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Author Topic: DIY shock mount  (Read 13678 times)

Moonrider

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DIY shock mount
« on: May 08, 2004, 11:40:17 AM »

Are there any sites that offer instructions for do it yourself shock mounts? I got a freebie LD condenser from Guitar Center (with no shock mount) and I haven't been able to find a shock mount to fit it.
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LanceSexington

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2004, 01:00:08 AM »

I made a few with elastic cord and 3 inch abs couplings found in the plumbing section of Home depot for a few bucks...just drill holes in the coupling and thread the cord through them like most shock mounts...and use a mic clip to attach it to the stand.
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Wayne

Moonrider

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2004, 05:33:43 PM »

LanceSexington wrote on Sun, 09 May 2004 01:00

I made a few with elastic cord and 3 inch abs couplings found in the plumbing section of Home depot for a few bucks...just drill holes in the coupling and thread the cord through them like most shock mounts...and use a mic clip to attach it to the stand.


Thanks Lance, I was starting to feel like the hobbyists like me were beneath notice.
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josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2004, 09:32:06 AM »

I have made two shock mounts in the past week, and I'm "refining" the design and will have about 5 more made by the end of next weekend.  I have been meaning to post instructions on my web site.

I use a piece of 1" or so outside diameter tubing (in my case I had a scrap piece of aluminum that works, but PVC is cheap and will work), sized so it fits in a regular mic stand clip like you'd use with an SM57.  Get a 4" plastic embroidery hoop from a hobby shop, and a pack of ponytail elastics (the middle thickness...  there are "thin" "medium" and "fat"...  the medium ones are about 3mm or so in diameter and work the best), a couple of screws, some all-purpose adhesive and a pair of 1/2" long machine screws with nuts.  You'll need an electric drill and a saw to cut down the tubing.

Separate the embroidery hoops into the two pieces and drill a hole in each one in the edge, just large enough for the screw you have to go through.  Cut a piece of tubing about 5" long, and one one side of the tubing, drill a hole about 1'4" from one end, and another hole closer to the other end about 2.5" away.  Put some glue on the hoops near the hole, and then attach them with the screw/nut to the piece of tubing.  Get the screws tight, and get everything square and let the glue set.  Don't use epoxy because it doesn't stick to the nylon that the embroidery hoop is made of, nor does it stick to PVC very well.

Once the whole thing is dry and solid, use zip ties to attach two ponytail elastics to each of the hoops, suspended between the edges of the hoops so that they form an "X".  Move them around as necessary to that the middle of the "X" is dead center in the hoop, and the X's are aligned with one another.  This takes 4 ponytail elastics total and 8 zip ties.

Once you do that, you're done.  Stick it in your mic stand and you can kind of wedge a mic into the elastic "opening" between the elastics.  My embroidery-hoop shock mounts will hold any mic I have from my skinny ECM8000's to my fat SP B1, will also hold an SM58 etc.  Works great with my Oktava MK-219 and also has the benefit of dampening the body resonance.

I have some pictures of mine that I can post later, they are still in my digital camera.  I made one from wood embroidery hoop, and although it looks better, it's nowhere near as durable as the nylon and I won't make any more from wood.  I'll just use nylon.  Total cost of this project is about $3.

This is not just a cheap DIY imitation of the "real deal", but I think this type of shock mount is a superior design to the others I have seen out there, mostly because it will work for nearly any mic, and the performance of the shock mount in terms of isolation is way better than some others I have used which were "made" for a particular mic.

mwkeene

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2004, 05:07:16 PM »

Heres a homemade one which was a link of Gyrafs DIY G7 mic page...kinda cheesy, but it looks like it works.
http://www.omnipressor.com/Other/G7mics/inaction.html
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Moonrider

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2004, 11:14:20 AM »

Thanks to all the people taking time to post on this one. It's not that I wouldn't buy one, it's just that I can't seem to find one that fits this mic. It's DIY or not at all  Confused
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josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2004, 11:46:42 AM »

I have some pictures of my DIY shockmounts on my digital camera, I'll post them later today in this forum.  They are a whole lot more elegant than the other DIY picture link posted, and work great.  

I made them because #1 I am cheap and #2 I needed something that would fit mutliple mics and there was not really much out there that will do that other than the $50 Sabra-Som, and I don't think it'd fit my ECM8000's, they're way too narrow.  #3, I needed a shock mount for a particular mic, whose "standard" shock mount is reportedly a real piece of junk.

mwkeene

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2004, 03:22:39 AM »

josh wrote on Thu, 13 May 2004 11:46

I have some pictures of my DIY shockmounts on my digital camera, I'll post them later today in this forum.  They are a whole lot more elegant than the other DIY picture link posted, and work great.



Yeah, that one didn't look too good but it definitely looked sturdy.  I'm interested to see some pictures of yours, as I hope to see someone finally make a DIY shockmount that looks good, or atleast somewhat professional.  Of course maybe I just haven't looked hard enough...
-Mike
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dejacky

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2004, 05:28:10 AM »

If $16.95 is cheap to you, www.tensimount.com.  Personally, I think $16.95 (including shipping) for one mount is overpriced.  I wouldn't pay more than $10 because it's something very cheap to manufacture, but the mount works very well Smile.  I have one. Cool
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josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2004, 11:43:13 AM »

dejacky wrote on Sat, 15 May 2004 10:28

If $16.95 is cheap to you, www.tensimount.com.  Personally, I think $16.95 (including shipping) for one mount is overpriced.  I wouldn't pay more than $10 because it's something very cheap to manufacture, but the mount works very well Smile.  I have one. Cool


Well, I just ordered four of these.

I was going to make some more of my DIY ones but frankly this is a time saver and the 1/2 hour it takes for me to make one of my DIY ones is not worth it...  I'll just buy these.  I think they'll likely be more durable.  I ordered without the clip (since I already have a bunch of clips) for $13 ea so for $50 you get four shock mounts, not a bad deal.

dejacky

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2004, 11:16:39 PM »

Josh,
yw  Razz
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-dejacky

Moonrider

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2004, 09:49:22 PM »

dejacky wrote on Sat, 15 May 2004 05:28

If $16.95 is cheap to you, www.tensimount.com.


That's half of any price I've seen for the ones that *won't* fit my mike, and this one looks like it'll do the trick. Thanks for the link!
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josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #12 on: May 18, 2004, 04:32:00 PM »

Picturesindex.php/fa/53/0/

josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #13 on: May 18, 2004, 04:33:07 PM »

index.php/fa/54/0/

josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #14 on: May 18, 2004, 04:37:00 PM »

That's made from a 4" embroidery hoop, a couple of ponytail rubber bands, a piece of 1" tubing and a couple of screws & zip ties.

Easy.

Problem with it is that the "rings" can rotate pretty easily, fixed by adding some very solid glue between the tubing and the edge of the ring before assembly with the screws.  I haven't done that with this one, since I lost my tube of the appropriate glue.  I have another one I made with wooden hoops, it looks better, has the glue (so it's more solid), but my guess is it'll be much easier to break.

josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #15 on: May 21, 2004, 09:10:09 AM »

Moonrider wrote on Mon, 17 May 2004 02:49

dejacky wrote on Sat, 15 May 2004 05:28

If $16.95 is cheap to you, www.tensimount.com.


That's half of any price I've seen for the ones that *won't* fit my mike, and this one looks like it'll do the trick. Thanks for the link!



FWIW I got my tensimount shock mounts yesterday, and they are too small to fit my Studio Projects B1 mic.  I expect many common LDCs are too big to fit these shock mounts.  My Oktava MK-219s barely fit and took quite a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth to get them in but they work for those mics.  Narrow mics like my ECM8000's fit great.

I wish the co. would make them in a size 1" larger.  

Otherwise they are a pretty cool product.  I'll keep using my DIY units for my SP B1 and use the tensimount stuff for all my other mics.  If I get more large-diameter mics I'll just make some more of my kind.

Moonrider

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #16 on: May 21, 2004, 02:02:32 PM »

josh wrote on Fri, 21 May 2004 09:10



FWIW I got my tensimount shock mounts yesterday, and they are too small to fit my Studio Projects B1 mic.  I expect many common LDCs are too big to fit these shock mounts.  My Oktava MK-219s barely fit and took quite a bit of weeping and gnashing of teeth to get them in but they work for those mics.  



( . . . rummages through mic drawer and pulls out Mk-219 and Stageworks SKEC009b . . . )

Hmmm... they look kinda the  same size... Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Don't the Mk 219's have an internal shock mount? I haven't had a rumble problem with mine, although I do need to avoid the squeaky spot in the floor  Shocked
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josh

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #17 on: May 21, 2004, 03:59:29 PM »

Moonrider wrote on Fri, 21 May 2004 19:02


Don't the Mk 219's have an internal shock mount? I haven't had a rumble problem with mine, although I do need to avoid the squeaky spot in the floor  Shocked


No, the capsule is rigidly mounted onto a piece of fiberglass, which with L-shaped brackets is bolted to the PC board, which of course is bolted into the chassis of the mic with a standoff.

This is the ringiest, most touchy to handling and stand noise of all of the mics I've tried.  A shock mount such as the tensimount or my DIY shock mount will also help dampen the ringiness of the body of the MK-219 by applying some tension/damping to the body of the mic (external, sort of like muffling a drum head).

The SP B1 on the other hand has the capsule mounted in a giant slab of rubber that does a pretty good job of isolating it mechanically from the mic's exterior body.

Brendan Thompson

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #18 on: March 07, 2005, 11:23:21 PM »

Sorry to bring this topic back from the dead, but I was wondering if there's any way I could see the pictures of the DIY version using the embroidery hoops...
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doc willie

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2005, 11:54:18 AM »

You should check out http://www.shockmount.com/. I have a couple of these, and I made a couple of my own, which work just as well but do not look as finished. You need only PVC pipe, elastic cord, and cheap mic clips and some fasteners.

They may be a problem in some situations since the body of the shockmount is big enough to theoretically cause some sound interference, but I have not noticed this. But then I have $#!+  for ears.  
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Brendan Thompson

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2005, 07:53:49 PM »

Well this is for a shotgun mic, so I'm not convinced that the design on the link you posted will be "transparent" enough - surely it'd block off some of the vents?
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laptoppop

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #21 on: March 26, 2005, 09:31:53 AM »

Two things:

First, for the Studio Projects B1 in particular - 8thstreet.com sells the "official" Studio Projects shockmount for about $20.  Hard to beat for that microphone:   http://www.8thstreet.com/product.asp?ProductCode=6466&Ca tegory=Recording_Accessories

Second, the good folks over at Tensimount.com sell an adapter to use their shockmount with large microphones.  It also lets you "steer" the large microphone easily without removing it from the shockmount.  Check it out on the ordering page.  The only downside is that its another $13. or so.  On the other hand, its pretty cool to have one set of shockmounts that will work for a large variety of microphones.

-lee-
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cordura21

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #22 on: April 21, 2005, 02:07:45 PM »

Brendan Thompson wrote on Tue, 08 March 2005 04:23

Sorry to bring this topic back from the dead, but I was wondering if there's any way I could see the pictures of the DIY version using the embroidery hoops...


Hi, I'd like to see the pictures too. The ones attached don't work. Thanks, Andr
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yan_b

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #23 on: April 21, 2005, 03:25:40 PM »

look here how i made it, you can scroll to other pictures to see it step by step, not a very nice job but enough to get the basic idea.
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Garrett H

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #24 on: April 23, 2005, 11:35:23 PM »

If you're in a hurry and don't have a shock mount you can put the stand on a piece of dense rubber or other material to isolate the stand.  A main reason for a shock mount is to stop vibrations travelling from the stand to the mic.  If these vibrations are coming from the floor, decoupling the stand will work in a pinch.

Good luck,
GH
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Brendan Thompson

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #25 on: April 24, 2005, 05:41:57 AM »

Which doesn't help if the mic is on the end of a fishpole, as in my case Laughing
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Garrett H

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Re: DIY shock mount
« Reply #26 on: April 24, 2005, 10:13:31 PM »

Brendan Thompson wrote on Sun, 24 April 2005 05:41

Which doesn't help if the mic is on the end of a fishpole, as in my case Laughing


Now you're just being bad.  
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