Hi you all again. As you know I have been writing a short kind of first impressions on my new recording equipment in the past few weeks. This week is the last one, and it is the AKG Perception 220 large diaphragm microphone. It comes in a nice hard case, well padded in foam. In the case we have an AKG catalogue, user manual and a warranty card. There is a very sturdy shockmount and some spare elastic bands for it, and the microphone it self. This is very well built microphone. It has a bit of weight, the casing is all metal. It has two switches; one is a -20db pad for loud sound sources, and a low bass cut. Both are features I am sure I will be using a lot. The main purpose of this microphone for me will be recording vocals, but according to the manufacturer it is good for, percussion, drums, acoustic guitar... But hey, they would say that anyway. Time will tell. I can compare this to three other microphones that I have used in the past, the Behringer B1, Studio Projects B1 ( Some one told me in the past that both microphones are made in same factory and basically the same microphone, but I am not sure about this at all), and the all so popular Rode NT-1. Straight ahead I can tell you that the AKG is built much sturdier than any of the above, the Studio Projects is well built, but not anywhere near as heavy as the AKG, I can say the same from the Behringer. The old version of Rode NT-1 always seemed surprisingly light to me. The Studio Projects has served me well in the past, but I never found the frequency response very even on it. I always found tweaking the EQ more than I would like, even after trying loads of mic positions. As to the Behringer, a friend of mine actually managed to damage one of them. And this was not by bouncing it off the floor or anything like that. Irish wooden flute played close to it and the diaphragm just got jammed on one side and would not vibrate anymore. But hey, that’s what you get when a pub owner decides to buy equipment for live music with out asking any experts advice; you can't beat the good old SM 58 in a pub environment. The Rode is a nice microphone for the money, and for a while there it really was the best thing in its price region.
I set up my new microphone, and plugged in through Zoom R16 in to Cubase. It was time for a test recording. And I must say I was really pleased with what I heard. I have funny frequency range in my voice. It sounds like there is not too much low frequency, but when you record it there is a sneaky muddy bottom (and yes, I am still talking about sound here!). With the AKG I had the low pad on, and if you are recording vocals in a normal home environment I would recommend this as most of the frequencies that low are just background notice. To my delight I could actually leave the EQ flat. A good friend of mine who is a brilliant sound engineer, with about 30 years of high end professional studio experience, had a theory that EQ actually distorts the original wave form. Now my knowledge on the subject is not good enough to say weather this is accurate, but I do find it better to try to get as good sound with microphone positioning and selection, rather than relying on heavy EQ. So to my voice this microphone worked great. Next I placed in front of my trusted Blues junior amp, plugged in a guitar and strummed few chords. This was actually very nice sound. I have been using my Beta 57 almost religiously on guitar amp, but the AKG will definitely get used here again. In the manual it also said that with the -20db pad you can even please the microphone inside a bass drum... I think I would be bit hesitant the first time I would try this. But hey, if it says so in the manual ;-)
So the next trick was to bring the Zoom r16 to the rehearsal room and record a demo of the whole band. Then I brought the recording home and replaced the vocals with the AKG. To my delight the sound sits very well in the mix. It sounds very natural. For any one who has done any basic recording knows that it can be really hard to get the vocals to sit in the mix. They can sound like they are in another space or something, just does not sound natural. Usually a large diaphragm condenser microphone is a good start to try to fix this problem. You will notice a big difference between that and your trusted SM 58. And The AKG is a step up from this again. And now that I have bit more time to try out my new equipment, I can say I am really happy and confident to get started on the actual album recording :-)
And to finish off, just a quick reminder of the single that will be coming out next Wednesday the 8th of December. If you download it, you will be helping the “On a shoestring” project, and supporting an independent musician. Oh yeah, and you get a cracking track as well ;-)
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