Hey guys....
I'm in a bit of a strange situation...I'm looking to record a heartbeat and i'm not really sure what to use. Is there a mic or a type of mic that someone would recommend to either pick up a stethescope or an actual heartbeat? Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks
-Jen

If I were you I would use a sample. You could probably find one on a google search for free.

I know there is one on my Triton that's fairly realistic.

i'd check google or sounddogs.com.

if i had to record it, maybe duct tape a pvm to someone's chest?

--jon

Didn't I see Neil Peart do that in a Rush video once?

i have a few pickups that were maid by carl mcintyre.....i think that's
the spelling.......they are goo with a wire coming out......about $70
they need alot of gain, but they'll do the trick.......
i've used them on the floor for boot kick percussion, on the soundboard
of a piano, of a guitar and as an alternate pair of pickups on my
plate......


check them out

- jack

I've simulated it using a kick drum. Close mic (audix d4) and far mic (condenser-any) + gate + comp + reverb and delay with short feedback to get the second hit.

Yeah, they use his heart beat as a metronome - he's that good with timing.

Isn't the PZM just a "alternate overhead" taped to his chest?

my first thought is find a sample

second thought is go to a medical institute, maybe somewhere like a school of medicine where they be more likely to do something outside the call of duty, maybe a midwife, they have machines for listening to heart beats.

third thought is use a piezo pickup, if you can't find one, rip one out of an acoustic guitar and tape it to your chest, might work..

narco

Hi!

I did simulate a heartbeat once with a very low bassdrum... sounded good and gave a good feeling...

Greetz,

Mike

That's why we have SFX libraries, isn't it?

Don't go tearing up your guitar. You can get piezoelectric elements at any electronic parts supplier for a buck or two. Then you just have to build an appropriate preamplifier, so... SMash that guitar!


or, just as seriously, and without having tried it, if you have an old unused dynamic mic, preferably with a busted diaphragm, try substituting a crystal onto the mic's circuit, and feed that into your board. Then tell me if it works.

Or, if you're that ambitious, most modern stethoscopes are electronic instruments, meaning that they've already gone to the trouble of transducing the sound from an audio signal to an electric one, so you should really only have to tap a wire in, and move that analogous electrical signal into some other equipment. Again, talk to a hospital, and see if they have an old electrical stethoscope they're getting rid of.

Recorded my own heartbeat with a rode NT5 stuck right against the skin. Don´t move, Don´t breathe. And I discovered that I reall need to stop drinking this much coffee Anyhoo... worked quite nice, got a funny, usable low rumble heartbeaty horror sample after some EQíng, compressing and pitch shifting.

Doesn't matter, as long as it's a CARDIOID MIC... hee hee.

when my wife was pregnent she got a Bebe Sounds prenatal heart listner by Unisar (it's basicaly an electronic stethiscope). Has an 1/8 stereo plug output. You could get someting like that and hit up the local ratshack for some addapters.

We discovered that this is the only thing an NT1A is good for; maybe it's the low self-noise. They're also good for hearing conversations thru walls.


I think the heartbeat in DSOTM is a kick drum.

Hell.. I did this last year with an Earthworks TC30K with my class. It was cool.

You could probably do it with one of those pickups with the little suction cup- the ones you can stick on the reciever of a telephone handset to tap your conversation with.

Simulate it. Might sound better than the real thing - like in the movies when they substitute fake sounds for real ones. punches, for example. (or perhaps I should have said like in the recording industry, when mixers substitute fake drums for the real ones....

No! The real thing! Real is what's missing in most people's lives... That's why we have Reality TeeVee. If it doesn't exist here, I'll watch somebody make it up...

Go to a hospital and hook yourself up to a monitor and record it on a mini-disc player, get your girlfriend frisky and stick an AT4050 in her ribs- something, but make it worth doing. Make it represent life, which is what it is, isn't it? Make it meaningful, or don't do it.

Really.

I remember when I was a little kid recording my heartbeat with a cheap little dynamic mic that came with a garden variety tape recorder. It does not take much. I also have a stethoscope (non electronic that I use for my Border collie that has a pacemaker) that I think would be loud enough to pick up with a decent mic.

I agree with this; the sound that'll represent something isn't always the sound the thing makes.

You know the cricket sound you hear in movies? Those are really frogs, which are generally recorded at the same place by almost every sound efx guy. They just happen to sound more like 'crickets' than crickets do.

LMAO...TIP OF THE YEAR!

Limpet mike and a bit of EQ should do the trick.

http://store.aapastore.com/2160.html

Seems like an obvious choice...

The guy requests a heartbeat and never comes back to thank everyone for all their replies. Here's your heartbeat! And, thanks to all of you for your help!

http://mysite.verizon.net/res8dduc/Misc/Heartbeat.mp3

I'd use don johnson