Can you build a real working MICROPHONE using LEGO? 

As an audio nerd and lego enthusiast, i absolutely love this series of audio components made from lego

The end result is really impressive for how rudimentary it is Really surprising how basic the fundamentals of parts of our lives are that are then just fine tuned by experts

I love how the last mic sounds like the one they used waaay back in the past, it's make it nostalgic in a way 😀

A few suggestions: 1). Those thumping noises after P sounds are because you don't have a pop filter, so the bursts of air from plosives are hitting the microphone and making it go thump. 2). This is a dynamic microphone, which if I recall, tend to want/need their own preamp before your computer's sound card has at it. This might be part of why the noise is so bad, so maybe a simple op-amp circuit to boost the signal before sending it off would help things.

honestly this feels perfect for a horror recording format, the audio sounds old and dated perfect for something like old interview tapes or documentation recordings.

A lot of the low frequency noise you are getting is from your desk being touched and because you have no pop filter. The desk vibrations could be solved by isolating the part that holds the membrane and coil with some more rubber bands like the ones you used for the membrane. It also might be worth looking into using a preamp of some kind as they can help reduce noise and filter out frequencies you don't want in addition to increasing the signal strength.

you almost certainly want to pre-amplify the signal to make it usable for your PC, also, it could use a low-pass filter to reduce high-frequency noise.

Most of the suggestions I see in the comments look to be correct. Since in a dynamic microphone, the induced voltage on the coil is proportional to the change in magnetic flux, you may be able to increase the output level by having your coils closer to the magnet (i.e. nearly touching the "outside corner" of your ring magnets) -- if you search for magnetic field diagrams, your aim should be for the coils to cross over as many of the lines as possible during movement to get maximum induction. Using magnets without holes in the centre will increase the magnetic field strength, too. As other people have said, the dongle you are using is likely designed for a microphone with an impedance on the order of 1000 Ohms, so you need a preamp which will both amplify the voltage to a suitable level and provide an input impedance more closely matched to your coil to prevent signal degradation from power loss. I imagine it would be rather difficult to find something suitable at a reasonable price -- the other alternative is to try a DIY preamp with op-amps, resistors and some other discrete components - certainly possible on a breadboard given enough time and perseverance. The frequency response you're getting will in part be due to impedance mismatched power losses, but is probably mostly from the material of your membrane. Typically microphone membranes are extremely thin in order to reduce their mass for any reasonable high-frequency response, and the LEGO you use to mount the coil will be contributing a damping effect from the extra mass. The best suggestion I can make would be to use something like tracing paper to try and reduce the mass of the membrane as much as possible. One other thing -- you may want to twist your wires together. It doesn't sound like you're getting much EM interference, but twisted pair is an easy way to reject a lot of environmental noise and it should reduce the power losses a little too. Good luck!

After 22 years I’ve finally discovered how a microphone works, and it took LEGO to do it. Thank you for this wonderful video!

I am not an audio expert, but i may suggest you to focus on making the membrane much more thinner and lighter, i'm quite shure that way it will work better since the noise you hear is not because of the microphone itself but because the signal it produces is so low that the computer has to amplify it but it will also amplify the noise. Btw great work and i really love your videos!

I like how it sounds like an old carbon microphone. These audio components out of Lego are really cool! You could try and make a record player next that would be awesome

sounds real vintage (maybe it could be used that way)

The culmination of this series needs to be recording an album on all Lego instruments, using all Lego equipment

You need a thinner membrane and a not so stiff suspension. Also, the wheel the cardboard and the magnet are attached to adds too much weight and dampens the whole membrane. More mass needs more force to start moving so try to get that as low as possible. As others have said, a pre-amp is necessary, there are simple op amp circuits out there. the coil should be inside the magnet or around it, as the magnetic field is the greatest there and thus should increase the voltage output.

It sounds like a radio recording from the 30's. Love these.

I love how it sounds old-timey

We makin it to the antique radio studio with this one

The temptation to push the membrane of the mic while its recording lol

i think making the membrane lighter and be suspended on weaker rubber bands might make it better

The fact that you were able to record using the microphone you made, and once you switched to only that I was still able to understand it was insane.

I love the last microphone you made. You sounds like your an old timey radio announcer

It sounds spot-on like an old 1930's radio mic, just needs something to boost the signal and perhaps a pop-filter.

I suggest putting one of those magnet clips that used to be used on old USB cables. I tried doing that for an antenna and it seemed to reduce some of the static in audio, so I wonder if it can do the same for a microphone.

To produce larger signal level, you need few things: First, the magnetic circuit should be as short as possible - the coil has to be very close to the magnet(s), where the magnetic field is strongest. Second, the coil has to have sufficient amount of turns - voltage generated is proportional to number of turns. Third, the membrane has to be very lightweight so the acoustic pressure moves it easily.

i fricking love the old microphones on radios back to 45-70

It’s like a ww2 mic and makes your voice sound like the old narrating voices

have a look at diy perks' diy microphone video. it's not only a great video but also very informative. having that said, i really love your videos too

He used the mic in the video recording. The madlad

I wear a pair of decent audiophile headphones and something about your last mic was occasionally producing the DEEPEST bass i've ever heard. I think it was whenever you would touch the desk? Felt like my brain was going to vibrate out lol

I kinda like how it sounds. It reminds me of those early 1900s radio microphones

Scarlet Fire, a Dankpods classic. Love it.

I think a smaller, lighter diaphragm could give you higher frequencies. If your diaphragm is big and heavy, you essentially get a natural low pass filter, because more mass doesn't like to move as much, and the bigger area also gives you more air resistance.

this sounds like old radio broadcasts and i love it

I like how the final result sounds like old-timey radio

Your videos are so professionally edited and made you're going to grow so much.

The ending microphone sounds like one of those old ones you'd hear in a commercial

That microphone is like ones from 1920s

3:40 That reminds me more of the Connectors from The Talos Principle 1 & 2

Dynamic mics work really well with really loud sources like orchestras or bass/guitar amps, and for the latter character is probably more important than accuracy

sounds like an old radio which is very interesting

I love the scarlet fire. I need to make this speaker/mic and use the mojo on it

0:59 As a Dankpods subscriber, this IS roughly the quality that I am used to.

I imagine a low-noise preamplifier would help make the signal stronger

A few suggestions: 1. Try a much lighter or more flexible membrane 2 Make the coil fit inside the magnet or surrounding the magnet (You want the coil to vibrate between the poles) 3. Use a shielded cable for as long as possible. Connect the microphone between the ring and the tip pins. Sleeve is the ground. 4. If you add a pre-amp, you want something like an electric guitar pre-amp, not a microphone one.

You could try an microphone amplifier that will make it louder and maybe even clearer.

a thinner membrane like cellophane or a balloon stretched over a ring may give it more response as it will warp easier than a thick material, taking the higher frequencies

SO LIKE THIS ONE TIME MATE

- 4:33, you need to have shielded wires (wires insulated by a first coasting, metal mesh or film, and then a thicker final coating, creating what resembles a speaker or headphone wire at the least). Also, you would need a pre-amplifier to boost the initial signal, ensuring that that will both be shielded and offer a unclipped, undistorted, and still loud enough signal to at least be decently recognisable. - 4:39, thinner wire tends to catch more residual signal and for higher voltage and lower current, thicker being for lower voltage yet higher current. - 8:09, the signal is clearer due to the placement of the coil within a magnet, being closer and of more effect when generating Eddie currents through the coil. just three helpful tips :>

It beats a bunch of webcam microphones I've had over the years, hands down

I would suggest surrounding the microphone with foam and using a bit of a high pass filter to reduce both background noise and that low end rumble

Try twisting the free ends of the coil. This is usually done to limit the electromagnetic interferences which lead to a noise increase!

Electronics hobbyist here, I graduated the german equivalent of highschool this year and will start studying electrical engineering soon and am quite invested in it already. One thing that would most definitely improve the sound quality is adding a pre amp. Capturing audio will always add noise and when you amplify the audio in post you also amplify the noise floor, this is called signal to noise ratio and by making the input signal louder aka adding a pre amp you can increase the signal to noise ratio and thus decrease the noise in your recording. This would most likely remove the need for noise reduction in post. Something else I am not very familiar with, but would look into, is the resonance frequency of the membrane, that being the frequency the membrane naturally tries to vibrate at and thus where the microphone is the most sensitive. The resonance frequency of you designs is probably pretty low, meaning it picks up low frequencies well but everything else not so much. Again I am not very familiar with the mechanical side of things so I am not sure how to solve this best.

Great video! You might try using a thinner lighter membrane. A heavier membrane should vibrate more at lower frequencies and a lighter membrane at higher frequencies. Think about how fast you can shake a beach ball vs how fast you can shake a bowling ball. Maybe a balloon stretched over a frame or something similar would work?

Better than the pilot's mic on an airplane, that's for sure

08:00 There you have it. Now you can understand why in the 20s and 30s people talked funny on the radio! Because microphones just weren't as good then. You can hear high-pitched voices much more easily than bass. This is also why the transatlantic accent was so popular during the time; it was easier to understand dialog over the radio :)

I feel like what probably helped the most with the last iteration was physical closeness of the magnet and coil, since the field strength falls off with the square of the distance iirc, having it close makes the signal a lot stronger. This is really cool tho

you would probably need more turns for louder audio, could maybe use a preamplifier and to remove the noise some copper tape around the mic

These microphones reminded me of Alexander G. Bell's "Box phone". So heres a proposition, Try and recreate Bell's box phone.

This reminds me of the very early stages of microphone from the 1920s

Thinking quickly, Jamie constructs a homemade microphone, using only some rubber bands, Legos, and microphone parts.

Perhaps you might want to try making a condenser microphone next? It's basically what you've already made, except you use a conductive membrane (like a sheet of copper foil), and a conductive backplane (again, copper foil) instead of a magnet. This creates a capacitor which you can charge with a constant DC power source (a battery). As the membrane moves, the capacitance will change, which can then be detected by putting a resistor in series and taking the voltage over it as the signal. In theory it should give a much better frequency response, as you can use a much lighter membrane (no coil of wire in the center).

You could make a metal mesh cage around the entire mic to reduce some of the noise, probably

such a cool concept, I don't really know eny thing about microphones, but that last one actually works pretty well it just has a old sound to it, keep up your amazing work!

Try parchment paper as a membrane. Or feed the coil hovering in the center of a donut shaped magnet

yeah, you need a mic to combo speaker/mic adapter for it to work on your laptop, no dongle needed

Super cool! Can't wait to see what you do with the ribbon design.

Years of 12v audio experience (car audio). The most important thing to remember is your membranes weight/surface area ratio. For input, you want as light as possible while covering as much surface area as possible. Make the membrane out of something thin, light, and durable (think like a piece of one of those clear notebook dividers or something) keep it suspended and about the same size as your original. Next, make your coils tighter. Go down on your inner diameter. Should allow you many more turns, especially with that thin stuff. Your goal is to produce the highest amount of fluctuation, regardless of the actual voltage. For example a low of 1v and a high of 10v is better for input than let's say a low of 5v and a high of 12v. That 2v difference isn't worth the range of audio you will get with the lower voltages. Hope all that makes sense. And my voltage #s are from out of thin air, so take it as an example.

Put a Metal Housing around the coil and the magnet. I could bet, that there is a significant amount of electromagnetic background noise. (that should improve some of the static)

You need a dynamic microphone circuitry between the computer and the microphone

I cant believe your channel hasn't blown up, this stuff is awesome!

You should definitely use a pre-amplifier. They are used in dynamic microphones (the one you have). It will help with the loudness. Also add a popfilter so you don't blow into the mic. You can maybe move the coil inside the magnet area. You can also try making another coil and connecting them in series (make sure both of the coils are twisted the sane way, for example if the first coil is twisted clockwise, the other one can't be anti-clockwise or else the coils would work against each other and there would be no sound). You can make a box around it with only a wall missing on the front of the microphone and add some padding onto the walls to make it onky pick up your voice and not the surroundings. You can maybe even try to makr a bigger membrane to not make it as tinny and bring more bass. You can then cut the membrane to perfection. Hope any of these tips will help you!

Sounds like an old microphone from 100 years ago. Really cool

Others have mentioned some important things, a pre-amp is going to be a necessity. Some design tips as well, if you can make the membrane lighter and thinner without compromising it's strength much, I would absolutely investigate that. instead of elastics, try something like fishing wire to suspend the diaphragm, you actually don't want things to be too "bouncy" and I believe fishing wire may be the perfect blend of flexible and stiff for this application. I think your final design of having the coil near the middle of the magnet was really good, consider the direction of the field lines vs the direction you're wanting to induce a current. You generally want the magnetic field to be moving orthogonal to the direction you want the coil to generate current, which is perfect in your final setup, you may want to experiment with sinking the coil in further or making the coil longer, passing through more of the center of the magnet.

The end result is like an actually usable microphone with quality genuinely comparable to really old professional microphones used in radio broadcasts, which is insane. A big part of that is probably the noise cancellation, but regardless considering how much of a limitation you have, that thing has no right to be as good as it is.

Tho I do not entirely know how a microphone's internals look, I do have at least one we could take apart to see what is inside and try to recreate it with Legos.

You could make your own 1910s microphone with this.

For a dynamic mic like this you won't need any kind of bias voltage, only electret and capacitive mics need a bias voltage, however you could really use a decent pre-amp because the one in your dongle is not designed to be used with such a high impedance low output microphone

this is so incredible . it looks like an microphone from the 90 or the 80 its so incredible!

Last one looked like an inside a hard disk

In the guitar industry this is a "single coil" microphone. If you want to reduce the noise, try making two coils of copper wire and have them be reverse wound and reverse polarity to eachother, that will make a lot of noice cancel itself out.

I might be a little late and off on my understanding of audio/vibration frequencies but, for what I understand if you were to use a large rectangle diaphragm and offset your coil with a 1/3-2/3 on both axis it should capture more frequencies than a large circle. I liked seeing you distance the magnets and coil from the diaphragm though, good idea!

I cant wait for the part 2, if there is one. Im invested

This is AMAZING !!!! - it is very interesting blend of tech and Lego

In order to have high speed/frequency you need low mass. Try a thinner membrane.

If you put a small capacitor in the line, it should reduce some of the noise.

Maybe a thinner membrane and a microphone preaamp with a low noise floor? I have combined microphones myself, and wathching this made me want to design my own from scratch! Thank you so much, very inspirering!! :D

awesome video man, hope I see more stuff from you on my recommended videos soon :)

you could make the plate for the microphone alot thinner and maybe itll sound better, but you also might want to make it smaller

Can you hook up your lego microphone in one room to the lego speakers in another room? I'd like to hear a lego intercom

I think a thinner membrane would improve legibility, other than that, maybe having a larger coil around the magnet?

“This thing with the rubber nipples” 💀💀💀

You should make a whole video with this microphone that you made from Lego

This is just pure awesomeness!

Now you are definitily ready to do some LoFi Lego Dubstep.

you could use the circular bit that comes inside old floppy disks, (or make one from the same material)

this is such a nice microphone, it sounds like you are a radiohost from the 1920s, amazing

A lot of good mics will often have signal processing using one close mic and one far away mic, then using a differential amplifier to only give you the difference, idealy that'd be your voice. Also various different mechanical filters can be applied if you feel like doing it physically rather than with software - 3rd Year Engineering Love what you're doing here, it's a fun watch

you should decently try make a headset next for the complete setup

I love how it just sound like a recording from 1915.

I think you should use some light and thin materials, like thin paper or plastic