Curing Condenser Confusion: An Audio History of The AKG C 414

SonicScoop contributor and producer/engineer Justin Colletti recently launched his audio+music blog, Trust Me, I’m A Scientist and we think it’s rad—be sure to check it out and sign up for the TMimaS newsletter! SonicScoop will periodically publish excerpts and links to the articles we know you will dig (like this one on the AKG C 414 here!). Read on and click through for more…

The AKG C 414 is one of the most important and misunderstood microphones of all time.

The way we count it, this model has had 12 or more incarnations over the past 40 years, each with it’s own idiosyncrasies, and some varying significantly in sound and design.

As AKG tweaked this model, it picked up new bits of circuitry, lost others, and even underwent changes to the capsule, a dramatic alteration that amounts to putting a new set of ears on the microphone. Over the years this versions of this model have been celebrated, derided, and described as both unquestionably bright and inarguably dark. So which is it?

In an effort to clear up some of the confusion, we set out to test all of the major incarnations of this mic side-by-side on the instruments they excel on. Read on and listen for yourself as we attempt to demystify this classic line once and for all…

Click here to to read the rest of Colletti’s AKG C 414 analysis, including more background on each version, its related components and sound, and audio samples he recorded in a shootout between models.

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