Exciting MiSi Developments

I went by MiSi to ask about stocking the Acoustic Trio and they literally pulled this out of their pocket...



The new Mi-Si Air!!!! Notice the lack of wire!

Here is the write up:

Ok...MiSi Air ... "Do you have a strap button on your ukulele. If your answer is yes, then your instrument could be easily amplified with MiSi Air. The new amplification system for guitars and ukuleles based on MEMS microphone technology. Neither undersaddle nor soundboard transducers are involved. And that means no holes, no glue, no saddle preparation, and no balance problems. And no piezo distortions. Yes it is battery free like the rest of MiSis product line. Powering up the MiSi Air for 60seconds with the MiSi charger will provide you with 14 hours of performance time."

Whaaaat? I am so excited! I got to try it out, but it was on a Nalu with heavy gauge T2s in a loud loud percussion room, so it was hard to totally get a feel, but from what I could hear it sounded great and they said it does not have the feedback issues that a lot of soundboard mics have! I hope to be offering these soon for retail and for installation.

Now... It gets even more interesting! There is also he Acoustic Trio Air! Whaaaaat? It combines the best of both words. Here is a shortened write up:

It will be the under saddle pickup of the Acoustic Trio with the MEMS microphone technology of the air. So you get both. The balance is controlled by a sound hole mounted Pan and Volume pontetiometers. So you get the vibrations of the body and the air and of course is battery free. A 60 second charge will give it 8 hours of performance.


I am hoping the sound is what I want. But it being from MiSi gives me a lot of hope that the Air will indeed be what it is cracked up to be. They should be available in a couple months and I will install it in my Breedlove and let y'all know!

Here are some pictures of what it looks like on its own. No wire to anchor, no saddle to balance, no saddle to sand down, no bridge holes, just a quarter end pin jack... Yes!!!! Less fuss, hopefully a true instrument sound, and less parts to shift and buzz. Happy happy hopeful Mim!

That is exciting!

Highlight of NAMM so far for me. Can't wait to hear how it sounds.

But I assume there's another PCB + battery at the pickup? Hmm? 2 batteries?

Ha! There's my "iRig Acoustic Pro" that IK shoulda made.

MISI Air looks cool. Hope it sound good and is priced OK. I've looked into sound hole miss that extend off a end pin jack before and they are expensive and require a 9V battery. Then you have to positions the mic via a good neck inside for optimal sound. Hope the MISI Air is as simple as shown. If sound is good, this could be a game changer.

Interested in the combined package of MISI AIR with additional UST but will wait for reports to explain this and hear the samples.

Thanks for posting MIM

What I'd like to see......
Is a bluetooth mems mic that just clips on the inside of the soundhole.

Then either marry it to a phone, computer, or... a receiver that has a 1/4" jack.

Sort of like.. clipping a BT headset to the uke.
Seems like something that shouldn't be a huge jump from just a BT headset.

I have favoured MiSi's in all the Ukes I have had built recently. If this proves to be as good as the MiSi Trio and is released before August (when my next build starts), I'll ask for one to be installed. Less is more.

I hope its the elegant solution to plugging in my Bass-Bari. Won't need double pickups.

spookelele said:

What I'd like to see......
Is a bluetooth mems mic that just clips on the inside of the soundhole.

Then either marry it to a phone, computer, or... a receiver that has a 1/4" jack.

Click to expand...

The iRig Acoustic clips on the sound hole. It isn't Bluetooth of course but I would think the latency on Bluetooth would be unacceptable for this application.

Great "catch", Mim. Look forward to hearing more on this new model.

OMG- MIM- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for sharing this with us! MiSi makes a great pickup system, and it's great to see that they are continuing to innovate!

Doc_J said:

But I assume there's another PCB + battery at the pickup? Hmm? 2 batteries?

Click to expand...

MiSi pickups have no battery, but a capacitor that acts like a rechargeable battery, and a capacitor does not have the 'memory effect' and degradation that all rechargeable batteries have, whether NiCd, NiMh, LiIon, or LiPoly.

Other kinds of rechargeable batteries (not typically used for music applications, such as the SLA (or Sealed Lead-Acid) batteries do not have such problems, but have lower energy density, weight a tonne more, and are subject to getting 'sulfated' and need to be 'reconditioned' with a proper charger. SLA batteries are typically used as a backup power source for home alarm systems, and computer UPS power supply surge protector units, like 'APC Back-UPS', or those made by Tripp-Lite, or Cyberpower.

Having said that, if The dual MiSi also has the typical silver pickup ribbon element, in addtion to a MEMS mic, and a fader/blend control, there's not too much re-engineering required to make them BOTH work from the existing PCB. A typical MEMS mic, such as one made my STM Microelectronics is about 1.5mm square in size for the surface-mount package and likely could be placed on the existing PCB with power and signal traces etched therein.

The silver pickup ribbon that MiSi uses solders on to the PCB underneath the capacitor (which is the big round thing you see in one of the photos above), and MiSi already has an add-on PCB with a volume and tone control, that one can solder on to ANY MiSi Acoustic Trio with it's included wire after cutting a circuit trace on the preamp/endpin jack's PCB, and the volume/tone PCB has a 12" or so wire with thumbwheel controls, and is intended to be mounded at the soundhole for easy access.

One of the folks at MiSi had sent me the instructions and wiring diagram some time ago, and I still have them, but never got around to buying and installing the volume/tone control, since I never really needed to bother with it, and did my tone shaping by other means.

Mainland Ukes and Elderly both sell the add-on volume/tone control board for the MiSi, which IIRC is ~$35-38.


http://www.elderly.com/mi-si-volume-tone-control.htm

So if MiSi were to enlarge the existing volume/tone control board to add a 3rd thumbwheel potentiometer as a blend control, and instead of 3 wires to the preamp board, it is now 4 or 5 wires (depending upon whether both the pickup and MEMS mic will share a ground wire or not) is not an expensive or complicated endeavor, and really would be electronics 101 to wire a blend control to a volume control to a tone control all in series with the output likely coupled with a capacitor and resistor parallel across the hot and ground on the output to provide some isolation from any possible DC ripple from the capacitor that is providing power to both the MEMS mic and preamp circuit.

All of this is just a guess, but I'd be very surprised if the shipping product is significantly different from what I've described here.

Having said all that - I WANT ONE.

My FIRST install would be into one of my Flea or Fluke ukes. Never been real happy with soundboard transducers, and any UST for these has to be installed at the factory at build time since the bridge is screwed in from UNDER the soundboard, and there's no easy access like on most other ukes.

This could be a real GAMECHANGER! I have the MiSi Acoustic Trio pickup installed on 3 instruments and did the install myself and it was pretty easy once you understand all the steps. Aldrine has a Uke Minute with Joe Souza of Kanile'a where they show one method of installation.

Jim Hanks said:

Ha! There's my "iRig Acoustic Pro" that IK shoulda made.

Click to expand...

Yes - :agree::iwant:

Jim Hanks said:

The iRig Acoustic clips on the sound hole. It isn't Bluetooth of course but I would think the latency on Bluetooth would be unacceptable for this application.

Click to expand...

:agree:

Thanks Booli, I think I get it. you're saying it might have a mic on the PCB with the Jack, and not have an under the saddle pick up? Very interesting. It would be cool if they used Bluetooth and had a phone app for adjusting the sound volume and tone.

http://mi-si.com/2016/01/17/ahead-of-namm-new-pickups/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microphone#MEMS_microphone

Great update. Thanks Mim.

SSSooooo... is the microphone somewhere on that green board?????

Yes, a MEMS microphone is a surface mount device.

In the UU video, he says the mic is hidden under the coin shaped capacitor.
That kinda seems... bad. I've not seen an application where putting something in front of a mic that isn't something pass through like a pop filter.. was a good thing.

Doc_J said:

Thanks Booli, I think I get it.

Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Doc_J said:

you're saying it might have a mic on the PCB with the Jack, and not have an under the saddle pick up? Very interesting.

Click to expand...

Not exactly. It seems from what MIM has shared and other info from NAMM 2016, that they will have 2 models, one which is MIC only, and one that is MIC and UST pickup, and this the reasons for my explanation about PCB and battery in reply to your previous post.

Doc_J said:

It would be cool if they used Bluetooth and had a phone app for adjusting the sound volume and tone.

Click to expand...

A BT control app may be closer to reality because...

They've already had a product for some time now that has the volume and tone controls on a hand-held remote device. They call it the 'Cutless'. Fellow UU brother Ukeeku did a video review of it when it was new.

Here's a photo: