Experiences with contact mics / piezo ?

OP-1
#1

Hi, any experience to share? Have you ever tried using a contact mic / piezo mic with the OP-1? I’ve tried to search the forum but I couldn’t get any helpful result. Thanks.

#2

hmm, I do use them, but I’ve not actually tried direct into the OP1. I can try this evening and maybe post a video if you like?

#3

Thanks, a video is not really necessary though (unless you have time!). I’m just curious if they need some sort of amp or they work fine straight into the OP-1…

#4

Check out lavalier mics. It is what most of us use for our op1’s. Some can even switch from widefield(condensor?) to directional!

#5

Thanks for your feedback, lavalier mics are not contact mics though :slight_smile:

#6

hey @anr here’s a very crude rushing out the door test. I’ve got a single jet riley french contact mic held on a guitalele. 1st pass is with the gain on full, 2nd at 0db. Not that bad actually. I might try hooking my melodica and guitar through this when I have a bit more time.

Contact miss are quite delicate. I have three, and two have intermittent connections. You have to wiggle them gently and then you hit a sweet spot in my experience, even with nice ones. So for Live, they’re a bit temperamental, but for just playing, definitely give it a go!
#7

Thanks @formatk I appreciate that. I know those mics, they seem popular. But did you use the OP-1 to record this? On tape?

#8

@anr yup, literally just armed the live input on tape and recorded stuff, no EQ or fx or compression. quite clean. I find the built in mic picks up a lot of ‘mechanical’ noise.

#9

^mine also picks up alot of noise. i have also used piezos on guitarelele and didnt like the audio quality. plus i kept getting alot of feedback.

#10

I bought a crank sturgeon contact mic and have had really good results recording directly into the op-1 (mostly mic’d scrap metal as audio source). Made the mistake of doing this live, running heaps of high gain distortion after the scrap metal into the op-1, and the feedback was ludicrous…was manageable once I (reluctantly) turned the distortion off. Not an issue in the studio I’ve found.