how to attenuate a speaker as a mic?

newmz · 12th February 2007, 11:42 AM

I want to make something like the Yamaha Subkick microphone for recording my bass-drum. Check it out here .
It's very simple, wire the speaker terminals + and - to the hot and cold terminals if a mic socket and mount it somehow.
The main problem I anticipate after googling a bit is that the output will be very high and needs to be attenuated. I've also looked at that but all the information I find assumes you are working with mic impedances (around 600 ohms I think).
Can anyone tell me how to calculate say 10dB or 20dB attenuation given that the speaker has an impedance of 8 ohms (source) and my mixer is at about 2.6k ohms (input)?

cliffforrest · 12th February 2007, 11:57 AM

Put a 100R pot across the speaker with the centre pin going to the preamp. (and groundy end!)

Adjust for correct volume then either leave the pot in place or measure the up and down sections resistance and replace pot with two resistors.

Precision and excessive concern over the sound is not really appropriate here.

neutron7 · 14th February 2007, 05:29 AM

nice powerful output is great though. cant you plug it into a line input and use a pad?

12th February 2007, 11:42 AM	#1
newmz diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Perth, Western Australia	how to attenuate a speaker as a mic? I want to make something like the Yamaha Subkick microphone for recording my bass-drum. Check it out here . It's very simple, wire the speaker terminals + and - to the hot and cold terminals if a mic socket and mount it somehow. The main problem I anticipate after googling a bit is that the output will be very high and needs to be attenuated. I've also looked at that but all the information I find assumes you are working with mic impedances (around 600 ohms I think). Can anyone tell me how to calculate say 10dB or 20dB attenuation given that the speaker has an impedance of 8 ohms (source) and my mixer is at about 2.6k ohms (input)? __________________ "There's no greater sign of genius than the scorn of fools" -Albert Einstein.

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12th February 2007, 11:57 AM	#2
cliffforrest diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: UK	Put a 100R pot across the speaker with the centre pin going to the preamp. (and groundy end!) Adjust for correct volume then either leave the pot in place or measure the up and down sections resistance and replace pot with two resistors. Precision and excessive concern over the sound is not really appropriate here.

14th February 2007, 05:29 AM	#3
neutron7 diyAudio Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Toronto Canada	nice powerful output is great though. cant you plug it into a line input and use a pad?

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