akg c 414

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foreverain4

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thinkin about picking up a stereo pair. anyone have any expirience with them? i like all the patterns avaliable..
 
Got a pair of older EB's. Use them on a lot of shit (vox, acoustic and electric guitar, drums,....) To me,they can sound harsh in the highs if your using your board or a cheaper pre amp (why?...I dont know), but with a jammin pre, they can be kick ass. Gonna use them tonight for room mics.
The patterns are definately nice. Makes them way flexable. For instance, if you have too much low end building due to proximity, just switch patterns. I had that problem with a singer one time and just going from cardiod to hypercardiod worked.
 
I have one (C414B XL II) and love it, very versatile, east to use.
It is my first go to mic. I'd not hesitate to get a two if I could afford them !

I've used it on Vox (M & F), Acoustic Guitar, Blues electric guitar, flute and just love it !!

I normally put it through a vt737 or a Focusrite Platinum Voice Master Pro
 
You cant go wrong with a pair of 414's...... I can use mine on anything, and it works better than any/all of my other (lesser) mics... grat for M-S acoustic guitar tracks. I used a pair to record a small choir once and it came out super, you could point to things in the room just by listening to the stereo image. Of course, that was a lucky accident, I didn't really know what I was doing, but it sure came out good!
 
I think 414's make great tom mics. I've got an EB and a b/uls. The fact that you can pad them so much makes them really useful as close drum mics.
 
I have a pair of the EB/P48's and they are a great all-around mic. If you get an older set, you might need to replace all the tantalum caps in the mics, unless that's already been done. I've had mine for about 20 years and just recapped, which brought the highend back to life. The ULS version sound very similar but have a hotter output.
 
ordered a matched stereo pair of the B-XLS. they seemed to be more versitile. i will post some of my expiriences. i will get to give them a thorough run through next week...
 
i read to that there is a remote due at the end of this year. how cools is that...
 
$ .02

you gotta be a ringer right...ft wayne/member since 2002/newbie question....
but yeah i love mine...
 
dementedchord said:
you gotta be a ringer right...ft wayne/member since 2002/newbie question....
but yeah i love mine...
Click to expand...


ringer? what is so "newbie question" about it? i simply have not used these mics before. though someone on here might have.. :rolleyes:
 
Any generation of the 414 can be a very very useful studio mic. It won't work on every singer, but it will work very well on some singers. They tend to match up better with women's voices than men's.

Most people agree that the C414EB ('70s) was the best, smoothest of them all. But even the ULS and TLII can be great studio mics, especially if you have a pair. 414s have been my go-to mics for drum overheads for decades. I actually now have a rare stereo C414EB, called a C422. They were made in the late '70s through late '80s.

You'll also find 414s are excellent on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion, and strings. The only down-side is that, depending on the source and the pre you use, they can tend to be shrill or sibilant. I haven't heard the newest generation, so maybe they've addressed that, I don't know. But in general they are great all-around condenser.

And thank you for not asking about an SE or ADK or Peluso or MXL, or bla bla bla...
 
ok, so matched pairs are back ordered 2 months. so, i figured, in that price range, how much different could they sound? so, i just ordered two unmatched mics. well, they came in last friday. first impressions, the boxes they come in are VERY cheap. my $150 behringer B2 came with a more rugged box. the mic was also much smaller than i expected. guess the pictures online just make them look big. plugged the first one in to give it a test. sang into the front (the silver grill) it was very dull and had low output. i thought "what the heck". i turned the mic around (black grill) and what do you know, they must have gotten the polarity backwards on this mic. then, after about 5 min, the mic was completly dead. tried the second one. seemed to work ok. tried a few of the patterns. the led was changing, but the patterns were not!! wow, what are the odds. i got two defective mics. took them back, ordered replacements. will give akg one more chance. :( thinking about just getting tlm103's instead. then i would be stuck with only one pattern..
 
ok, i am totally sold on these mics. VERY nice on acoustic. awesome on drums. they have kinda a silky texture on the vocals i tried them on. i returned the one that had the capsule reversed. got a replacement. turns out the other one was fine. it takes up to 20 seconds for the pattern to change. (maybe i should have read the manual first) ;)
 
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