The microphone mystery

Equipment
1

Ok, so this topic isn’t about microphones, which are their own special kind of mystery, it’s about microphone boom arms. You know, that thing that holds the microphone while you’re recording stuff for youtube.

There are a million of these, and they all look mostly like the one I have:

At $23, it’s primary virtui is that it is cheap.
It has worked well for me, but I have new L-shaped desk, and there isn’t a convenient place to mount it anymore, at least not anywhere where I want it to be mounted all the time. Also, the springs on this thing tends to sing a bit if you bump into the microphone.

What I really want is a microphone arm that will attach to the back of my desk, reach all the way over my very tall monitor, and then hangs down above my head, and which can also be just moved away when I don’t need it. I’ve looked, and there are some available options that might work, but what really irks me is that I saw one in a video that seemed really nice, and I cannot for the life of me find it, or the video anymore.

The micrphone arm I saw was a fairly major contraption. I didn’t see what it was mounted to, but the arm looked like it was a good 4-feet long, and it looked it was made of a rectangular section of aluminum, or maybe a reinforced plastic. It’s possible the reason I can’t find it is because it wasn’t meant to be a microphone arm orginally? Anyways, I don’t think I’m doing a great job describing it, and since a picture says more than a thousand words, here is a picture of what I remember it looking like:

micboom
micboom2200×1453 51.1 KB

Please excuse the crudity of this model. I didn’t have time to build it to scale or paint it.

Does anybody know where to find something like this?

2

PS, it would be a bonus if it could attach to a 35mm pole, that way I could could just extend the pole used for my monitor arm. My monitor arm already has a very sturdy clamp, so attaching something more to it is probably fine.

3

There’s no way to clamp to the back edge of the desk, or modify the mount point to screw into the desk directly?
You’re probably right that it wasn’t intended as a mic stand, maybe just an additional monitor mount arm modified to accommodate the mic.

Here’s a variety of results i found:

4

The one I have is way too short. it can’t go around my monitors.

There is no way it was intended as a monitor arm, it’s way too long to mount something heavy on it. It may have been meant for overhead cameras, but I’ve searched for that without finding anything useful too.

I’ve already seen the ones you posted (and many, many others).
The sierra broadcast one might be a possibility if it’s long enough, but it still bothers me that I can’t find the one that I saw in the video.

5

Maybe what I saw was a lamp?

1 Like
6

I used the arm from a “Luxo” style desk lamp for this exact purpose. Not the original, but a cheap knock-off I bought second hand for close to nothing. The microphone was a second hand bargain as well, and I didn’t want to spend more on the mount than I did on the mic.
That setup served me well before I lent/gave it to a friend who makes much better use of it. So, sorry, no pictures, but trust me, I’m a doctor. :slight_smile:

7

I doubt an old lamp is going to help me. It’s 27.5" from the desk to the top of my monitor, so going up and above requires tall arm.

8

or… you just build a bridge out of wood, clamp to it, and it lives behind the monitor??

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Or, is this up against a wall? Could wall mount it maybe, no?

9

A bridge would work.
It’s not up against a wall unfortunately.

10

There used to be Luxo lamps made for large tilted drawing boards, with each of the two halves of the arm measuring 1m or so. If I had this problem, and if I still had that shorter lamp boom, I would replace its four square beams with longer sections. It would be a fairly quick hacksaw, drill and spray paint job, and it would be a perfect fit.

11

I just got this one a few months ago. It’s super solid, really nice, and even without the riser (included) it reaches over my 24" monitors from the back of my desk.

Worth every penny in my book.

12

I’ve been looking at that one too.
I discounted it because all the product photos are photoshopped… badly.

13

Well, I own it, and I had the same reservations about the crappy product photos…but the actual unit is very well made. I’m trying to find where I put the riser, so I can see if it would clear your monitors (is it really 27.7" from the top of the desk to the top of your monitor?!).

Edit: Found it. With the riser, it’s 25.5" to the center pivot.

2023-01-26 23.23.51
2023-01-26 23.23.511920×1228 189 KB

14

Yep, I have a 43" monitor on a monitor arm.
My desk is adjustable and I keep it pretty low, the monitor arm lets me raise the monitor a couple of inches so that it is at a good eye level.

25.5 is close, but not quite enough for what I need.

15

Damn, yeah, that’s a big-ass monitor. Ah well, at least you know and can cross it off your list.

Honestly, I’d probably get some 80/20 extrusion, cut it to the length you need and bolt it through your desk. Tap the other end for 1/4-20 and mount an arm like this (I have this, also well made. You would need a 3/8-16 Male to 1/4-20 Female adapter) and just swivel it out when you’re using the mic and push it back out of the way when you’re not.

16

M750, stupid question:

Is the raiser for the IXTECH boom just a tube with a hole on one side and a pin on the other?
(That’s what it looks like.)

If so, it should be trivial to make a longer extension on my lathe if I need it…

17

That’s exactly what it is. Rod, with a smaller diameter pin on one side and a hole on the other.

18

Then I think I have a plan. :slight_smile:

1 Like
19

So, creating my own extension is in fact exactly what I ended up doing:

IMG20240615151812
IMG202406151518121920×3395 571 KB

The pin end ended up a little longer than needed, but the whole thing is super solid, so I haven’t bothered to fix it.

2 Likes
20

I like how you made the text “lightning rod” visible in the picture. And if it wasn’t intentional, please take credit for it anyway.