Can we all just appreciate Matt for a second: he's spent who knows how many man hours researching, designing, and testing all of these builds, and then puts it out there for free when he could easily just sell them. He's not even selling the plans when they do truly belong to him. Matt, you're a super guy and I hope I can learn how to be more generous because of your example.

I hope jlielectronics is ready for the traffic. This is a great build

I came here expecting to see someone assembling a microphone kit. I did not expect to be taught how to build an entire microphone almost completely from scratch, while learning valuable info about electrical and audio interference and how to mitigate them. This is brilliant.

Pro Tip: Don't cut off the Bulk connector (2:14) leaving this pin floating will definitely worsen sound quality. Instead, connect it to the ground of the circuit. Otherwise the microphone performed is heavily influenced by EMV and room conditions

This guy really has a keen eye for industrial design, would love a coffee table book with blueprints, schematics, building & product photos.

This channel feels like if Leonardo da Vinci had a UKposts channel

damn he actually teach us how to build an entire high quality microphone from scratch, while also explaining the reason behind those parts that he used. What a rare gem on youtube nowadays.

That's actually crazy how the DIY mic is actually kinda on the same level as the 3000 dollar mic. And you could make sound similar if wanted too which is insane. He got my respect and probably everyone in the comments for making this. nice video and super educational.

This man just allowed people with time on their hands and passion in their hearts to corner an entire market lmao, love this

5 Minute crafts: _gluing pipe cleaners to a tin can_ DIY Perks: Here's the 10th free tutorial for a literal market beating product this year

Dude, if this mic was available without the DIY aspect, I would definitely pick one up. It's a work of art.

I think the diy microphone sounds sharper, whereas the VERY expensive one sounds softer. For different things, one may be more preferable, but I still think paying 100 times less is a very good deal, for a similar quality. Congratulations!

You can't make everything with brass, Matt. Matt: And I took that personally.

I WAS 100% WAITING FOR THE "I've been talking into this the whole time" AND I WAS EXACTLY RIGHT. Love this video!

I feel like with the right eq you could make those mics sound almost identical. They didn't sound too different to begin with, and with more low frequency and a little less high frequency they may be indescernable to the *untrained* ear.

The amount of in depth knowledge you have of components, and what defines the winning characteristics of said components, makes every sentence rich with learnings. Very happy to have found your channel if nothing more than for the motivation to pursue in some diy projects I’ve been putting off. Cheers

"Well you've been listening to it the entire time." I figured you'd say that! It sounds amazing!

This is beyond impressive - as a voice actor and microphone enthusiast this is the first project I am interested in actually giving a shot! - Thank you for all your hard work, Matt.

So, I would say the unprocessed audio from the U87 definitely sounds better, but once they're both processed you could make them sound damn near identical. The DIY mic had pretty much the same level of low end as the U87 but had a lot more presence in the high end, which honestly unprocessed sounds a bit harsh, however it has more sonic information that you can play with in post. With the U87 you'd probably throw a boost on the high end to give it more of the air that the DIY mic already has, and with the DIY I would do some cutting in the high end to make it less shrill. In the end they'd sound pretty much identical though, which is incredibly impressive.

My favourite part of this DIY is the salvaged USB interface. I would not want to solder all of those connections.

I was waiting for the reveal of the audio to be utterly garbage. *SURPRISE. YOU'VE BEEN LISTENING TO IT THIS ENTIRE TIME*

When you said: "And because this is a DIY Perks video..." I thought you were going to say: "We will be water cooling it..."

Wow wow wow!!! This is one of the best builds I’ve seen on UKposts. Well done. You should be proud.

Mind blown. Design and engineering. Well done many times over!

Me halfway through the video: "I'm surprised he doesn't show us how to build the amp too" DIY Perks: "unfortunately this is going to mean we have to build this from scratch"

I used to be a marketing director. We had a "guy" that did all our voice over work cash. We used him for years and the quality was amazing. The radio ingest guys were always complimenting us on finding this guy. When I left the job we went for beers. He confessed that the entire time he was using the onboard mic on his iPhone hung by a coat hanger in his wardrobe. He was literally tweaking the levels in phone with some app, and dropping the wav straight onto our cloud. Didn't even touch a cable.

This 100% got my subscribe Showing people in detail, how to build thoughtful, cheap, quality designs With more than competitive performance It's the kind of attitude that genuinely pushes society forward

One of the most unique builds I've seen. Fantastic!

I would love to see a whole DIY streaming setup done by Matt. Imagine all the brass and having that antique feel

The neumann definitely has a really deep thick calming sound to it. But the DIY one is very clear and crisp.

What a great build! This is truely my favorite project on this channel so far.

This is *incredibly* cool, and as a person who already has the audio interface and no need for the USB bit, seems like something that would be totally doable with an XLR connection. It seems like it's prone to picking up plosives - you can hear some of those almost getting through even at the distance you're using it at - but maybe it could be modified to integrate a pop filter as well.

This man is single-handedly reviving the retro-futurism aesthetic

i was waiting for "youve been listening with the DIY mic"

This is by far the most elegant microphone built i ever seen. Congrats it really worth multiple times what you spend

I am blown away, WOW. Have seen majority of your designs, this one is just another level

You are no longer a DIY guy. You’re literally a product designer at this point. I love the aesthetics of these new projects !!

Pretty much everything you build looks like a piece of art.

i jusst come back for this, watched it again, still amazing experience of seeing such project, the final result is SICK!!! Love the design!!

Ur channel is so high level. There's no other place u can find creativity and style mixed with great videography.

This man is the definition of quality over quantity

Bravo! As an audio professional and microphone designer, I was really scared as I saw this video's title. You did a great job here. Your research seems do be at the highest level. No "Audio-Bush*t" found here. I really enjoy your overall quality, so it would have been a shame to see this video fail, but it didn't. Have a nice day and greetings from Germany :)

Could’ve been really cool to add some kind of “pop stopper” using that same brass mesh further in front of the capsule to minimize the blow of air across the capsule during plosive sounds. I’d also recommend running a de-esser in your audio program to minimalist sibilance from your “s” sounds. This build is really beautiful and functional, and I am really blown away by the craftsmanship. Been binging your videos recently am now a proud follower. Look forward to seeing more!

One of the only creators I've seen to include only accurate information as well as potential pitfalls of a sponsor in the middle of a sponsor spot. VPN and investment app talking points are almost always misleading or straight up incorrect so it's refreshing to see someone make sure their viewers are more properly informed. Good video too.

Just prefacing this with the fact I'm a professional audio engineer, with a Masters degree in microphone preamp design. For the price and required skills, this is AMAZING! such a cool build idea! I'm currently out on tour so don't have access to my workshop, but will be attempting to replicate this as soon as I get back home, with a few minor tweaks. 1) really simple, you even touched on it in the video. The rear porting for that capsule is compromised by the brass casing. Instead of using a brass ring with holes drilled into it I would suggest soldering the two brass grills together directly. A little bit of thought will have to go into shock-mount mounting rings but it will be worth it. You're effectively making the Mic HyperCardiod in its current format. 2) this will sound really stupid, but placing a stretched piece of thin breathable fabric such as a pair of low denin tights (stocking for my American readers) will really really help. As it stands the microphone is slightly more simple and than I would like it to be and I found myself noticing S's and the odd plosive here and there. the next two are completely optional but could be really cool additions to the project and help the sound quality. 3) whilst I can see you are using basic filtering in the preamp stage I would suggest adding an R/C C/R EQ filter to roll off everything below 30 Hz and everything above 18 kHz as the capsule will struggle to reproduce anything outside of this frequency range however the preamp will still be wasting energy amplifying noise you can't hear. These are a few of the additional components found on a lot of pro microphone circuit boards. a really simple step, massive quality difference. 4) sorry the audiophile in me had to... Try and use film capacitors where you can. Basically anything other than electrolytic as they start to introduce undesirable noise into the signal chain. On something like this, it wouldn't be the end of the world but when you get a few going into each other the effect really starts to add up. 5) I'd love to see this with the Texas Instruments INA217 mic preamp integrated circuit. It's quite possibly the best budget preamp circuit you can find, period. 6) I love your idea about using a simple premade USB to audio adapter, why don't you integrate the headphone output as well with simple passive volume control this would turn the unit into an amazing audio interface. I'll drop you an email with these comments and a few other really nerdy ones as well for you to use or ignore at your own call haha. But overall, I can't say how cooll this project really is! I'm going to try it out with the weeks mentioned above and see if it's worth it. Would you be interested in doing a comparison video? I have a couple of Neaumanns & AKGs in my touring kit and would love to do an A/B. All the best, Arran. P.S. If anyone else wants a list of the nerdy stuff just drop me an email: info@ArranHeaton.com

Dayummm! What a piece of design! Can't believe that cost you $30 to make.

great call comparing it against the U87. The Neumann definitely has a buttery smooth quality in the high end. The DIY mic has more sibilance and high end presence, but it doesnt sound bad. I wouldnt think there was a 99% price gap between the two based on the sound.

Wow, i listened to this on the best headphones I have and am absolutely blown away with the quality. I'm 100% going to build one

The 3000 dollar mic is definetly better in quality of sound, but it is no 100 times better, with a little tuning of the DIY mic the average person would not hear much of a difference at all. This is amazing work Matt glad to see this project!

Next week: Matt rebuilds the hydraulic system from London’s Tower Bridge in miniature with brass and I somehow convince myself that I can do it too. Great vid as always 👍

As a sound tech, I'd like to make one correction: the way that professional audio cables protect against electrical noise is not from the shield. That cable with the shield that was shown is for something else entirely, but it does often get used as an audio cable, because it works just as well. The way that professional audio cables actually protect against electrical noise in the cable is through basically sending 2 copies of the audio signal at the same time so the destination device can remove what noise it can. This is called a balanced cable. Audio University has a great video on the subject of Balanced/Unbalanced cables if you want to know more. However electrical interference shields are mostly used in digital signals such as those that get sent through USB, so without doing extensive testing on this build, the shields used aren't necessarily pointless or bad to have.

a practical mic withhout compromising quality and one that looks beautiful, you earned a sub and i'm going to try and build this

I have no need for a quality USB-C microphone, but I will watch any video of DYI Perks building anything. This man passion & skills are inspiring (and a great watch)!

He is the bridge between art and technology

Dude ive seen this almost 5 times and yet every time im amazed with how cool this is

"Next time on DIY Perks, I'll be making an exquisite mechanical keyboard using only 104 brass pipes, two dead cats and Carol Vorderman. I'm sure you'll agree it really is !"

Love that you go out of your way to identify tools that are "good enough" as lots of DIY builds are like "$5 microphone using only $2500 worth of tools!"

Bro could just literally start selling those yet still shows us how it's done in detail... You're the best!!

The one build of yours I think I might actually try out, this could prove to be wildly useful in my life

Brass: exists Matt: "I'll take your entire stock!"

I really wish there would be something like "behind the scenes" for your episodes. This is a masterpiece. I cant even imagine how much effort you put in each episode. Great job Matt, as always.

your builds are really cool but they also have a polished look that is finished model quality. I would buy this!

I did not realize all the effort that you put in to maintain yourself for the videos. You are amazing

Professional electrical engineer here: -Twisting the 2 wires between the JFET and the PCB costs literally nothing and gives an additional protection against electromagnetic interference (emi). -Beautiful work on the soldering, are the grills also soldered to the brass ring and connected to ground? With corrosion, you could get some emi problems in the long run. -Circuit: You need additional 100nF Caps on your supply rails. Those electrolytic caps have a large series resistance, making your supply more noisy for higher frequencies.

I was so surprised by the "you've been listening to it this whole time" that it put a great smile on my face. I truly love the elegance of the result and its quality. Well done mate!

This almost made me cry, this is an actual masterpiece.

Hell! I love your mic. Super super clear. I can't believe that's raw sound!

Using the braided de-soldering wire in the way you have is a masterstroke. Incredible.

You're basically Colin Furze's calm and practical brother. Both are genius DIY builders, but extreme opposites in regards to aesthetics and build subjects Love and appreciate both of you!

i genuinely think the one you made sounds better, that is actually amazing considering the price of the bought one, kudos!

Blown away by this, looks like the result of years of research. Can't imagine the number of prototypes there must have been, and you graciously only showed us exactly what works. Thank you ☺️

Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I respect Matt and this video so much more than many youtube project videos. My mans actually did a ton of documentation for this and made it really easy to recreate. This is probably one of the best diy mics I have ever seen in terms of quality and feasibility to build. So, I built it. And yeah, totally sounds like he said. I’ll gas it up as much as he says, it’s really nice. I have been thinking about this project for three straight weeks now and I really do feel like the payoff was worth it. 90% of this project was waiting on parts and existing in a sunken cost fallacy purgatory, but overall, if you plan on doing this, most of the parts here take a good amount of time to get here (especially if you order from china, which is necessary for price efficiency). And that’s all I can really say about this. It’s a good mic, I rate what Matt is doing and the amount of time and research he put in. But there’s one big thing that bothered me about this project. The cost for all of these components is not ~$30. Not a chance. As you can see in my spreadsheet below, not 30, not even 100 dollars (accounting for possible currency conversions). If you don’t have a ton of brass, wood, and the proper capacitors lying around, you will be spending more. That as well as the fact that some components are just not available in the states. I traded the THAT1512 for a INA217 because of this. The INA217 has different resistances for gain but other then that it is largely the same (not really, I would still like a THAT1512 but they take 4 months to get here it seems). The finish of brass and wood is cool, but completely impossible for people that don’t have tools to work with them (also there’s no specs listed so I’m not sure how you would do that anyway), so I 3d printed everything (box and module holder) so I didn’t have to buy anything else. The cost I listed accounts for these even more budget considerations, so all in all I would call this a budget mic, but with a hard asterisk. I want to stress again, this project is so cool and I’m really happy I did it. Just do your own budgeting before hand and make sure you can sweat $150+. I included some pictures of my build and all the stls (as well as a fader knob I stole from thingiverse I cannot find the original link I will update if I find it)) Definitely worth the time put in. Here are some resources from my build: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ax8V7ID-nKL7wJXj9A7RIaR2wb1TqigN?usp=sharing Direct Link to my spreadsheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pQlkRerO5geoDNLEWXTUVbyJalM7nESn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114689008105602245905&rtpof=true&sd=true Edit: Here's a quick write-up I did on this with some sort of instructions-not-really that might be helpful: github.com/TrojanPinata/DIY-Mic Edit: As of writing this, t's been a little over a month now since I made this mic, and honestly it still holds up. I finally have a THAT1512 coming so I think that will fix some of my gain issues. Overall, I definitely still like this mic. I use it pretty regularly and get compliments on the quality. If I used it more then I do currently I'd suck it up and buy something really nice, but this will do for now. As for this project, I still really respect the original build. For those complaining about me saying I with there were more verbose instructions, I think you're missing my point. I just kind of with I had a better idea of some of the specifics. That being said, I'm probably never going to do this again, what with the posting my version of a project online. Some of you all are great, but the number of armchair engineers here is wild and I really would rather make things because I like them and not have to deal with people nit picking a writeup I did one morning before work. I mean, I don't know what I expected from the youtube comment section. Anyway, I'm done, enjoy your mic if you're building it, and if you aren't then I really don't care what you have to say about the way I did things. Later.

Just fantastic and beautiful! Your are a great DIYer!

Love it! Love the look! The sound! I would take the diy mic over any other any day! Hopefully one day soon I can follow your build!

Professional Audio Guy here: The comparison from 21:57 pretty much knocked me out of the ballpark. Obviously the U87 sounds better. It has a bit more natural compression in the highs and it doesn't sound so harsh with the s-consonants. Also the resolution in the mids is much more articulated - this is very important for the character of a voice. With the DIY-Mic you have a bit less natural compression and a bump in the highs, which you would have to process in post. BUT! The resolution of the DIY is superb. I tried to make out a noise floor, which is impossible with the youtube compression and that is a very good sign. It also has a very smooth and buttery low-end which would make it perfect for other use cases. Investing a bit more time and much less money and making this Mic? Definitely worth it!!! Great Video through and through!

What a MASTERPIECE

What a great build you have done. I will surely be looking forward to building my own microphone and as an amateur radio operator, I will enjoy building more. Great build

I got f++king excited watching this! Great design, tutorial and video composition in general. Thank you!

This guy is Michael Reeves except he took his meds as a kid, paid attention in school, and can express self control. Love your works, insanely impressive as per usual.

This man is a wizard

I've seen other videos by you, but this one finally got my like and sub. Fantastic as always

Absolutely beautiful build! Sounds great too!

The year is 2030. DIY Perks just uploaded a tutorial on a DIY fusion reactor. It's made from a combination of brass and wood, and some LEDs to give it a beautiful finish.

This genius actually used solder sponge around the wire. And omfg he's so good at making this seem like the easiest thing that he finished in only like an hour lol

I really wish there was more footage at 4:31, glosses over how exactly you got the feeble wires to attach well to the audio cable wires of a much greater gauge... Brilliant video so far, never thought i wanted to build a mic until now and this is captivating for me from the first second.

I've never seen someone so enthusiastic about a sponsorship. Such professionalism

Speaking as a sound engineer, the quality of your mic is definitely surprisingly good! There are a few issues it certainly suffers from, but overall you've done very well. It certainly seems very useful in a voice over or streaming set up, and certainly exceptional for a usb mic. I was surprised by the frequency response, it is genuinely very clear. The high mids (from what I can tell purely based on the audio from your video) seem to occasionally be a little harsh, and the low mids can get slightly muddy, but that might be an issue with youtube, or worse, me nitpicking. I think it has a great amount of low end of a vocal mic, enough to clearly pic up the full bottom end of voices without overdoing it. It feels almost unfair to put it up against the u87, it's a truly gorgeous vocal mic, even to untrained ears. the u87's only real downside is that price tag, but then again, that's basically everything in the sound industry! I think this was a really cool project and an awesome result! and it's just made even more impressive by the low price tag. Love the look as well!

The Neumann has a beautiful soft sound but the DIY one sounds stunning, especially considering the price difference. The only thing I'd possibly do is add a sort of those spongy or mesh things in front to reduce the plosives and the hissing from letters like 's'. All in all tho, I'm just surprised at the production quality of these videos as well as builds themselves.

I love you program... I've only see a few but I subscribed because your videos are fantastic !! I'm starting a broadcast of my own and good microphones are unaffordable... on top of all the other expenses. So I thank you so much ❤. The things you create our perfect for person who is relatively intelligent and willing to go the extra mile... but may have limitations on available funds.

Wow, I’m going have a very exciting break. Can’t wait to see all of your other impressive work!!

every other DIY channel: "buy all these modules and stick them in a box lol" DIY Perks: "hold my brass"

This honestly makes me feel the same as when I would watch Art Attack. "I could totally do this! I won't, but I really could."

I was already suspecting that he was using the microphone in the video to voiceover it, And i loved that fact about it, sweet little charm to the video!

Had no idea microphone capsules are so much cheaper than the microphone. Going to do this with a Shure RPM106, which is only $159 instead of $359! And you can get the windscreen for only $15 extra and make it look and sound like the SM7B. Excited to see how it goes, thank you for the tutorial and information!

Such a sweet build, almost like a mini microphone ballista :O I'd love to see your take on a DIY ribbon mic some day, always wanted to try make one from scratch! EDIT: To me the neumann sound fuller on studio monitors, but those bass frequencies can make audio muddy on tiny phone speakers, so the DIY one wins for 90% of UKposts consumption!

I swear, your DIYing skills are getting noticeably better with each project.

I've discovered your channel today and the amount of effort you put on everything is astounding. Whatever you do is of better quality that very expensive stuff. As a sound engineer I really appreciate your content. I just told my girlfriend I'm in love with you and she is okay with it

It's amazing that a preamp on a strip grid board works so well. By the way, I would be concerned about attaching the ADC board directly to the DC converter. But apparently there are no problems with interference.

You've outdone yourself this time, Matt. All your builds are brilliant, however this one has the added benefit of uncovering how much margin the audio companies put on their products. I'm also mindblown by the stellar quality of this beaut!

Apart from the excellent sound quality - this looks like art. It is astonishingly beautiful. I'm amazed by how many things you are able to make - and do them with exceptional quality and attention to detail.