Metal Marshmallow Morsel is a contact mic sensor. It is a piezo disc on a microphone cable inside of a shielded metal housing. By itself, it does not make a very good contact microphone. For crystal clear, high fidelity sound, it should be used together with a dedicated contact mic preamplifier such as
Metal Marshmallow Roaster or one of our
DIY preamp kits. Metal Marshmallow Morsel and Metal Marshmallow Roaster can be purchased together in a single listing
by following this link.
Features
- Shielded aluminum enclosure
- High quality Canare microphone cable
- 3.5mm output jack
- Differential output
- 6 feet of cable
- Small size and thin cable
- Carefully sheilded design for hum rejection
Dimensions
- Sensor Part: 29mm diameter x 10mm tall
- Cable: 4.6mm diameter x 6 feet long
A Note About Balanced Output
Cheap contact mic sensors typically use a TS unbalanced output jack, with the tip connected to one side of the internal piezo disc sensor, and the sleeve grounding the other side of the piezo disc. This is the incorrect wiring for a contact microphone. Metal Marshmallow Morsel uses a balanced TRS connector with differential output wired as follows:
- Tip: Positive (crystaline) side of piezo disc.
- Ring: Negative (brass) side of piezo disc
- Sleeve: This connects directly to the metal housing, and the preamplifier should connect it to ground.
The upshot of this is that Metal Marshmallow Morsel may or may not work with preamplifiers that have unbalanced input. It is designed to be used with the
Metal Marshmallow Roaster preamplifier.
Operating Instructions
Metal Marshmallow Morsel does not contain any active circuitry and does not need to be powered. Just plug it into your preamp, and follow the preamp's instructions, and you are good to go! Happy recording!
