Custom electret mic pickup for a didgeridoo...Need Help/advice!

[Audiological]

Hello,

I posted this on Guitarists.net but I have had no response, so here I am. Hopefully someone here can help me or point me in the right direction!

I am looking to make a custom electret mic pickup for a didgeridoo. For those who don't know what a didgeridoo is, it is an Australian aboriginal instrument (. It is a very low resonance instrument.

I have been looking into this for a while and I was originally going to make a custom piezo pickup, however, I determined through the help/advice of others that due to the thickness of the instrument and the fact that it is closer to a horn than a vibrating instrument, it was better to go with an electret mic pickup.

So, my question to the people here: I want to make a custom electret mic pickup that I can plug into a distortion pedal and/or a bass amp. So, I do not want to output to an XLR plug (if I don't have to), rather I would like to output to a 1/4" jack. If there is a better reason to go XLR over 1/4", please inform me!

Does any one have any suggestions on how to go about this? And if so, where might I find schematics/supplies, etc?

Any help would be awesome. Thanks!
-John

[AvantGuy]

A horn - Yes, I think the didge has a slightly conical bore, but it's so very long it looks like a cylindrical bore at a passing glance. I think the two trickiest questions are 1) the type of mic, contact or air mic (you've changed from piezo to electret - does that mean you've decided against contact mic and opted for air-mic?), and, 2) number of mics and their positions.

It seems to me that instrument, given its size, could offer lots of good fun and maybe surprising results with two mics. I know too little to offer help, but I'll bet plenty of folks on the electroacoustic music sites have already been there. Here's an example from the MAX/MSP list: "I'll be there, performing a piece of mine for didgeridoo and computer on Wednesday and Lou Bunk's "luna" for saxophone and computer on Thursday." This guy might likely have miked his didge for some realtime treatment of its sound. Same is probably true of folks who inhabit the Supercollider or PureData forums.

So if nobody here can help, you might look around those places.

HTH
--Bob

[Audiological]

Originally Posted by AvantGuy

A horn - Yes, I think the didge has a slightly conical bore, but it's so very long it looks like a cylindrical bore at a passing glance. I think the two trickiest questions are 1) the type of mic, contact or air mic (you've changed from piezo to electret - does that mean you've decided against contact mic and opted for air-mic?), and, 2) number of mics and their positions.

It seems to me that instrument, given its size, could offer lots of good fun and maybe surprising results with two mics. I know too little to offer help, but I'll bet plenty of folks on the electroacoustic music sites have already been there. Here's an example from the MAX/MSP list: "I'll be there, performing a piece of mine for didgeridoo and computer on Wednesday and Lou Bunk's "luna" for saxophone and computer on Thursday." This guy might likely have miked his didge for some realtime treatment of its sound. Same is probably true of folks who inhabit the Supercollider or PureData forums.

So if nobody here can help, you might look around those places.

HTH
--Bob

Bob,

Yes, I have decided to go with a open-air mic due to the low vibrations of the didj. After a good discussion on Solid State Guitar forums, I decided to go with an electret mic setup rather than a custom piezo.

If there is no luck here, I will try out those websites. Thanks for the heads up!

-John