In this section of the Arcania homepage You will learn about basic electronics starting out with a simple Power Amp , that We will then turn into a three channel mono , or six channel stereo p.a. Also We will cover basic Microphone construction from the simple headphone conversion to the fancy Audio Mics used in todays best home studios. Did You know You can make a darn nice Recording Mic out of a set of ordinary Headphones , and an Audio Cable? Yep, We use them all the time in Our studio. We'll even show You how to convert these or Your ordinary Mics into special mics used in the best studios today such as using ordinary carbon mic , and a few soda straws to build a studio grade shotgun microphone. You use these mics to isolate a certain instrument in the studio. You can also build a collecting mic which collects a larger area of sounds used to record background noises , and has some cool effects in overdubbing the vocals.
Below is a scematic of the basic Audio Amplifier. It's not much in todays standards as far as power goes , but it will open doors to building one of those very soon for less money than You might think , and it in the end with it's studio grade qualities will make an excellent powered mixer to use in the studio either as a preamp , or even as a headphone mixer.
The 741 is a preamplifier . R2 controls it's gain. The 386 is a power amplifier R3 controls the volume of the speaker. It is ok to use a fixed 100 K. resistor for R2 to reduce resistance of R2 if it oscillates or gives a distorted output. Important Bypass the powersupply connections with 0.1mF (Micro Farad) capacitors.
Audio Mixer
In the above image the + with a dot in the center is labled LED , that is not correct . It should be labled "Connected Wires" Sorry , and thanks to many of Our Egle Eyed viewers for pointing out this error to Us . We will get that corrected asap.
Don't let all the technical stuff bother You at this time. We are starting out simple with Project 1 being build a simple mic out of a set of headphones. Later We will take the preamp out of the Audio Amplifier and make Our new mic into a fancy Condensor Mic with a studio grade preamp. Also note the shotgun and collector diagrams above each mic type will have a place in Our home studios. The collection mic will be used to add effects to the vocals much like a natural reverb. And the shot gun mics can be used when recording multiple instruments in the same room , excellent for micing out drums ! Esp Hi-hat , and Snare Drums !
Well that's all the time we have for this weeks lessons , Please send Me e-mail at toxxx@kiva.net if You have any questions or comments , and I hope this will help You to save a lot of money like it has Us!
Thanks
Tony
Bass Guitars
Arcania
