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  • 3-2-1 contact microphone

    somehow a couple of weeks ago after i finished playing music with a friend and after consuming several mesmerizing solo percussion performances online i started thinking about ways to expand the sounds i could make when drumming. So i started making contact microphones and attaching them to things .i will make a video once i finish with all my modified percussion instruments and set them up with my full kit and figure out how to play it all at once.
    I have here my new electric tambourine, and ribbon crasher, and on top of the drum sticks is my single tambourine hand shaker(i used the lid off a frappucino bottle to secure the contact mic in place, it was a perfect fit)
    oh and somewhere along the week i found all these frame corners, it’s weird cause now i have a bunch of frame scraps and i don’t even like frames that much…go figure
    i started by balancing a corner against the other and then kept going. I had to restart several times because when one falls several go with it.

    just having fun with one of my favorite coffee mugs from our coffee mug collection
    so this is my work desk, i have been attaching a contact mic to everything testing the results, and yes i have miked the vibrating coffee cup and used it as a sort of tone generating device.


    this is my old dj mixer i bought like 8 years ago,(during that whole second wave dj craze, i got it real cheap because a month after it stopped being hip this things showed in pawn shops in droves) the cross fader broke a while ago, and i just never fixed it. when i started to make the contact mics i decided this would come in handy, so i went ahead and removed the cross fader and hacked into all the channels and then made patch cables to run the signal to my bass amp…translation this makes the noise from the contact mics controllable allowing me to control the volume without standing in front of the amp.

    i found this giant illy coffee bean container in the recycling bin behind a coffee shop, and i was using it as a hand drum in the studio but it was too quiet, so it became the first contact mic enabled instrument in the studio, it has a great sound somewhere between a djembe drum and a bucket.
    I don’t know what direction this contact mic marathon will take , but i do know that this would be a perfect project to do anywhere, since all the parts to make these are readily available at radio shack or any other equivalent electronics and wiring supply place. I keep working on applications trying to get things out there. i did hear from the present group that i am one of their finalists for their next cycle of editions,unfortunately only subscribers to their service can vote but check them out I was honored to among the finalist.