Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

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TonyFishers
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by TonyFishers »

LeStanf wrote: 25 Mar 2018 09:22
TonyFishers wrote: 23 Mar 2018 19:51
Never thought of that before is there any kind of driver I should download or will Audacity pick it up
Audacity picks it up directly from the headphone socket. You can also listen to the live sounds via the PC as you record. To do this though, you'll need a headphone splitter:

https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/pcv-05?KPI ... gIuXfD_BwE

There are plenty of these on various websites, including Amazon. The process then is pretty straight forward:

1. Using a 3.5mm phono to phono lead, connect the amplifier output to the PC headphone mic' input via the splitter cable.
2. Connect your headphones to the PC via the headphone output jack of the splitter cable.
3. In Audacity, go to the Transport menu. Select Transport Options and click the software playthrough tab.
4. Start the recording.

You'll need to play with the sound levels of the amplifier and Audacity because if everything's turned to maximum the system can actually hear your heartbeats from across the room. I also find that it's good to make a foam wrap to put around the exposed outer casing of the microphone, this helps to mask out the sounds from your side of the wall.

Final thing - sometimes the amplifier can be susceptible to mains hum so it's necessary to run the PC on battery power only. I have constructed a phono-to-phono cable connected to a mains plug which connects the cable's earthing sleeve directly to the mains earth, which cures the problem. If you know what you're doing this isn't all that difficult to do. But if you don't know what you're doing I'd advise against trying it.
You absolute legend! Will try this. My sexy german milf neighbour was having what sounded like threesome the other night but as my missus was in next room , I could not deploy the recorder in good time. I'll experiment on this and get back with results ( hopefully with good audio captures too!)
hushda
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by hushda »

no help
Last edited by hushda on 02 Jun 2018 00:40, edited 1 time in total.
reggind
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by reggind »

I am not sure what you are talking about here:

I blue tac the mic to wall and have a little cable from the voice recorder to the earphone socket on listening device which amplifys the sound. but its not very clear at all. lots of wind/hissing sound. How are you listening at this point in time? Earphones connected to what?

when I put ear phones only in listening device its much clearer but not that loud. What have you plugged or unplugged to change the volume?

and when I go to put my little cable into the correct bottom record out socket and it goes even quietier and cant hear nothing . What is the other end of that cable plugged into?

I can use a pc for some recordings on 1 side but other side I cant. I am totally missing what you are saying here. What do you mean by 1 side?

What exactly is the cable and the headphones that you have?

I am pretty sure we can work this out.
hushda
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by hushda »

test
Last edited by hushda on 02 Jun 2018 00:39, edited 1 time in total.
reggind
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by reggind »

Yes, thank you, much clearer.

First off, you are using good batteries in the device, correct?

Does the manual for the device make any mention of the impedance of the headphones that it wants you to use?
Does the manual for the device make any mention as to using mono or stereo earphones?

I am wondering if you got a dud unit, or you are at the limit of what the deice can do. You are never going to get sound like you are "in the room" with a through the wall device. From the way you describe the headphones being plugged in dragging the output down, either the batteries are bad, the headphones are low impedance and the device wants high impedance, or the unit has a really crappy electrical design.

Have you tried it on walls in your house? Turn a radio or TV on in one room and try listening from another? Does your mic placement have any difference? Perhaps not getting good contact?

Is there an on line manual for the device?
hushda
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by hushda »

test
alfus
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by alfus »

Hey guys,

so I finally bought the budget setup dgb suggested, but unfortunately I am very disappointed with the results. The mic and cable are exactly the same as suggested, only for the amplifier I went with the Behringer Powerplay P1 for availability reasons, but it's technically the same principle. I stuck the mic to the wall and could not hear anything despite me cranking the headphones up to the max. I could not hear any sound with the headphones although there was loud music coming through the wall, which I heard (parts of it at least) when holding my ear to the connective wall. Does anyone have any suggestions to make the mic work? I would pay for a more expensive contact mic too, if necessary...
reggind
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by reggind »

If you got a piezoelectric contact mic, you need a preamp for a piezoelectric pickup. This is critical. The piezoelectric pickups have very high output impedance and get loaded down very easily. The require a preamp with a high input impedance. The other thing is if you got a musical interment type contact mic, it is not going to be ultra sensitive. The piezoelectric pickup on my guitar is located directly under the bridge for example. It gets a lot of vibrations there. It does not need to be very sensitive and the preamp does not need to have a lot of gain. Sadly our hobby is is trying to pick out the needles from the haystack. Generally we are fishing for faint sounds awash in a world of ambient sounds that are near as loud or louder. The odds are stacked against us from the start.
culain99
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by culain99 »

dgb wrote: 04 Mar 2018 22:01 You can assemble this setup:

Contact mic $5 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MUPALY/
Cable $6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I91C66/
Amplifier $44 https://www.amazon.com/Rolls-PM50s-Pers ... 00J14G7OO/

55-60 bucks overall with pro-grade equipment

A musician would normally buy the above, totally natural purchase.

You then have stereo miniplug and 1/4 outputs for headphones or routing the amplified audio to a computer for recording (yay Audacity / free and stable for long term recording). You also have the added benefit of wall power or battery.

One of the online spy/security shops sold this same exact setup with a case and headphones for $460!!

i'm interested in this method, already have a contact mic, 4-pole 3.5mm splitter for laptop port, line in cables, audacity. anyone can suggest a cheaper amplifier or alternative amplifier. amazon shipping is too expensive to where I am.

also I wonder whether a contact mic, connected to a piezo guitar pickup equalizer-amplifier and then connected to a laptop will work ? spec below

4-bands equalizer, push bass/middle/treble to adjust frequency.
Specifications:
- Presence Control: ±12dB at 8KHz
- Bass Control: ±12dB at 600Hz
- Middle Control: ±12dB at 600Hz
- Treble Control: ±12dB at 2.2KHz
- Input impedance: 10MO
- Frequency Response: 20Hz - 20KHz
- Power: 9V battery (not included)
orangecannonim
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by orangecannonim »

I also have the Nikkei and it's ok. I record with a tascam dr40. It took me a year to work out the mains hum (from powering the tascam) was killing my recordings.

The tascam records great with mains power when using its internal mics, but with the Nikkei/pre amp, the hum was present, and I did not know what was causing it.
Now I use a usb battery pack that lasts for days.
tweaktweak
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by tweaktweak »

orangecannonim wrote: 23 May 2020 21:00 I also have the Nikkei and it's ok. I record with a tascam dr40. It took me a year to work out the mains hum (from powering the tascam) was killing my recordings.

The tascam records great with mains power when using its internal mics, but with the Nikkei/pre amp, the hum was present, and I did not know what was causing it.
Now I use a usb battery pack that lasts for days.
I'm sure some narrow notch EQ would help eliminate the hum on the recordings. But yeah a battery supply would help prevent that at the beginning.
sexsoundsrock
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by sexsoundsrock »

dgb wrote: 04 Mar 2018 22:01 You can assemble this setup:

Contact mic $5 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008MUPALY/
Cable $6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008I91C66/
Amplifier $44 https://www.amazon.com/Rolls-PM50s-Pers ... 00J14G7OO/

55-60 bucks overall with pro-grade equipment

A musician would normally buy the above, totally natural purchase.

You then have stereo miniplug and 1/4 outputs for headphones or routing the amplified audio to a computer for recording (yay Audacity / free and stable for long term recording). You also have the added benefit of wall power or battery.

One of the online spy/security shops sold this same exact setup with a case and headphones for $460!!
I got this but have an awful lot of static on the left side of stereo. Its constant too with different setups and I even got a nicer contact mic with the same issue! I didn't take the contact double sided tape off, but figured that wouldn't matter.. any ideas?
dgb
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by dgb »

sexsoundsrock wrote: 30 Jun 2021 05:01 I got this but have an awful lot of static on the left side of stereo. Its constant too with different setups and I even got a nicer contact mic with the same issue! I didn't take the contact double sided tape off, but figured that wouldn't matter.. any ideas?
What type of cabling, etc happens from the amplifier to your ear? It's a mono signal being generated so you'll want to be aware of that. In my setup I fed the mini-plug phones audio out to the stereo miniplug audio-in on a computer where I recorded with Audacity and could monitor in realtime with a pair of bluetooth headphones paired with the computer. Audacity recorded in mono.

Are you using wall-power or battery? Sometimes you'll get noise from the powerline - sucks and hard to get rid of but using a battery instead does solve that problem if that is what you are experiencing. I should really post some audio that was captured with this setup so that you can get a good idea of the results that you should be getting!

I do know that trying to listen directly from the amplifier using headphones is not very desirable, passing through to the computer/audacity allows for further amplification and the possibility of wireless headphones.
sexsoundsrock
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by sexsoundsrock »

dgb wrote: 12 Jul 2021 03:25
sexsoundsrock wrote: 30 Jun 2021 05:01 I got this but have an awful lot of static on the left side of stereo. Its constant too with different setups and I even got a nicer contact mic with the same issue! I didn't take the contact double sided tape off, but figured that wouldn't matter.. any ideas?
What type of cabling, etc happens from the amplifier to your ear? It's a mono signal being generated so you'll want to be aware of that. In my setup I fed the mini-plug phones audio out to the stereo miniplug audio-in on a computer where I recorded with Audacity and could monitor in realtime with a pair of bluetooth headphones paired with the computer. Audacity recorded in mono.

Are you using wall-power or battery? Sometimes you'll get noise from the powerline - sucks and hard to get rid of but using a battery instead does solve that problem if that is what you are experiencing. I should really post some audio that was captured with this setup so that you can get a good idea of the results that you should be getting!

I do know that trying to listen directly from the amplifier using headphones is not very desirable, passing through to the computer/audacity allows for further amplification and the possibility of wireless headphones.
Thank you for the response! So I figured out the first bit the other day. Was trying to record mono input as stereo! Swapped that over and its a little better! I can try the battery next. I would love a comparison though!
dgb
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Re: Does anybody has a really professional wall listening device?

Post by dgb »

sexsoundsrock wrote: 14 Jul 2021 06:20 Thank you for the response! So I figured out the first bit the other day. Was trying to record mono input as stereo! Swapped that over and its a little better! I can try the battery next. I would love a comparison though!
I posted an example sound in the Motel Sex section Solo girl enjoying our shared past time -
Solo girl enjoying our shared past time


Here are a few pointers.

1. Invest in double-sided tapes so that you can stick the mic to the wall and repace it occasionally. I lay the tape down on the wall with both ends frayed so it wil be easier to remove, then stick the mic to the tape on the wall.
The 1/4 " cable connecting the mic pickup to the amp is heavy, too heavy to rely on that one piece of tape. Consider creative solutions for putting that cable at rest somehow so it's not adding pressure to the mic.

2. Use a pillow to competely cover the mic against the wall,. it will reduce picking up noise in your room.

3.You'll probably be doing this near a nightstand. Unplug the electrical devices there to reduce interference (or buy shielded cables).

5. Record into a laptop computer that has an audio-in port. Sometimes you will have a choice of line-in or mic-in. Go for mic-in for some additional amplification.

6. Download and use the audio editor program Audacity. Make sure that 'software playthrough' is enabled so you can listen while you are recording.

7. Learn to use the Spectragram view at a resolution of 1 second - so that you can see what you are doing.

8. Become familiar with High-Pass filter, Notch filter and Noise Reduction filter. I always use High-pass at 12DB to drop the noise floor down and I use the Notch filter to remove hums.
I consider the noise being pulled off the wall to be a 'dial-tone'. Sometimes the dial-tone is noises, sometimes it is real nice and just waiting for a moan to find a nice soft place to land on your track. Placement of the mic, electrical noise, ambient room noise (refridgerator, heater/air) I'd turn both of those off while recording

9. Never modify your original source file, you never know when you'll become a master audio cleanup engineer and decide that older files could use your newly acquired skill!

I personally listen with Audacity too, it's just better...

I've left it running/recording for up to 19 hours while I was out.

Do not Disturb sign. Especially if you leave the hotel. Even then, have your setup look as normal as possible so if Maintenance or whatever shows up.

Bluetooth headphones are the absolute bomb for this. I use Bose Quiet Comfort 35II

When recording and especially if you leave, make sure that the system volume o your computer is muted. Karma and all that.

Consider learning how to add a label track and add labels on the fly as you are recording. or even when playing back.

Practice at home for a little bit to get the kinks worked out

Create a naming scheme ie - 2021-7-21_7PM_Unattended
2021-7-21_10PM_Baited
2021-7-21_UnattendedDay

The letter 'P' can pause and resume an active recording session. Consider that if you need to crack open a bear, take a phone call, or whatever noisy crap you punker freaks might get up to in a hotel room! ;)

I'm sure lots of good advice could be given by others regarding Audacity audio cleanup, removing noise at the hardware level, etc.

And finally I'll say it one more time - recording and monitoring live from the laptop, especially with good bluetooth headphones is the absolute best way to do this.

Also, I hope you like to quietly read books or whatever - cuz you need to be quiet as a church mouse!!
Happy Listening!
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