AKG C1000 - the mic people hated for 30+ Years

  • Thread starter Thread starter rob aylestone
  • Start date Start date
rob aylestone said:
My own dislike stemmed from every damn school and college who joined the new music technology qualification in the UK, using these mics. At that time (1996, I think) they had to record a pop piece and a stereo, 'natural acoustic' piece and I listened to thousands, and maybe that formed my head to match other people's comments. Now, I'm wondering of it was just poor mic placement, poor eq, and poor management that produced all the horrible recording. I'm having trouble relating the bad recordings to the sound I got today?
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I would have to say mic placement because I never had issues with recording with that mic. sometimes its better to roll off the bass at the mic pre than at the mic, but other than that, its not bad nor really spectacular. But older digital recording systems had issues due to the use of pre-emphasis they don't do anymore. I can see that getting in the way with mics like this.
 
I had a C1000 in the early 90's. There weren't a lot of good "cheap" condensers around at that time. I couldn't get it to sound good on anything. I moved up to a C3000 and had better luck. Not into AKGs at all anymore, including the 414s.
 
I used my 25 year old C1000 yesterday to troubleshoot some XLR cables. It still sounds good to my ears and works like the day it was new. I've gotten my money's worth out of that thing and then some.
 
Still my go to set up.
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TrackRat - I've got a pair of C3000s - never thought to try them on toms? What are they like?
 
Thick. I think they punch real nicely. My fav.
 
Many mics that are hated now were things I loved back in the day. The C1000 is a good mic compared to what else was available at the time.

I bought my first four-track, a Fostex X-26, in 1990. I remember taking it home, reading the manual, and learning I still needed a mixdown deck, cables, etc. The machine was (IIRC) $400, which, according to CPI, is about $1000 today. I was making $4/hr so it was a big investment.

I used any microphone I could find, Radio Shack's cheapest cables, low-end Koss headphones from Caldor, etc. The prosumer mic market didn't exist for me and I would have loved to have an SM-57, but it was out of reach (Shure Beta Green anyone?).

The C1000 was one of the first semi-affordable mics I bought. It was a few years later when I was on an 8-track r2r and it worked fine. I would be surprised if it sounds bad. There are more choices today for sure.

I remember buying a Rode NT-1 and being blown away by how good it sounded (1998 maybe?).
 
I was horsing around this morning and decided I'd put my 25+ year old C1000 in front of the Taylor 414ce real quick for the fun of it. The first short clip is just straight in to the mic-pre (RND 5017), flat EQ, no verb. The second clip is the same capture but cleaned up with some verb added - the level is up a little on this one too. I did notice after uploading that there's a weird rumble that my EQ job missed. And, of course, a couple of little playing glitches. Oh well - it is what it is.

I guess the point is - with a little finesse this mic can get it done in a pinch. You be the judge.



 
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