Pictures from the build!
Tonights meeting consisted of an electret condenser mic build. The participants were given a kit consisting of three 1/4W, 1%, 33.2 Kilo-ohms resistors, 3 tantalum, 4.7 µF 50v capacitors, one three pin Male XLR, 2 22 gauge threaded wires and an omni microphone capsule. Over the two hour period, the participants were tasked with building their own electret condenser microphone. Once the event started, the participants downloaded the instruction manual keynote from crasconnect2. CRAS AES Faculty Advisor David Kohr supervised the event. The build was challenging consisting of many tiny parts. The build helped students develop practical skills and gave them a deeper understanding of how microphones work.
As the night progressed, the students, one by one, began testing the soldered mic without its casing on the test mixer. For the most part, this was a successful milestone for many. However, the real challenge was fitting the assembly into the provided case. This is where issues arise, since forcing the mic into the case leads to broken connections and short circuits, leading to multiple trips to and from the mixer.
Nonetheless, some students successfully walked away with a working microphone. It was a humbling experience for the participants to see first hand what goes into building a microphone!
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