Simplest mic equaliser for a lampy.

[bigclive]

It's rare I have to ask audio questions, since I normally leave that to the sound departments to deal with, but I've managed to get myself in an audio pickle through over-effort.

 

I've been live-streaming on Saturday's during the lockdown, and wasn't aware that the terrible acoustics of the box-like area I stream from were actually serendipitously taming the bass in my voice.

 

Then I had this amazing idea to spray glue all over the walls and fit UK made fire-rated acoustic foam to "improve" the audio. It did. But not in a good way.

It stripped all the bouncing treble and let the bass dominate the gain control of the phone I stream from, making my audio too bassy for devices with small speakers.

 

At the moment I've semi fixed the situation by using an external mic mounted just outside the new boom-zone. But I fear I may have to use a small graphic equaliser to nudge the audio into the range of tiny (but well meaning) smartphone speakers.

 

I recall the mixed praise and contempt for one of Behringers fix-it-all toolkit rescue-lego units. Does such a thing still exist and what's it called.

 

Now I want you all to be calm about this. I realise that there's an amazing unit buy Chaux-son-vey Audio that costs £8000 pounds and will raise my sound stage and add subtle sibilance. But I'm streaming from a Moto G7 phone and I'm looking for something cheap, ugly and functional to match the rest of the equipment. It also has to be lampy-proof.

 

 

For your acoustic pleasure I recorded my disastrous attempt at "improving" my audio with acoustic foam:-

 

[pete10uk]

I’ve just watched your video on my iPhone and it sounded pretty decent, it is quite bass heavy but not to the point it causes any issues, and it adds a deep soothing to your voice.

 

I think the easiest improveement would be using a good quality external mic, you say your using a mic as a fix, how are you getting it in to your phone?

[bigclive]

The microphone is a lavalier type designed for directly plugging into a phone.

 

I'm getting very mixed feedback on the audio. Some people love it and some hate it. But then again, that happens every time I change something.

[GaryNattrass]

Sounds pretty good to me and I have heard a lot lot worse.

 

Was the behringer unit this one and I have heard that it is quite good but a high pass filter may be all you need to cut off the LF at around 120hz.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_shark_fbq100.htm?glp=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqbDasL6f7AIVyuvtCh3YQAaEEAYYASABEgJ0tfD_BwE

[MarkPAman]

The Behringer Shark is probably the unit you're thinking of, but how will you connect it to your phone?

 

It occurs to me that The Rode Caster Pro is a good piece of kit, simple to set up with some very usable presets to start you off. Often available bundled with a decent mic, boom arm etc. A lot more £ than the Shark, but a lot less than £8k.

[J Pearce]

The shark would be good if the cabling and levels into the phone work. You could add a little compression as well as the EQ.

[sandall]

For a non noise-boy inserting a Shark between a 3.5mm mic needing a DC bias voltage & a 3.5mm phone socket supplying that bias is going to be quite complicated (I've had 2 Sharks, but never dared to use them in a live situation). I haven't come across any apps to apply Eq to a phone's mic, but as Gary points out, all that's needed is a simple HPF, i.e.* a small capacitor in series with the audio. This would obviously block the DC bias, so a couple of AAA batteries & a resistor would be needed on the mic side of the capacitor - a nice little project to keep somebody's soldering iron warm. (* why the f**** won't it accept a lower-case I ???)

[bigclive]

You can apply a line signal to a phone's jack by giving it a resistor to make it think a mic is there and then coupling onto the input line with a capacitor.

 

I've been doodling circuitry that would give the needed bias voltage (a battery) and then use a minimalist high pass filter to cheat something basic. I kinda felt that doing it properly with a small equaliser could be advantageous. Especially if it allowed a volume boost or cut to random microphones.

 

For my non-live videos I just run my videos through an app to adjust the audio for upload. But it's not so easy when streaming live.

 

The Shark was indeed the one I was thinking about. I see it's out of stock at the moment.

 

The rack version could have worked, but not so great for travelling with work. (Not that that's an issue right now!)

 

Have you guys found the Shark to be useful/reliable?

[sandall]

You can apply a line signal to a phone's jack by giving it a resistor to make it think a mic is there and then coupling onto the input line with a capacitor.

About 1k seems to fool the phones I've tried.

 

Have you guys found the Shark to be useful/reliable?

I got my 1st Shark as an alternative FB destroyer to my little Sabine that cost several times as much, but my experience (& that of various colleagues) of FB destroyers is that they work fine until they run out of bands, at which point they destroy your gig. It's clever, & has an amazing number of flashing LEDs for the price, but I won't use anything with that maker's name for any gig where my reputation is on the line (no experience of their digital mixers, so can't comment on them).

[pete10uk]

I was using sharks 15 years ago, great little box in terms of features but they were very Behringer in the day. Not sure if they have been updated, they don’t look like they are any different, I wouldn’t use them through choice.

 

I would go with a nice mic and small mixing desk, the only issue I don’t know is getting it in to the phone.

[sandall]

Not sure if they have been updated, they don't look like they are any different,

As far as I could tell the only change is that at some time the display was changed from green to red - not an improvement !

 

I would go with a nice mic and small mixing desk, the only issue I don't know is getting it in to the phone.

Agreed. Either a transformer, or a capacitor in the mixer-end connector (for my cheap'n cheerful pocket recorder, which puts DC on the mic/line inputs, I use 10u, as it is small enough to fit in a jack plug & has minimal effect on the LF).

 

E2A: Whatever you do will involve butchering a TRRS lead.

Edited October 6, 2020 by sandall

[TomHoward]

We use Sharks to process audio for show relays and 100V line PAs for outdoor and they have low cuts, compression, gating, basically one channel of processing and preamp.

I don't think there is much to die on them, however I think they only have a low cut and not an adjustable EQ, so wouldn't be able to balance much, and streaming probably takes care of the compression anyway.

 

I would have thought a simple high pass RC network might be worth a try if it's possible to wire in.

[bigclive]

I would have thought a simple high pass RC network might be worth a try if it's possible to wire in.

 

I've been pondering that. Using a battery to power the mic and a simple RC network to attenuate the boom.

 

That could have the advantage of setting the mic output level too, and could be small enough to fit in a tiny travel-friendly box.

[Shez]

I've pondered getting something like this for connecting mics or other sources to a phone. Via a DI I'm sure you could connect the output of a mixer with whatever processing you wanted.

[pete10uk]

I've pondered getting something like this for connecting mics or other sources to a phone. Via a DI I'm sure you could connect the output of a mixer with whatever processing you wanted.

 

This looks a nice bit of kit. Would defiantly work for this situation.

I would go for a reasonable external mic. Small mixer with eq and this unit. Should be able to do it for about £150 if looking at budget end kit, but this will offer an adjustable improvement on what is already used.