Bart Hopkin writes in his excellent book, Getting a Bigger Sound, that "A piezo attached to a balloon will give you a result almost like a rather poor microphone." Specifically, he notes that a balloon piezo will be weak "in the high frequency response." I was intrigued by this idea and so built a balloon piezo using one of the piezo disc pickups I had built.
The setup was simple. I taped the pickup to an inflated balloon and hung it by a string from a mike boom in front my guitar amp. As a preamp for the piezo I used an Art Tube MP Studio preamp I recently purchased (for $29). I also miked the amp using an Audio-Technica Pro 37 for a comparison recording.
The sound from the balloon is surprisingly good, but as Hopkin wrote, some high end is missing. Although there are certainly better ways to mike a guitar amp, I suspect this would make an interesting microphone for vocals. Imagine a group of singers standing around the balloon.Listen below to my shambling (con rubato) reproduction of Jimmy Webb's Up, Up and Away. I include both recordings for comparison.
Up, Up and Away - Balloon Piezo
Up, Up and Away - Pro 37
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