Best alternative to a 414

T

Tomm Williams

New member
Dealing with cardioid pattern only, if you could not afford a 414, what would be your second choice for ANY situation in which you would want a 414.
 
Not that I have any experience with any of these mics, but from my understanding of reading and the purposes that people use these mics for, I'd say the AT4050 is a great alternative to the 414, and is cheaper I believe.
 
The AKG C4000b sounds a lot like a 414. Apparently, I only have a C4000b so can't check it out.

I find it a very useful mic, not always the best vocal mic as it depends on the singer but great on acoustic guitars, guitar cabs, bass cabs, brass, etc.

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
The AKG C4000b sounds a lot like a 414. Apparently, I only have a C4000b so can't check it out.

I find it a very useful mic, not always the best vocal mic as it depends on the singer but great on acoustic guitars, guitar cabs, bass cabs, brass, etc.

Alan.
Click to expand...


That description of your AKG, Alan. Describes the 414 down to a tee.
 
Which 414 is a good question as I don't have much experience with them either. My focus here is for orchestral overheads. I'm kicking around Oktava 319's or Fatheads hence the question.
 
After reading that it would seem that while the 214 is a very good mic, no one would confuse it as a poor mans 414 . Let me ask another question, I've had the chance to use Oktava 319's in the past and like them quite well. Can anyone make a comparison between the 214 and 319?
The Oktavas can be found easily at half the price of a 214. This is again for an overhead orchestral application.
 
I think of all the mics in my locker, if you truly only want a cardiod only pattern I would look into the older CAD Equitek E-100.
While they are not large diaphram (mid-sized) they are incredible on acoustic instruments and have high headroom.
They also have a wide cardiod pattern which helps in an ensemble situation.
You can get them quite often around the $100-125 mark.
 
I'm a fan of the Oktava 319. I've got three of them - one of them I sent to Michael Joly and got the full suite of mods (at the time it was the full suite, anyway), I really like that modded mic on vocals. The other two sounded really dark and wooly to me, and I did some minor mods on them that made them better, but frankly I haven't used them for much. I've got two 414B-ULS mics and they're awesome on piano, overheads, whatever I want to record that I don't know what mic to use (like a rainstorm or something), but I haven't had a vocalist choose one of those yet because they're sort of like bright klieg lights, showing every wrinkle and imperfection - a really good (e.g. classically trained or something like that) vocalist would probably like them.
 
As a former owner of a matched pair of 414B ULS, an unmatched pair of 414B XLS, and a current owner of an unmodified 319 (except the resonance disc is removed to flatten the frequency response) I'd go for the AKG. The ULS were my favs. I had to sell all the 414's in hard times, and they were wonderful all purpose mics. Comparing the 414 in cardiod mode to the 319, I'd agree with what antichef said about the stock version of the Oktavas and would find the AKG more useful. On the other hand, the 319 sounds like it has some real potential, and based on my experience with the modified 012's, I'll bet the modded 319 is a real gem.
 
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