Along
with the resurgence of the ribbon microphone, the other recent
trend in mic manufacture is the modification of lower-end gear
to get close to the sound and looks of a handful of classic
iconic microphones which are no longer made. In many cases,
simply swapping a valve or transformer can make a big difference
to a stock Chinese design but usually circuitry has to be optimized
and tweaked to get those extra percentage increments and people
like Dave Thomas of Advanced Audio have a growing reputation
for producing fantastic sounding mics at affordable prices.
To
say that Advanced Audios CM12 was a copy or a clone of the legendary
ADK C12 would simply
be an outright lie though clearly Dave Thomas has borrowed heavily
from the design of the original in its looks and basic circuitry.
Ultimately the amazing sound of the original C12 came from the
unique design and build of its legendary, edge terminated CK12
capsule which had to be hand assembled and tuned by a team of
skilled German craftsmen from 55 separate components. Even back
then in the 50s it proved too expensive to manufacture and so
today mic design has to take a different approach.
The Advanced
Audio CM-12 is a variable 9 pattern tube mic of Chinese origin
that Dave has extensively redesigned to reproduce the look and
sound of the AKG C-12 / Elam 251 microphones. It too has an
edge fed, dual diaphragm, claimed to be within 2dB of the response
curve of the original C12 capsule but the tube is swapped for
a true 6072a, and the transformer upgraded to a Cinemag CM-2480
(widely used as an HST-11A/Apex 460 mod). The circuit is optimized
to give more headroom than the original and mods to the output
transformer give another 3db output.
The C12's iconic status comes from its ability to record vocals
where you want to capture the "air" or sparkle around
the voice without it sounding hard or harsh and it helped create
the sound of some great performers. Last year Keith Grant, Dusty
Springfield's engineer from Olympic studios sold the C12 as
used by the great lady herself and it was going for £7400
(thats $12000). So there is always going to be a market for
a C12 clone that is within the reach of us mere mortals and
there have been a number of attempts not least by AKG themselves
with their C12VR mic which still retails in the UK for around
£2500. So for a snip at just under £600 how does
Advanced Audios mic stack up against the original? In truth
I don’t really know as I’ve never had the opportunity
to try them out side by side but the reality is that this is
another really nice microphone from Advanced Audio that certainly
has the same vibe as the original. The CM12 has been around
for about 5 years now and is slowly getting to be a bit of a
cult mic with some producers and if it has one USP then I would
say that the CM12 is the best mic I’ve heard for a long
time for female vocals where it really excels. Sweet and polished
it holds the vocal in the front of the mix and it can really
bring something to a weaker voice. But that shiny front end
can also sound great on guitars both electric and acoustic and
anything that needs a little sparkle.
There is definitely a buzz surrounding Advanced Audios mics
particularly in some of the big London studios. Gary Thomas
from Angel Studios was really impressed when a client came in
with her own CM12 and he ended up buying two CM47s for orchestral
work. EMI records have just signed 60s icon Twiggy to their
record label and producer James McMillan recorded all the vocal
takes with a CM12. Turns out he has also just finished an album
for "Sir" Bruce Forsyth doing jazz covers and the
vocal mic? yep the Advanced Audio CM12. Now they are hardly
Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terell and we might wish for a couple
of more creditable singers but the bottom line is that at under
£600 the CM12 is getting a lot of action on some real
records.
We've
had ours in the studio now for about 6 months (Aug 11)
and it's a great mic for holding the vocal up particularly in
a big mix with lots going on. Out with the mobile I've recorded
a classical soprano with it and was amazed with the headroom
(you will struggle to make this mic distort) and it sounded
particularly good on a violin I recorded recently
Is it as
good an all rounder as the CM47? Again hard to tell. Advanced
Audio put out terrific microphones at really affordable prices
and if you want to try one out for a few days then contact us
at john@reelsound.co.uk
