. You can even reamp a whole mix through one and use it as a wet fx bus. It's for relatively simple or experimental situations though, if the song is a pop or modern 100-bus session, it will only make your work harder, better use an EQ and a saturation plugin.
a large solder blob actually has lower resistance than a small one, resistance is inversely proportional to cross section (and proportional to length and resistivity)
I used to do this trick when in my teens and drum-recording; because no money then trying to be resourceful and using a couple of headphones as a mic. It worked really well. Its possible because the sensitivity of the headphone speakers is really high, try it yourselves!
Super cool. I dig those. Especially the red one. Ha! But for real. If I had one I might A.) Make UA-cam videos about a guy that talks into it "unaware" he is being filmed. B.) Sing comedy industrial metal songs. Or most likely C.) Devote it to an odd drum. Maybe a hand drum or something with a flanger on it, and mount the phone directly on it or directly on the side. D.) All of the above.
if anything adding a bigger blob of solder would reduce resistance because you're offering more surface area for the electricity to go through and more surface area = less resistance, like a valve partially opened vs opened all the way
Probably just use them mostly for vocal effects tbh - but I managed to pick up an Ibanez LF-7 for $20 a few years ago, and that does this in a box, so I just use that That said, this wins for style points
actually kind of surprised how many people seem to be very confused at the idea that he’s using the phone’s speaker as the mic; basically, a speaker can always be used as a mic, but a mic can only SORT OF be used as a speaker. for a simple demonstration of what i mean, just take a regular old microphone (you know the kind i’m talking about, the one that you literally picture in your head when you hear the word ‘microphone’), plug it into any headphone output on anything with sound being sent through it, and put the microphone up to your ear; you’ll hear the sound coming through it, albeit very softly. i’m not 100% sure about this, but i believe you should also be able to somehow rig up a small speaker to be plugged into a microphone input on something and you should be able to talk into the speaker and hear/record/whatever the sound of your voice through whatever you have it plugged into.
See the video how Queen recorded Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. The engineer just put a set of headphones in a coffee can, ran the mixer into the headphones, then mic‘ the opening of the coffee can. Less fuss and it was recorded 42 years ago hehe
I'd love to use a telephone microphone if I was in a studio setting. Like if I was recording a bridge or intro to a song the telephone would be great for faded sounds to lower song intensity.
hey man great vid :) you should use a Retro Phone Handset ( which a telephone that plugs into your smartphone. search it up) to see what difference it makes to overall sound and to see the comparison between a regular recording of you playing on your phone compared to the recording of you with the Retro Phone Handset
I wish you had turned both mics and both speakers into four mic channels. Impedance matching and phasing would be a pain in the ass but I think you would end up with better sound. Even a cheap mic sounds better than a speaker.
@rdavidr when are we going be able to buy these shirts/hoodies??? I really dig that orange hoodie you had on a couple of videos back if I remember right!
I've used carbon elements out of telephones before, horrible frequency response, basically just 1k/2kHz, but these actually sound pretty nice, but only if they're placed very close.
Make a drum set out of phones.
Drum Beats Online I'm surprised you don't have the little checkmark next to your name.
Yes good idea
Drum Beats Online how
make a phone out of drum sets
Let's go even further: mic the set with drums.
The telephones acting as room mics could be of good use when u wanna record drums for an intro of a song. And then you would switch to the better quality mics... if anyone gets what I mean.
Kyle Kim tame impala - disciples
I literally replied something like this under davids pinned comment
Kyle Kim Like Chon Sleepy Tea, have both sets of room mics and bring in the expensive one over time
Twenty one pilots - screen
Jarnail Sanghera that transition is amazing.
snare sounds better than cooperdrummer's even with the telephone mic.
Edward Brown what a roast!
I am his cousin and know how his snare actually sounds off camera it’s amazing
huh thats funny on camera it sounds like hitting a cardboard box.
DJ Edan Scales that's crazy because I'm his son and he doesn't even have a snare drum
His drums used to sound good.
Bro, your soldering technique gave me heartburn, but I applaud the effort. Keep up the great vids!
ha! I solder maybe twice a year...
I mean, it worked, right?
often lofi stuff sounds better in a mix than on its own. can even make things sound "better" as they can stand out in a mix more
Ebay in 5 seconds.... cheap overpriced
Dude, you make it all look so possible. Honestly I wouldn't have ever desired to own 90% of the tools that pop into these videos, but marrying them to drums and recording equipment has me now thinking about all these potential new uses for old gear that's just laying around from childhood. I love sharing your channel with friends. One of the coolest things going on UA-cam. Do you ever accept old gear from subscribers to have a swing at making into something new? Like capturing a struggling bug inside the house to release back outside, I like the idea of at least giving something a fighting chance to live another day in whatever capacity that may end up being
All that recording. I'm sure you're dreading the phone bill. 😵📞
If you had a of these mics what would you do with them?
*For those asking why I used the speaker and not the microphone,* they are the same thing essentially. Mics pick up vibrations and speakers play those vibrations. So if you were to plug a mic into an output it would act as a speaker (and probably ruin the diaphragm) and if you were to plug a speaker into an input, it would act as a mic. If youre familiar with subkicks, they are just speakers used as mics!
rdavidr end up never using them
Probably record an old style sounding podcast
rdavidr Will you use Paiste cymbals?
Mati-miliano no he likes cymbals that sound good
ur mom
That 7/8 gruv tho.....
Kenny Absalonson yaaasssss ❤️
Feels gross
Get rid of the base we can do something with that later.
Breaks the base throwing it.
sounded pretty cool blended together
It actually adds a really good sound when used with the normal mics, especially the cymbals. They become a lot more pronounced.
i always thoroughly enjoy how watching your videos gives me a perfect idea of how my kit would sound with the various setups you experiment with because we set our kits up literally EXACTLY the same way, right down to the cymbal placement and cymbal/drum angles, with the ONLY exception being that my ZIL-BEL is stacked on top of my ride. 👍
There is not one video of yours that I wasn’t fully interested in ! 😄 your awesome at editing and your projects are awesome! And I love the way you customize your drum symbols so professionally
I have a suggestion. Similarly to the functional theory of the *speaker* side being used as a *mic* (just like a subkick), headphone drivers also work in reverse, as input side devices, and if you take all your broken old headphones and bust out the working drivers, you will have the capsules of several different mics. The smaller drivers, mounted in a well vented cylindrical chassis of some sort (I recommend plumbing parts from the hardware store like PVC piping with holes drilled every square inch or so, a layer of foam as your internal "wind-screen" and a layer of mesh from a spatter-screen as a grille) will sound like fairly standard small capsule dynamic mics, while the 40 or 50 mm drivers can actually sound like ribbons if you put them in a breathable cube or block shaped chassis with *no part of the driver itself touching the outer body or chassis.* My sister and I used these back when we had only one Unidyne "pistol grip" 57 type thing and a cassette 4 track. We actually got shockingly good results, better for vocals than the 57.
I love the combined sound of the close phone and regular kics
You could have asked your fans or looked it up before mangling so many phones. BTW, the shielding on the cable should be left cut off when you don't have a mental case on the mic side. This will keep you from turning it into an antenna and putting tons of noise on the shielding that could cause noise on your mic cable.
I made one of these a while back using one of a pack of cheap cables I bought from amazon. After I opened up the cable I was shocked that it DID NOT have a ground cable in it. I had been using these cables on some pretty expensive mics like a TLM 103 and KMS 105. Fortunately, they weren't damaged. But the lesson was to buy quality cables and don't try to skimp with cheap cables. As far as the telephone mic; I love placed about three feet in front of the kick with a strong high pass and slammed with a compressor. Additionally, it works as a cool snare bottom mic for a very niche sound.
This is exactly the kind of videos i think of when i think of rdavidr. Love it!
your editing has gotten so much better. great job man
Loving the new ride and that cymbal setup in general. Sounds great.
Just gotta say man I cant wait for your videos to come out. I've watched most video of yours twice cause I always walk away with some new info. Thanks man keep it up.
Dude those toms sound so good. Great video
Man i realy dig them as close mics! It gave the snare and kick drum a cool grit! Great video and idea!
The solo'd phone mics sounded really good for lo-fi/shoegaze/dreampop stuff. Shame that i suck at tools because those are definitely in my top threes for larger music genres
Great low-fi effect.
first : DON'T THROW THE MIC PART AWAY ! For old phones, it's often coal mics (or charcoal, I don't know, I'm french), so it's rather strange sounding, but also rather hard to emulate.
And then, just my opinion, but I prefer them in close miking position. It really adds "grit" to the snare.
It would be A Carbon contact Mic in english, so you were pretty much spot on
However neither of these phones carbon mics in, they usually resemble something similar to the speaker in size.
Super cool man. Nicely done..... You're a wizard😘😘
Vulfpeck would approve of this
Surprisingly nice sound, I've made about 5-6 telephone mics yet and I find that I like using old carbon telephone mics (instead of turning the speaker into a mic), it needs phantom power (if you can't lower the voltage it can bare the 48V but you'll probably need to pad it down from your interface), but there's less hiss and noise, the sound is way more detailed and with wider freq response.
They can be very useful as crushed room mics and as secondary mics for pre-'50s vibe productions.
You can even reamp a whole mix through one and use it as a wet fx bus.
It's for relatively simple or experimental situations though, if the song is a pop or modern 100-bus session, it will only make your work harder, better use an EQ and a saturation plugin.
I'm loving the 7/8 groove man!
a large solder blob actually has lower resistance than a small one, resistance is inversely proportional to cross section (and proportional to length and resistivity)
Please post more videos you are a great drummer and also show your talent well though UA-cam
i was surprised how nice it sounded with the close phone setup!
Perfect for black metal.
The snare actually sounds decent when combined with the other mics such as overheads, but the kick sounded pretty awful imo
michael It sounded like a drum practice pad
yeah the kick was absolutely terrible but i dig everything else
I used to do this trick when in my teens and drum-recording; because no money then trying to be resourceful and using a couple of headphones as a mic. It worked really well. Its possible because the sensitivity of the headphone speakers is really high, try it yourselves!
I like the sound of the close phone mic on the bass drum.
Recording Black Metal Albums - DIY -
They do work perfectly as room mics!
Congratz! You've rediscovered AM radio :P
Super cool. I dig those. Especially the red one. Ha!
But for real. If I had one I might A.) Make UA-cam videos about a guy that talks into it "unaware" he is being filmed. B.) Sing comedy industrial metal songs. Or most likely C.) Devote it to an odd drum. Maybe a hand drum or something with a flanger on it, and mount the phone directly on it or directly on the side. D.) All of the above.
Sounds sweet!
Such a cool video. I love your videos and your channel. Very easy to follow and great content
They actually sounded better than I expected
Creative either way man. Good show!
if anything adding a bigger blob of solder would reduce resistance because you're offering more surface area for the electricity to go through and more surface area = less resistance, like a valve partially opened vs opened all the way
Great for whispy vintage vocals.
Probably just use them mostly for vocal effects tbh - but I managed to pick up an Ibanez LF-7 for $20 a few years ago, and that does this in a box, so I just use that
That said, this wins for style points
Nice 7/16 pattern, definitely something to remember :)
actually kind of surprised how many people seem to be very confused at the idea that he’s using the phone’s speaker as the mic; basically, a speaker can always be used as a mic, but a mic can only SORT OF be used as a speaker. for a simple demonstration of what i mean, just take a regular old microphone (you know the kind i’m talking about, the one that you literally picture in your head when you hear the word ‘microphone’), plug it into any headphone output on anything with sound being sent through it, and put the microphone up to your ear; you’ll hear the sound coming through it, albeit very softly. i’m not 100% sure about this, but i believe you should also be able to somehow rig up a small speaker to be plugged into a microphone input on something and you should be able to talk into
the speaker and hear/record/whatever the sound of your voice through whatever you have it plugged into.
Cool experiment!
That sounds... tasty! I need to make a pair of these.
Would be perfect for some Black Metal 🤘👌
Your instagram had me really hyped for this one
Spoodermen Produktionz what's it called?
Spoodermen Produktionz never mind, found it!
I actually really liked the close phone mic sound, kinda trashy and cool, got an Ash Soan vibe
I like the phones by themselves just as a lo-fi effect
See the video how Queen recorded Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon. The engineer just put a set of headphones in a coffee can, ran the mixer into the headphones, then mic‘ the opening of the coffee can. Less fuss and it was recorded 42 years ago hehe
I love how you just threw the phone's base around lol
“Cheap-Overpriced”
I'd love to use a telephone microphone if I was in a studio setting. Like if I was recording a bridge or intro to a song the telephone would be great for faded sounds to lower song intensity.
Good to see the Meinls!
I would use telephone mics only for effects and for snare along with sm57 so it can cut better through a mix.
I enjoyed the 7 groove
7:33 Something about this specific setup makes that stack sound SOOOOOOOOO fucking juicy.
perfect to record some stoner/doom jams, retro stuff
John Dwyer uses one for his vocals in Coachwhips, sounds fucking awesome
hey man great vid :) you should use a Retro Phone Handset ( which a telephone that plugs into your smartphone. search it up) to see what difference it makes to overall sound and to see the comparison between a regular recording of you playing on your phone compared to the recording of you with the Retro Phone Handset
blending the phone close mic with the standard mic would be a good way to make the snare cut through more
Cool vid! Maybe get an old large diaphragm speaker and make it a subkick? I imagine it's a similar process
all of the mics combined makes for some good LoFi drums
I wish you had turned both mics and both speakers into four mic channels. Impedance matching and phasing would be a pain in the ass but I think you would end up with better sound. Even a cheap mic sounds better than a speaker.
the snare and kick sound was goooood tho
ye
Using just the phones for the room mics sounded cool actually. Could use that shit in a intro of a song or sumpin.
Theres an amazing guitar pedal builder called Sehat pedals, he builds a crazy fuzz pedal into old phones, so you can talk into it while playing!
You are very creative
The only music I’ll hold to
Dave you should make an entire custom drum set pretty much from scratch
I was scared the DNC phone was going to start a war in the comments. Phew! Love your videos/channel/music! Great job!
It would probably made a good set of Room mic’s for that compressed smashed sound
I will so make these too
lol. you got my side hurting. laughing so much... i sound the same way....
Genius!
Ideal for black metal recordings
Those would make interesting room mics.
You should make these and put them on you Etsy shop.
It would be cool to make a stereo version housed in the same casing.
@rdavidr when are we going be able to buy these shirts/hoodies??? I really dig that orange hoodie you had on a couple of videos back if I remember right!
If youre doing any kind of soldering you should just get solder splice. All you need is a solder splice and a heat gun!
I've used carbon elements out of telephones before, horrible frequency response, basically just 1k/2kHz, but these actually sound pretty nice, but only if they're placed very close.
I would also use these mics on bass amp to get more grit and midrange.
Kool FX mics
can u make a video on how to make a drum rack
Hey Dave ! Make a cajón flamenco , oh yeah
“...one of those hipster telephone microphone things.” 👌🏼
How is it a microphone if you took out the mic and left the speaker
can u tell me whther how u record with a speaker instead of mic
You sponsored by meinl now? Me jelly!
But can you play telephone by ELO with a telephone