Have you been looking to get more sound out of your handpan? 

Maybe you played your first open mic or tried street-performing, and you want more volume. You may have realized that setting a microphone in front of your handpan just wasn’t working or didn’t do it justice.  

Or maybe you want to play somewhere without any sound systems or PA for you to plug into. Maybe sound engineers aren’t present, and you just need a simple setup... 

Enter the contact microphone. 

Contact Microphones as Handpan Accessories: What, Why & How They Work

Contact microphones offer an easy way to amplify your handpan for live performances. 

With one quarter-sized contact microphone, your whole handpan can be amplified. 

Simply place a a contact microphone on the handpan instrument, and the contact microphone will pick up vibrations eminating from the surface of the steel.  

Admittedly, the sound from a contact microphone or amplifier will change the user and listener experience. So, you won’t get a picture-perfect representation of an “acoustic handpan” sound when you use a contact microphone. 

However, we think the convenience and output of the Ensoul Contact Pickup is a great choice because it can:

1. Amplify your handpan or tongue drum.

2. Help you make sure your music can be heard.

Handpan Microphone: About the Ensoul Handpan Pickup  

The Ensoul pan pickup is a universal magnetic contact microphone, designed for steel handpan instruments. It’s very useful on handpans, steel tongues drums, and traditional steel drums. 

Different from a regular microphone, a contact mic, also known as a Piezo mic:

1. Senses vibrations in solid objects

2. Transmits the sound to a speaker, mixer, or recording device. 

This design is ideal for an instrument like the handpan, as the vibrations move throughout the entire instrument. 

Note: Contact Microphones don’t have their own power, and they aren’t a speaker. So, you’ll need to plug them into something for them to work. 

What makes the Ensoul pan pickup great is that it is magnetic. This makes it easy for players to move the mic all over the instrument, so they can experiment with mic placement. 

As you try this out, simply place the magnetic pickup anywhere but the notes. We recommend positioning the handpan mic so that the Ensoul logo faces out from your instrument. 

You can get slightly different sounds, based on where you put the microphone. We recommend trying it on the bottom side of your handpan or tongue drum, underneath the lower notes. 

This is a really great spot to go for balanced sound and the best timbre. 

Of course, feel free to explore other placements and go with what you like best. You can even use more than one pickup on a single handpan instrument if you want to capture even more sound. 

Now, that we’ve shared a few different ways to use the Ensoul pickup, let’s go over a few of the most common setups for this handpan accessory!

How to Get the Best Handpan Sound with Contact Microphones: 5 Live Setup Tips 

The expert handpan makers at Isthmus Instruments have a lot of experience using contact microphones with these percussion instruments, setting up mics in all sorts of positions — and in all types of settings. 

To help you experiment with different mic setups and find the one that works best for you, here’s a handful of handpan mic setup tips from our pros.

1. Use an unbalanced cable. 

For the best results, use an “unbalanced” ¼-in cable to connect your contact microphone to any amplifier, mixer or recording device. 

If you use a balanced cable, your signal will be degraded and not as true as would be with an unbalanced cable. This happens because a balanced cable is trying to receive a stereo connection, like when you are using headphones and hear different sounds from the same song in either ear. 

The Ensoul Pickup only transmits in mono, meaning 1 signal, just like most electric guitars.

2. Add EQ.

Contact mics pick up a lot of high frequencies through steel surfaces. So, it generally is best to do some Equalization (EQ). 

EQ basically means balancing bands of frequencies to desirable audible levels. 

For example, think about adjusting the treble and bass functions on your car stereo. EQ can be performed by changing the dials on an amplifier, mixer, or effect pedal. 

For EQing with a Ensoul pickup:

• Set the treble EQ just a little bit below the halfway point.

• Bring up the Bass EQ a bit higher than the halfway point. 

3. Add effect pedals.

Now that you’ve gone electronic, why not add some sound effects? Guitarists often use effects pedals on stage, and now you can too! 

It’s easy to plug into any effects pedals right from the ¼-in. output end of your Ensoul pickup. 

Effects pedals can add texture and depth to output, which can make your sound more interesting when playing live. Busy areas might not be great for acoustic sound, but they could be a perfect place for amplified electric sound. 

Here are some great effects pedals to consider adding to your setup

• Reverb - Add depth to your sound when playing a handpan instrument in a great hall or on stage.

• Delay - Alter the timing of your sounds. 

• EQ -  Change the timbre.

• Boost - Raise your signal output from your Ensoul pickup. 

• Looper - Add layers to your sound and compose overtop of your music in real time.

4.Use a battery-powered amplifier.

There are countless options for amplifiers to use with an Ensoul pickup — we can’t list them all. But if you can, try: 

• Using a full-range speaker, as it’ll provide the best quality music

• Adding a battery-powered speaker as an easy portable option for  small performances, open mics, Street performing, and other performances

Here are a few speakers we recommend using with your Ensoul pickup:

• The Acoustic A20 acoustic amplifier is great to get started with amplifying your handpan. It features 2 inputs for either XLR or ¼ cable, EQ and built in chorus and reverb effects. The A20 will work perfect for home use or small events like open mics.

• A Boss Cube Street II Battery-powered amplifiers offer portability for its users, running one 8 AA batteries, or can be plugged into a wall outlet like normal. The Boss Cube Street II features EQ, Chorus, reverb, delay effects and even a built in looper for more options. If you are looking to street performing(busking) and playing outside more, this amp could be the answer!

• The Bose S1 Pro powered PA system is an all-in-one PA speaker, and features a rechargeable battery, 2 universal inputs, bluetooth connectivity for backing tracks, and built in EQ and Reverb effects. The Bose S1’s small size makes it the ultimate option for portability and making traveling to your next gig easy!

5. Try 2 pickups.

Once you’ve mastered setting up a single Ensoul pickup, consider adding a second to expand the possiblities of your live setup.

With 2 pickups, you can amplify:

• Two handpans at once 

• A single handpan differently. 

For example, if you have pickup on the bottom side and on the top, you can capture a different sound with each pickup. Of course, you’ll have to EQ each of them differently. Still, you may be able to achieve more robust results, getting a fuller, wider sound from your handpan.

Remember, being a musician is all about being creative. We hope this inspires you to think outside the box when creating new live sound experiences for yourself and your listeners.

Get More Answers from Trusted Handpan Makers 

Whether you need more info about handpan mics, handpan setups, or any other aspect of a handpan instrument, we’re here to help. Simply check out our handpan FAQs for more answers or contact us now.