The surreal image of a binaural microphone - with two silicone ears sticking out of the sides like it's pretending to be human - has always tickled me.
Naturally, I had to have one of my own, so I went on Amazon, and quickly decided a proper binaural microphone was outside of my budget, so I made one instead.
I found a listing on eBay for 20 electret microphones for only £4 from China.
I had low expectations for their audio quality, but since they were so cheap I bought them anyway.
Two weeks later they arrived, I tested them out, and was impressed!
Wiring
I found an old set of earphones, cut off the earpieces, then simply soldered an electret microphone to each one. I put some foam inside each ear to act as a windscreen.
Making the Ears
I used a very cool and handy moldable substance I discovered online, called Oogoo. It is silicone caulk, mixed with potato starch, and some ink for colouring.
When mixed together, it makes a Plasticine-like substance, which can be molded into any shape!
Then of course when it dries, it is rubbery and flexible like silicone.
I can't stress how much of a game changer this stuff is, and if you're a crafty person I would definitely do some research on it!
The body of the microphone was an old paper mache box, with a face painted on it. I cut two holes for the ears, then one hole at the bottom where I glued a 1/4 inch nut, so it could be attached to a tripod / light stand, and a little hole at the back for the cable to come out. I used a lot of hot glue and tape!
I found the hat in my wardrobe.
The cable I plug into a Zoom H1 portable recorder, which records straight to a Micro-SD card.
Challenges
I tried various methods to make the ears, the most intensive was making a plaster mould, then filling it with liquid latex. But liquid latex just isn't designed to be cast in a mould and it wouldn't dry, and just made a mess! And the solder wouldn't stick to the headphone wires for ages, until I discovered I needed to sand them first to clean them. All this means is that when I want to make another, it will be a lot easier.
Sound Quality
There are some forms of music which work better with a lower sound quality and I think it's the same with ASMR.
In fact, I like to compress the audio for my ASMR films, and if I'm feeling cheeky, even stick some overdrive on the high frequencies to make them crispy.
I almost always add saturation - all things which others might say detracts from the audio quality.
I'm thinking of playing around with adding some vinyl scratches and crackle, or to try bitcrushing the audio to see what effect that gives.
There's a whole untouched world of ASMR circuit bending out there!
Like with music, it's more about the personality and the performance, than the sound quality.
When I was in school a short video came out on YouTube - it might be classed as a forerunner to ASMR - which encouraged you to put on a pair of headphones, close your eyes, and enjoy the 3D binaural audio of a man pretending to cut your hair. That was my first introduction to the binaural microphone.
Also, I'm a fan of musique concrete - a musical style with a focus on recorded sound and textures as opposed to rhythm and melody.
I feel like Stockhausen could be really good ASMR youtuber if he wanted to be!
Binaural microphones are usually shaped like human ears because they are supposed to replicate human hearing, which were shaped by evolution to direct sound waves into our ear canals in a certain way.
Mine are shaped like Shrek's ears because human ears are too hard to sculpt.
So my microphone might give you an idea of how Shrek hears the world.
But that is ok because this is ASMR, not field recording! Which means there is a huge range of possibilities out there!
You could make your ears any size or shape, attach them to any resonant surface, and achieve all sorts of sounds.
There is a lot of unexplored ASMR territory, and who knows - maybe in 100 years time it will be a huge mainstream art form like music or cinema. We can only dream.
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