Akg c 24

keith.rogers

Well-known member
Sounds good on this recording - according to the long description, this recording has no FX at all. Just the guitar into the mic.

Anyone else ever get to use one of these?

Nice room, and I found a used one of those mics (in Sweden!) on Reverb for $13K+. Gonna have to think about that for a while ;)

YouTube

P.S. [edit] Anyone ever use any of these "cheap" Vanguard clones? The V44S is supposedly something like the AKG, at about 1/20th the price.
V44S | Vanguard Audio Labs
 
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Ha! Thanks for this. Five years ago I used to import lots of Chinese mics, and then everyone did it, and I couldn't make a profit, so moved on One of the factories made me 5 of these mics that look amazingly like the Vanguard, and I kept one and sold the others. Omni, cardioid and fig-8 response and the two capsules fitted one above the other with the top one rotating through 90 degrees - and it sounds wonderful. The manufacturer stopped production as they were hand made from two fairly standard mics. I'll have a look at these Vanguards because I really would like another.
 
Ha! Thanks for this. Five years ago I used to import lots of Chinese mics, and then everyone did it, and I couldn't make a profit, so moved on One of the factories made me 5 of these mics that look amazingly like the Vanguard, and I kept one and sold the others. Omni, cardioid and fig-8 response and the two capsules fitted one above the other with the top one rotating through 90 degrees - and it sounds wonderful. The manufacturer stopped production as they were hand made from two fairly standard mics. I'll have a look at these Vanguards because I really would like another.
UK dealer from Vanguard site: Vanguard V44S Multi-Pattern Condenser Microphone - Emerging

If you get one, let us know if it's the same as your other! I'm fairly curious about this mic, but luckily right now we've been spending money right and left fixing up the house we thought we'd downsize out of next year, but that prospect's looking dimmer. Anyway (GAS on hold), the breakout box is interesting, because one option on the input side is to use it for any figure-8 mic and it will give you the LR outputs, saving fiddling in the DAW, not to mention being able to monitor any MS setup.
 
I looked up the price I paid for 5, back in 2016 and it was $63 USD per mic. Hand assembled from multiples of existing products, so two pcbs, 5 pin instead of 3 pin XLR, and a simple stacked frame with a rotating upper frame attached. Lots of hand soldering and the frame looks brazed, made from some bronze coloured material. Dortron now make lights, not audio kit. It has not got M/S matrixing built in, and the supplied phantom power supply has 5 Pin in and left + right 3 pin out, so a bit simpler. The capsules are the usual back to back designs. I use it for choirs and orchestra recordings and really like it. The Vanguard seems expensive for what is in esence a fairly low cost production cost - but nice presentation is important. I suspect that as a mono £300 mic, we'd consider it a bit expensive?
 
I suspect supply and demand are part of the pricing. Not everybody wants one.

There’s a cheaper Avantone mic that is similar but doesn’t have the same breakout box or suspension mount (something the reviewers do like in the 44S).

http://www.avantonepro.com/ck-40.php

After that, the next stop for something like that seems to be the Telefunken AR-70 (tube) at 4x the price. Would it be that much better?

https://www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com/microphones/ar-70

The proliferation of mic brands and models is really impossible to keep up with.
 
To be honest, it's also pointless. Everyone wants rules nowadays. X is rubbish, Y is excellent. You need courage and determination. I've just used a mic I bought as a sample. Plugged it in - said one, two, then put it on the shelf. I pulled it out the other day and used it on my alto sax - because I couldn't be bothered to walk to my van to get the mic box. I plugged it into the dangling XLR, discovered it fitted my AKG 414 shock mount perfectly and didn't even tweak the gain on my interface. It was too hot really, and the screen display had a waveform with some flat tops. I figured for the guide to play to it would be fine. I discovered the interface didn't object to the gain being over the top, and the mic sounded so unlike my sax normally sounds - as in better. I've had out probably 9 years and I've discovered exactly what it really does well. I bought a package off half a dozen of those Chinese cheap condensers - BM-400 or similar and again, thought for the money they were actually quote useful - but I have better. I gave them to the folk in the band at lockdown as presents - the drummer reckons they make amazing overheads and he's love his - bar the colour. I gave him the pink one!
 
That's a great recording, for one note.
Great room too.
The dudes all over the place, no string squeels! that's something I really am working on. seems impossible.

Guitar Centers got the mic right now! $15,999.99....less than $16,000!! haha

Speaking of GC, went there yesterday first time in COVID months, and it was a mess, COVID masks and people trying to be normal but its not.
My gear I was trying to sell wasn't easy, the place was crowded and understaffed, then finally the sales dude walked over to a taped off area and said "you have to put the gear there and I have to clean it with sterilizing stuff"
I said "forget about it..." and left the store as it was just too odd, and a hassle for the dude etc... Weird times.
 
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