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At 8:37 PM -0800 2/10/02, eileen wrote: > By "live" I do mean a living thing, haven't decided what yet. But >the way I imagined the sound was what you would hear when let's say a cat >purrs. How exactly would that purr sound as it travels through the cat? >How >would it sound from the outside? Or even when the cat meows...how would >that >sound? Would a contact mic not be able to translate those sounds into >something recognizable? The quality isn't really important, I'm working on >some installations and I don't see the quality interfering with my >concept. > >Is a contact mic not a good idea for this project? If not, do you have any >ideas on what type of mic could capture something like this? I don't have any specific recommendations on contact mics, but I expect there are people on this list who might. Percussionists frequently use contact mics to pick up the sound of drums, or as inputs to MIDI drum triggering interfaces. Another thing to realize is that a transducer can work both ways, as a pickup or as a sound-producing element. Components designed as buzzers for electronic devices can also function as contact mics if hooked up in reverse (similarly, headphones can function as microphones!). The efficiency of a contact mic depends a great deal on how intimately coupled it is to the object it's meant to pick up. A furry object such as a cat might not give you very good contact, and shaving a cat is not something you'd want to do. I suspect that your best results might come by using small electret microphones, the sort of lavaliere mics that are commonly used for TV interviews and as part of a wireless system for theatrical performance. Omnidirectional mics would probably be the best, since they have the most linear frequency response in all directions. Experiment with different mounting techniques. It may be necessary to hide the mic inside a piece of fabric, perhaps arranged as a collar. Try it on yourself and on your friends first! -- ______________________________________________________________ Richard Zvonar, PhD (818) 788-2202 http://www.zvonar.com http://RZCybernetics.com http://www.cybmotion.com/aliaszone http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=rz