My first mic build

A few months ago I stumbled across a youtube clip that walked through the process of putting together a home made clone of a U87. These mic clones might be old news for most of you, but I had no idea such a thing was possible before I saw that video. I've always lusted after the high end Nuemann mics but I could never justify the cost. So the prospect of building my own for about $500 in parts was too good to pass up. I ordered parts and dove in. 

I've never done any kind of electronics project like this before. I've done basic soldering but I'd never soldered anything onto a printed circuit board before. I probably spent about four or five evenings working on this over the course of a month and a half. Once all the pieces were in place, I put phantom power to it, took measurements from the proper points and calibrated the FET per instructions. Then I put it on a stand started recording. 

So far, I've done some AB tests of my speaking voice with an old CAD E200 and an even older AKG C414. Right now I'm using it to put down some resonator guitar parts. It sounds great. 

I'm probably going to build a second copy for a buddy. After that, I'm thinking about some kind of U47 clone. Anyone else using mics you've built yourself?


 

 
 

That's awesome man! I didn't know about this either. Did you buy a kit, or did you have to purchase everything separately? Where did you buy from? Thanks for posting this.

Late in the track there is a little blip of noise as the guitars fade out. What caused that?

Thanks. I want to do this too. I have often thought of building these...

https://www.seventhcircleaudio.com

But I have held back so far. The lack of meter on the compressors has given me pause.

Great info. Thank you!