ABSTRACT
We’ve saved the most normal form of microphone for last: aft er coils, backwards speakers, contact mikes, and tape heads we fi nally get around to your basic hear-my-song mike. From any number of sources (Radio Shack, Web retailers, electronic surplus outlets) one can buy, quite cheaply, high quality electret condenser microphone elements (see fi gure 10.1). You can also scrounge them from telephone answering machines and even some toys. Th ese are the basic building blocks of recording microphones that can sell for several hundred dollars. All that stands between your $2.00 purchase and a pretty good mike is a handful of cheap components, a soldering iron, and some ingenuity.
