The Eyeball by Kaotica. Microphone noise dampening. Or what I made cheaper.

[Cause the Blue rat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iod6ojplUQ&list=UUX5iJzFRYrClA...

I watched this video and thought "that's a really cool and GOOD idea!". Then I saw the price their asking for a hollow ball of foam. $199.00. How come 'a good idea' is always followed by WTF? First I guess it would be a good idea to explain why this is a good idea. Our brains do a lot of work for us when we hear things. Mainly getting rid of background noises so we can hear more clearly. When you walk into any room sound is bouncing off of everything. A microphone picks up all these noises. Unless your able to make a fully dead room your always going to have these unwanted reflections in your recording. This ball muffs everything out except what's directly in front of it. A great idea! But one anyone with a brain can make for FAR less than $199.00.

What i did.

Got some foam and cardboard. The mic I'm using is shaped like the old Shure 57. I first wrapped the mic with two layers of this old yellow egg crate light foam. Leaving only the front of the screen and back exposed. Then uses a small cardboard box (6x6x8) with both ends open. Shoved mic and all inside the open box. A thing of beauty. Absolute dead recording. Tried it with voice, micd amp and even played a CGB acoustically with great results. Looks bad. But I don't feel bad using it. I used the cardboard box because it blocked out a lot of sound. The foam between the box and the mic adsorbed the rest.

If your looking for an easy way to make more studio sounding recordings this will help. Because an absolutely dead recording is the easiest to work with. All your signal processing and effects will sound more natural.

[Scott aka Farmer Ted]

Now that you made a prototype, make up a few more and put it on Ebay & see if anyone bites...

[Cause the Blue rat]

Wayfinder, Still don't have a camera so I'll describe it as best I can. It looks like yellow foam in a small cardboard box with a cable coming out the back of it. About as redneck as you can get. : ) I had to use blue painter's tape to hold it in place on the stand. But the sound is what's important.

Scott, I've seen some really funky stuff sell on Ebay. I just might make a fortune! Could sell em for $99.00 and save folks $100 bucks.

Just for kicks I'm thinking about trying one of those foam Halloween Jack-O-Lanterns.

[Cause the Blue rat]

Wayfinder. Actually a dead sound is so much easier to work with within a mix. The end result you get sounds way better. Adding reverb and echo to a dead recording makes those effects more natural sounding. Adding the same effects to both instruments and vocals and they both sound right. As if you recorded them with a single mic in a perfect room. Yet you have complete control of the volume, tone and clarity of both.

Unfortunately MP3 files and Youtube vids can't capture what really going on between a live and dead recorded sound. I'll post a few samples on this thread; Let you hear what you can.

[Cause the Blue rat]

Two vocal tracks. One recored live, or without foam shielding. The other recorded dead, or with foam shielding.

Thew my speakers I can really hear a difference. In both the sound and mp3 files derring playback. However to keep this unbiased I wont post it.

[Cause the Blue rat]

Good. I can hear the differences between the two files from this site as well.