Avantone CK40 gets lotsa love.. are CK6 or 7 mono equivalents?

T

the dairy giant

New member
This is something I've been wondering about and can't find an answer. People seem to love the CK40 stereo mic, but I see nothing about the CK6 cardioid or CK7 multi pattern. I'm kinda thinking they would be the mono equivalents, thus should be pretty good also. Anyone with knowledge of this? thankya.
 
I picked up the CK7 about 4 months ago as i had been looking for a multi patterned mic that would keep up with and sound at least as good as the sE2200a in a similar price range. i initially looked at the sEZ3300a as we have one at work and i've always liked it but always found it a bit sharp on my voice and on some female vocals (although it is definitely a step up from the 2200a). i'd heard the avantone CV12 but it was double my budget but had a listen to the CK6 and CK7 and thought "they sound good, and the price is right, why not!?". long story short the CK7 blows the alot of mics in the same price range out of the water imo! much smoother, much fuller, thicker mids, just awesome! it's much less hyped than the 2200a or the NT1a and, in my use, it's the first mic i've tried that really works on my voice. I used it in a session on a female vocalist (it was a follow up session and the previous session had been a nightmare trying to find a mic that suited her voice) and seeing as i'd only had the thing a week i thought i'd give it ago. i really liked it, she loved it!

On acoustic guitars it gives a very natural and real sound, especially in omni, which works really well on folky tracks or in sparse mixes, although it doesn't cut through a dense mix in the same way as an SDC or even an NT1a. i set it up as the side in a M/S with an sE2200a and it sounded really crisp and full. i then tried it as the mid in a M/S with an Apex 205 as it blew my mind (this is now my go to acoustic guitar mic setup on tracks where the acoustic guitar is the bulk of the sound)

tried it on a bass amp and was very impressed, especially in fig.8. gave a very warm, thick bass sound. again, great on tracks that need that kind of sound (imagine those 60's bass sounds) but maybe not a rock or pop "bright" bass sound.

on a room mic for drums it gave a very clean and balanced drum sound with a nice balance of highs and lows. as a "treated" room mic, high and low passed and slammed into a comp, it gives that really nice pumping snare sound and brings out the attack in the toms really well.

i've not tried it on an electric guitar amp as i'm not a fan of LDC's on amps but i can imagine it'd sound pretty solid.

in one word, i find the CK7 to sound "Classy". excellent on vocals, great on acoustic guitars, and a good all round LDC
 
I have the CK-40 and I just simply adore the versatility of this microphone. Just a great microphone all of the way around.
I have teamed it up with a Joe Meek TwinQ and the combination has been unbeatable.

The beauty of this microphone is if you only want a single diaphragm working at one time like a CK-7 ..... that is doable!

Go ahead and unlock that plastic. ;)
 
Right, so you're saying the CK7 IS the mono equivalent of the CK 40? As that was what I was unsure of... It could be completely different sounding mic for all I know....
 
well I just had some really nice communication from Glen at Avantone, he seems like a real good guy. Anyway, it turns out that the CK6 and CK7 are not mono equivalents of the CK40...
Here's what he had to say about them... I know this is not an objective review, but there doesn't seem a lot of info around about these mics so I thought I'd post it here as it may be useful to someone...

And Glen says...

Yes, the CK40 is a fantastic microphone, but I've got great news for you. So are the CK6 and CK7! However, they are completely different animals. Avantone really works hard to make sure that each one of our microphones are very specific so our customers never find themselves purchasing a mic and then a bit later buying another mic only to find that it is only slightly different from the first one that they purchased.

Here's the deal.

The CK6 and CK7 haven't been reviewed hardly at all because they really sell out quickly . Besides, the magazines always want to get our Tubes and Ribbon mics first. But, they are truly incredible microphones.

1. Both of the mics are "side-address mics" but the CK6 is a Cardioid only pattern mic, while the CK7 is a multi-pattern mic (Cardioid, OMNI, & Figure 8)
2. While both of the mics are Large Diaphragm mics, the CK7 Capsule is just slightly larger than the CK6.
Now let's talk about the differences:

CK6:
This mic has a PROXIMITY EFFECT which increases the bottom end as you get closer. Singers, (especially male vocalists love it because of that). Also, it sounds unreal on instruments like electric guitars, drums, percussion, but is perfectly at home if you aren't cramming the mic right into the sound source. So, more delicate instruments sound really nice also, (acoustic guitar, piano, etc.)
The really nice thing about CK6's is that they are truly THE UTILITY STUDIO MIC & they are the AVANTONE MIC that can be used on vocals at live shows with amazing results also. I love the mic. Only One pattern, but a beautiful coloration that you can control to get many different tones...

CK7:
This is what I call my "AKG 414" killer, (my personal opinion of course). The CK7 has the most pristine, almost colorless sound, and ZERO PROXIMITY EFFECT! IF YOU WANT TO CAPTURE A SOUND AT THE SOURCE, THIS IS THE MIC FOR YOU!. Female Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Piano, Room Ambience Recording, Strings, Horns, you name it! Yamaha Corporation uses our CK7 exclusively for every single Yamaha produced video, media ad, etc. that they create because they can't get over the fact that it doesn't change the sounds that they record. They gave us permission to tell the whole world, but we're not really big on strutting to everyone, (heck, we don't even advertise).
At any rate, with the addition of the other patterns, you have a complete gamut of great options. For example:

1. OMNI mode is really the best sounding mode and has the best bass response, (but it picks up all around). However, if you have a great sounding room or you're just recording an overdub or a singer and his guitar, this mode will blow you away. I learned this from a 5 time Grammy winner in Nashville, Ray Kennedy:
1. If you're recording a guitarist who is going to sing, (like a demo)...
2. Put a CK7 in OMNI mode
3. Place it about 3-5 feet away from the singer, (have him sitting in a chair)
4. Position the CK7 so it is aimed slightly down toward the guitar but so it looks like he is also singing right across the top of the mic.

I PROMISE YOU THAT YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THE BALANCE, THE SOUND, (AND HOW HAPPY YOU WILL BE RECORDING SOLO ARTISTS AFTER FINDING OUT HOW BEAUTIFUL THIS SOUNDS. IT IS STUNNING!

If you use the Figure 8 pattern you could:

1. put one vocalist on one side and another on the other. Since the mic has no proximity effect, it works great for stacking vocal tracks
2. you can also do the same thing with guitars, etc.

3. The other cool thing to do is to use your room sound to great effect. Put you vocalist on one side and move the mic around, such as:

a. close to your control room window
b. to a spacious area
c. to a dead area, and so on.

In other words, the Figure 8 pattern picks up on both sides, so you can catch some reflections off the window to make the vocals have a really nice fast hi-end short plate type sound. There are so many more.
 
Although he's obviously biased towards his own products, i've experienced everything he said about the CK7; super clean, great on a lot of sources, overall a "classy" sound. although, as i said earlier, because it doesn't have the same high end as SDC's it doesn't naturally cut through in a mix on acoustic guitars, but a bit of EQ sorts that out pretty well.

i even, kinda by accident, used his "ray kennedy" mic placement thing. i needed a quick guide track for a singer and acoustic guitar so slung the CK7 into omni, bunged it about 4 foot back at the singers head height and aimed it toward the neck of the guitar. if the take had been perfect i would've seriously considered just using that as the main vocal and acoustic track.

also, it's kinda weird to see that there is a difference between the CK6 and CK7 as the CK6 seems to be dubbed the "little brother" to the CK7 (i think i actually read that on their website) so, in my head, the CK6 was purely the cardioid only version of the CK7

Also, if you've not already, i suggest watching some of the avantone clips on youtube just for Glens awesome accent :D actually puts a smile on my face
 
I will, I was looking for some clips actually and could find many. I'll search with his name maybe. I still haven't decided what to purchase, was considering 2 CK1's for stereo instrument recording and CK7 (amongst other brands/models) for LDC. From my searching it seems the CK1's might be about the best available at my price point, and have the advantage of omni caps which I also wanted. But after reading Joel Patterson's review of the CK40 stereo mic I'm kinda itching for one of those... think I mentioned it earlier but it just makes me want one...
Avant Electronics CK - 40 Stereo Microphone Review at StudioAuditions.com
 
Well, i know it's been a while but i finally managed to get a project signed off by the artist tonight with the CK7 all over it. this track was the final one that we recorded whilst doing overdubs at my house;

Track info;

Vocals - CK7 in to Focusrite ISA220
Acoustic Guitar - Apex 205 (1 1/2 foot back, pointed at neck join) in to ISA220, CK7 (cardioid, 1 1/2 foot back, pointed just below the saddle) in to TLA 5001
Cello - Apex 205 into TLA 5001 (4 foot back pointed at neck join), CK7 into ISA220 (fig.8, at bow height to the left of the cello if looking at it, aimed just off of "F hole")

tbh this was one of those tracks where i've actually had to do very little in terms of EQ, compression etc to make it work. the same medium plate reverb on everything in varying amount off of sends (Altiverb 6, EMT 140).

This was one of the tracks from the session i've mentioned before where we did two tracks in the studio i work in that sounded ok. we then came to finish the tracks off and record the third (this being the third) and i wanted to try the CK7 as i'd just bought it and the singer fell in love with it, so much so we redid all the other vocal tracks.

Obviously, as with most mic comparison things, this isn't a scientific experiment (and in this case it isn't meant to be); there has been some eq, compression, and reverb applied, and this is the sound of this mic on these sources in this space. also, due to attachment size rule, this is a high res (320kbp) MP3 which is still compressed audio (i thought about putting the uncompressed track as a soundcloud file but figured i'd wait and see if people wanted it before uploading to what precious space i have left on my free sound cloud account). However, i hope this track gives you an general idea of what the CK7 can do. This has very quickly become my "goto" mic for vocals and in the price range (£250) i can't think of many, if any, mic's that have the same qualities and "classiness" to them. the sEZ3300a would certainly be a contender imo in this price range but, to my ears, after using the Z3300a for years the CK7 is much smoother and much sweeter in the higher end.
 

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ah man, next time you see one going cheap i strongly recommend adding it to your arsenal :) i've used the Z3300a at work for 6 years now and even when it got put to the back of the cupboard every time we got a new LDC to play with is was always back out and ruling the roost in under a month when we all remembered how awesome it was. in fact, the one at work died two weeks ago (rest it's battered soul) and we've already ordered another one to replace it (100+ clumsily and rough handed 16 year olds every year over 6 years using it on average 5 hours a day over 42 weeks a year is more than a lifetime worth of abuse in your average studio. i'm not joking when i say if you want to see the build quality of gear see how long it lasts in an FE educational institution :D). i've added the CK7 and Apex 460 to the list of stuff to buy for work next year but with how reliable the Z3300a has been and being that they're only £199 new for a couple of uk stores it would've been mad for us not to replace it like for like :)
 
i'm not sure as i've been off work for 14 weeks now all my info comes from emails/phone calls from colleagues :( one of the guys in our office is an electronics whizz so i'd be surprised if he hadn't opened it up and had a look, although he is notoriously lazy and seeing as it's panic time at work as all the students who are getting ready for uni panic at how crap all their work has been and try desperately to "top up" their grades he may have just thought "sod it, we'll get another one and i may look at it over the summer".

although, the idea of a mod project intrigues me as i've not seen any sE mod's about. if they don't just chuck it before i get back i may make it my summer project :)
 
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