Renaud Capuçon records Main Theme, Gabriel's Oboe from The Mission (Ennio Morricone)

 

It is interesting to see the microphones too.

Second Pleiades RIAA MM Preamplifier Prototype

 

At your risk. A suitable fuse must be in series with any battery. Please take all other safety precautions.

Under preparation.

Instead of  one 9 volt battery this is supplied by batteries of total 18V or 24v.

Instead of 2 stages this has 3 stages but without source resistor bypass capacitor.

Even more similar to the Heathkit class A 10W integrated electron tube amplifier. 1st stage has a 100K drain resistor, second stage a 220K drain resistor. 3rd stage will possibly have a 10K drain resistor, said stage driving through a coupling capacitor a 10 to 1 output transformer.

A 1M potentiometer will drive the 3rd stage.

The passive RIAA filter, all 4 time constants, is at the time being between 1st and 2nd stage.

 

  

Σπάει η Φωτιά τον Πάγο?

Ήταν φωτιά και έτρεχαν

Ήρθε λεπτή νύμφη, ψηλή τρομαγμένη

Καθώς έσβηνε, άναψε μέσα μου

Στο σώμα της

There is nice Christmas music inside the Athens' tram from Easy 97.2 MHz radio station

 

Happy Christmas!

On Making an Adaptor Cable to Connect a Dynamic Microphone to a Mobile Phone

At your risk. Please take all safety precautions. For example soldering fumes must not be inhaled, solder must only be touched with gloves, listening to playback with headphones must be at a very low level,... 

On this example....

1

A Shure SM58 Mexico microphone is used for male singing voice at 24in from mouth, mic pointing towards the nose. Microphone placed much higher than head. At 24in there is almost no bass boost proximity effect. The mic is used outdoors (balcony) in order to avoid recording thousands of annoying, blurring short delayed reflections from walls.

2

A step up signal transformer is used to step up the microphone voltage and impedance. So at this stage the signal level is like a condenser capsule with the added advantage of the much less harmonic or non linear distortion at high frequencies (see older posts with references). The step up transformer used was a 1 to 10 step up ratio with a low primary inductance (typically 280mH) which further corrects bass. This is a low value of inductance so the mic can be used a bit closer or a higher inductance transformer can  be used while keeping the mic at 24in. But it all depends on song, register and singer. The transformer stops RF energy picked up by the mic cable and the step up process creates a unique low noise (hiss) recording. The transformer used is a German one inside an female to male XLR barrel. 

3

The high impedance signal is connected directly to the Gate of a JFET. A K117 JFET is used. The Pleiades K117 mic preamplifier is built inside the female XLR connector. For more details, schematic please see older posts a few yeas back. The circuit is as minimal as it can be for purest sound and lowest noise. Just a K117 JFET, a resistor connected to the Source terminal for bias and nothing else. Amplified signal is taken from the Drain terminal. The load resistor where the amplified voltage is developed is in the following circuit which also supplies the 1 or 2 volts needed to power the low noise JFET preamp. The other end of the cable is connected to a 3.5mm male headphone mic jack connector.

4

An Apple 3.5mm (headphone, mic) to USB C adaptor is connected. It was bought for 10euros in Athens Public shores. It contains all needed ADC for mic and DAC for headphones.

5 

A Galaxy mobile phone is connected at USB C

6

Recording made with the camera app of the mobile phone.

7

That's it. 

Ornella Vanoni

 

It is strange, I listen to Ornella Vanoni today for the 1st time (a few days after she passed away) on the Hellenic Radio broadcast by Yiannis Petridis. Together with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin for example, Yiannis Petridis would listen to the best Italian music or almost any other good music. Today's 4pm-5pm broadcast was on Ornella Vanoni.

We are fortunate in Hellenic Republic to have such a music and cinema knowledgeable radio producer.

 

Here is the link of today's broadcast on Ornella Vanoni:

https://www.ertecho.gr/radio/ertnewsradio/show/apo-tis-4-stis-5/ondemand/1156920/apo-tis-4-stis-5-me-ton-gianni-petridi-25-11-2025/

Alex North

 Music by Alex North, lyrics by Hy Zaret.

I heard the name Alex North today in Yiannis Petridis radio broadcast 4pm to 5pm.