The New year is on us and we're starting it in style with our first taste of GA's vintage EQ module the EQ73. Also a great new session for you to mix from The Nick Rooke Band
Last
year we were sent a box of shiny the new microphones from ADK
for use in the studio with a view to reviewing them on the website.
Visitors to the website will already know that I am a long time
fan of ADK mics and while they don’t have the cache and
high profile of some other mic brands they are a company that
has constantly striven to put out mics that sound as good as they
can in their price band. The mics were from the new Audiophile
range and obviously, being studio engineers, we were immediately
pulled like helpless moths to the big diaphragm valve models,
the Area 51TT and the TC10 and they have quickly become studio
favourites over the past year (See reviews elsewhere on the site).
Equally, being as shallow as we are, it was inevitable that at
£146 the A6 was going to be the last out of the box.
The market place for your bog standard, fixed cardioid condenser
is awash with this kind of mic and really there are probably around
a hundred different models to choose from in the sub £200
range. It’s the bread and butter mic that everyone needs;
something that will make a decent job of recording anything from
vocals to guitar and drum overheads and ADK were probably the
first company to get this right with the release over 10 years
ago now of their A51. Back then this Neumann look alike caused
a huge amount of interest and made people realize that with good
design and careful quality control, China could turn out a great
sounding reliable microphone. I use the A51s out with the mobile
every week to spot mic a variety of different instruments but
I also use them as a mid side pair for stereo recording Mide/Side
video demo
Recording
Interestingly ADK’s brief for the A6 was NOT specifically
as a vocal mic with the usual big lift in the upper mids but
to put out a more neutral sounding mic that was much more useful
on a wider range of sources. The circuitry in the A6 is basically
a hot-rodded A-51 but the FET circuit has been fine tuned and
optimized for clean, wideband amplification and the original
EQ circuit reworked so that in the A6 all the HF working is
done passively creating a really smooth transparent sound..
Low frequency response is tighter and more extended and the
noise floor is even lower due to the improvement of the circuit.
To be fair, mic design is so good these days that there are
very few noisy microphones out there and while we generally
don’t even look at the technical spec, the figures are
impressive
The whole package comes in a lined black wooden box and the
mic itself looks good and is well made and sturdy. The hemispherical
style head has a nice open feel to it and is slightly different
from the A-51 wedge style. The A6 has no dip switches for attenuation
or lo-cut and it only comes with a basic stand mount but realistically
corners have to be cut somewhere to get it down to this price.
In use it is a real surprise and that is the problem now with
our expectations. For this price we might think that this is
a cheap microphone and not really that good but a couple of
years ago if you had paid £350 for a mic that sounded
as good as this you would have been pretty happy and I’m
sure there are more expensive mics around now that don’t
sound as good. Ultimately it does exactly what ADK set out to
do....It's a really good general purpose microphone with a smooth
neutral sound that works on just about everything. I’ve
had some great results on acoustic guitar, percussion and even
piano but if you want a really nice voice over mic then I really
cant think of anything for the money that sounds so good. There
is very little proximity effect so you can get really close
if you want to, without any boominess or flabby bottom (a
technical term!) and it has a smooth neutral tone that
works perfectly on spoken voice.
The most emails we get are asking about the best value for money
entry level mic to get into quality recording and the choice
is huge. Audio Technica, AKG, sE and dozens of other manufacturers
all have a model in this price band and every one of them is
fantastic value for money. It's hard to pick out any particular
manufacturer but ive got a soft spot for ADK I believe they
make the best mics they can for the money and good luck to them.
The A6 may not have some of the bells and whistles of other
mics but it’s actually a really lovely sounding, quiet
mic that you will find hundreds of uses for and for £146
it's for nothing.
