[sdiy] transducers

[jhno]

>http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/plate/plate6.php

i don't know about you all, but i would not fork out 90 clams for a
"specially designed coneless speaker type" until i had tried a few
specially modified coneless speakers.

you can obtain a perfectly serviceable transducer by removing the cone from
the speaker of your choice. in fact the only reason to remove the cone is
to make the thing quieter; if it is for a plate in a closet this might not
even matter. you can drive the transducer with whatever DIY amplification
works. a speaker or piezoelectric element can be used for a pickup.

mechanical coupling then becomes the crucial issue. i have coupled tension
wires to dust caps before without inflicting any other damage to the
speaker. a piece of stiff wire, popsicle stick, etc. glued to the cap or
voice coil can form a bridge between the speaker and the wire/spring/plate
under tension. you can experiment with this coupling (including the angle
at which force is transmitted) to get a sound that suits you.

admittedly this is a circuitous path if the goal is to sound just like an
EMT plate. if you pay $35 for a "Passive Drive Signal Response Shaper,"
(read, EQ) you are definitely paying for their time spent finding the right
values, not the cost of the components.

however, i would rather have an adjustable spring reverb any day. sometimes
you need that twang. digital plate reverb algorithms sound quite good,
whereas digital spring reverb algorithms are, to my knowledge, non-existent.

for any mechanical reverberation device, an adjustable bandpass filter on
the input can unlock a surprising range of sounds. on a spring reverb, you
can use it to hit a specific frequency for maximum poing, or attenuate that
frequency to smooth it out. this is much more useful than EQ'ing the output.

jhno