As you might already have guessed, the site name is a blend of the words Microphones and Modifications. Obviously, the main topic of this website is the modification of microphones, but I will also touch upon other audio-related stuff.
First, a few words about me…
Before I tell you more about the site’s contents, let me spend a few words on myself and tell you how I got to this point. I was born in the early 1960s and grew up in the north of the Netherlands. When I was a little boy, my interest in electronics was already awakened by a boy next door who assembled radios. What he did was pure magic for me! When I was still in primary and high school in the 1970’s/80’s, I built my first electronic projects and worked with audio equipment. After I graduated with my BSEE degree in 1984, I successfully designed and built a HiFi stereo preamp and a power amp based on Hawksford’s output stage error-correction principle. Then came career, family, kids and stuff, and my audio hobby and electronics in general were put on the back burner…
Because I come from the Netherlands and English is not my mother tongue, my English will not be perfect. I hope that doesn’t bother you too much and that at least the messages I want to convey are clear.
About seven years ago, I regained interest in (professional) audio equipment, in particular microphones. This was mainly due to my son starting to work as a DJ and live sound engineer. He liked to test and play around with various microphones, both for live use and for recording purposes. But he wasn’t always satisfied with the microphones he had. So I started looking into how microphones and microphone electronics work and how I could build him some good-sounding microphones. Along the way, ideas started to come up on how to improve them, especially the electronics. My primary goal when I started modifying and building microphones was to tailor them primarily to his requirements. But I would also like it very much if others could benefit from my work. I will leave it to you to judge whether I have succeeded in doing so.
About this website…
The circuit modifications I envision go beyond the component swaps that many Do-It-Yourselfers do in an attempt to improve sound quality. Firstly, I will mainly focus on moisture immunity, reducing RFI sensitivity and improvement of CMRR. And I’ll present some alternative circuits for some well-known microphones. All of them will be solid-state circuits. I’m not into tube circuits; they fail too often, degrade, suffer from microphonics, need separate power supplies, and so on. I’m not a recording engineer, but if I were one and wanted tube-like distortion, then there are plenty of plug-ins or effects with adjustable distortion. Tubes just don’t relate to my vision that electronic products should always work flawlessly, be robust, long-lasting, and operate within tight tolerances. I’m a no-nonsense technician, and tubes just do not fit within that picture.
I assume seasoned electronics engineers will hardly learn anything new here, but those having some basic knowledge of electronics but who are new to microphone modding may find some of the stuff presented useful for their own projects. As said, some basic knowledge of electronics is assumed; e.g. I am not going to explain how a JFET or BJT works and should be biassed, etc. There is plenty of information to be found on the web to educate yourself on that.
And what about turning a MXL603S into a KM84…?
When I read the DIY microphone forums on the internet, there seem to be many people who are frantically trying to imitate the look and sound of vintage microphones as faithfully as possible. Manufacturers are also actively participating in this and try to benefit from the reputation of some popular vintage microphones by copying their models or elements of those microphones. In the case of the MXL603S, the capsule was inspired by the KM84 capsule, but even after being heavily modified, it’s still not exactly the same. The physics of the capsules remains just too different. So realistically, I would say: no, you won’t be able to exactly copy the KM84 by modifying an MXL603S, or any other budget microphone for that matter. You can get close, but I think it’s better to just try to make a good microphone on its own, rather than make an exact copy of something that is almost unattainable. And I hope this website will help you achieve such a goal.
Sooo…
Let me finish by expressing my hope that you will enjoy the content on this website and find it useful for your projects. Have fun modifying your microphones!
Cheers,
Jan Postma