Review: AKG D12VR Low End Microphone
AKG reissues a legendary model, but updates the insides to modern standards. Is this just faux vintage patina or the real deal?
By Mark Woods
22 April 2013
While reminiscing with an old sound mixer friend recently we were wondering how long the AKG D12 has been around. To me they were the kick sound of the glory days of Oz rock. I fondly remember bands like the Oils and Cold Chisel roaring away in sticky, smoke-filled venues, the kick drum whacking you in the stomach and flapping the legs of your jeans on every hit. Ah, the good old days. I also have a picture on my wall of a band I was in around 1976… I can’t say the band was any good, but there’s a D12 on the kick drum. My friend thought they’d been around for longer, maybe since the late ’60s or early ’70s, but on making the enquiry we were surprised to learn they were the first dynamic mic produced by AKG, and production began in 1953! It’s also claimed they were the world’s first unidirectional (cardioid) microphone. Manufactured with a bass chamber in the rear compartment to give a fuller sound, for the first 20 years or so they were used mainly as voice mics for recording, radio and TV productions. I would imagine they were adopted for kick drum use with the rise in popularity of loud, bass heavy bands who would have appreciated their low frequency extension and ability to handle high levels with distorting.
TIME FOR A NEW CAPSULE
Time caught up with the D12 during the ’80s and their ballsy, thudding sound gave way to more hi-fi mics. I was mixing Men At Work in 1982-83 and I recall moving from a D12 to a Beyer M88 for what was a more modern sound at the time. AKG brought out the D12’s replacement the D112 (the egg) in 1986 but it wasn’t the same. Still a good kick mic, it was big and boomy with a scooped mid-range and boosted high-mids to bring out some clicky attack.
But now, 65 years after the original was released, we have the AKG D12VR. The VR stands for Vintage sound Re-issue and AKG describes the mic as a ‘vintage-style premium bass microphone’, obviously regarding it as an update of the original D12. But is it just a marketing ploy attempting to cash in on the name and nostalgia of the original?
SQUARE EYES
If you had to judge this mic by its cover, you would instantly think the D12VR was a modern D12. From side on the identifiable band around the centre of the mic is still there, and the galvanised nickel grille on the front is silver while the grille on the back is matte black — just like the original D12. Its body is deeper and houses what AKG describes as an optimised bass chamber, and looking into the front of the mic, it’s square rather than rectangular. Weight was an issue with the original D12; at over 700g it needed a strong stand to avoid falling over on a long reach. The D12VR is lighter at 500g but it’s still heavier than most live mics.
The original’s captive connecting lead is long gone and that is an improvement. They were too easy to damage in the rough and tumble world of rock ’n’ roll and they were often cut back to just a few inches of cable with an XLR plug hanging off the mic, but this was still a precarious arrangement. AKG addressed this by releasing the D12E that had an integral male XLR connector. The D12VR also has an integral XLR connection mounted in parallel to the simple but strong stand mount fitting. Once on a stand the D12VR can only be titled upwards through 90 degrees whereas the original tilted up and down, but only through about 60 degrees. This makes the D12VR slightly less flexible but means it can be positioned right inside the drum and still point directly at the beater head. The hole in the drum head will need to be at least 13cm in diameter to get it in at all.
NEED TO KNOW
PRESET SCOOP
The D12VR is a large-diaphragm, cardioid-pattern dynamic mic and while the ‘ultra-thin’ diaphragm is new the output transformer is the same one used on the AKG C414 that was developed in the 1970s. The original standard D12 did not use a transformer and had an impedance of 60Ω, but there were three variations that offered impedances of 250Ω, 500Ω or ‘Hi’ impedances. AKG claim the C414 transformer enhances the audio quality, especially at high levels, by cancelling out impedance differences between the mic and the mixer input. Interesting technical specifications include a stated frequency response of plus or minus 2dB from a rumbling 17Hz up to 17kHz, with a maximum SPL of a deafening 164dB SPL. So as well as kick drums it would be great for recording cannons close up.
The other big inclusion inside the mic is the addition of an integral filter circuit that offers three different EQ presets. It’s an active analogue filter system with a transformer, and as it gets powered by the mixing desk’s 48V (phantom power) it loses some overall output level. Without phantom power the D12VR is a normal dynamic mic with a wide, flat frequency response. Hit the phantom power button and it switches to one of three presets.
Each D12VR is supplied with a signed and dated computer plot of its individual frequency response. Like the original the D12VR is a good vocal mic with a fairly flat response from 50Hz to 1.5kHz. It doesn’t look like much on the frequency response plot but there is an audible scoop from around 200-500Hz. It’s only a couple of dB but it fattens the sound and emphasises the octave below 200Hz. Up higher it’s boosted between 2-8kHz then falls back to flat at 10kHz, before rolling off quite sharply. Speaking into it is fun; getting right on the grille and using the well-controlled proximity effect gives a big, rich, chesty tone — instant radio voice. Even the admirably low handling noise is thick and you get a deep thump if you put the mic down on a flat surface with it turned on. Rejection at the sides and especially the rear of the mic is excellent.
Swapping to an original D12 for the same voice test is like going back in time, the original has less highs and lows, and its output level is approximately 10dB lower, but it has a similar quality to the sound both on-axis and moving around the mic. The D112 is quite different, for a start it could only have looked good in the ’80s… and to be fair it wasn’t intended for vocal use. Its mids are somewhat subdued but a presence peak centred around 4kHz makes it almost crisp on vocals. The big bottom end is boosted between 60-200Hz anyway and when you add some proximity effect it’s quite boomy. It can be tamed with EQ or a HPF but it takes a fair amount of attenuation to control it. It also has comparatively high handling noise, and the LF attenuation at 180 degrees is not as good as the others. Interestingly the maximum SPL for 0.5% THD is listed as ‘unmeasurable’ so you could have used it to record the Big Bang.
The D12VR was the standout… with an instantly appealing thump that reached all the way down to 25Hz
KICK IT
But the D12VR is primarily intended as a kick mic, so I lined it up against the original D12 and the in-between D112 for a kick drum recording shoot-out. The original D12 (a 60Ω, ‘no-transformer’ model) was first and performed well; it had an old-fashioned woodiness to the mids but was strong and thumpy with plenty of level down to 40Hz on the analyser. When it was first released its frequency response was quoted at +/- 4dB between 40Hz and 12kHz which would have been outstanding in 1953. Next was the D112, and compared to both the D12VR and original D12 it had a big peak centred around 125Hz. This gave it a boxy quality that begged for some taming EQ. Reducing the peak with a narrow cut around 125Hz fixed it and let the bottom end come out. It was strong down to 40Hz, with the presence peak doing its job of adding some click. The D12VR was the standout in this test with an instantly appealing thump that reached all the way down to 25Hz on the analyser and sounded just right without even thinking about EQ. This was the test that made me want one of these bad boys. It had a smooth top end, the click was detailed and accurate, but the combined deep and tight bottom end won it for me.
LURKING PHANTOM PRESETS
And then there are the three preset EQ settings. By applying phantom power you instantly get whichever setting is selected, but you lose approximately 10dB of level. There are icons on top of the mic’s silver band that visually describe each setting, and a sliding switch that changes colour to indicate the different settings. The centre setting (pink light) has a scooped mid-range, to the left (green light) the same scooped mids plus added lows, the right (blue light) has scooped mids plus added lows and highs. AKG recommends green for open kicks, pink for a vintage sound and blue for closed kick drums. The only trouble with this system is remembering the colour for each setting in the dark, when you can only see the lights and not the icons. If the lights were behind the icons so they were silhouetted then you could see what setting you were getting in the dark without having to remember the colour scheme. Anyway, the lights are pretty colours and the switch is silent so it’s easy to audition the settings to hear what happens.
The different EQ settings are distinct and offer the most commonly used EQ shapes; cutting the mids to fatten the sound up is fairly standard, a bass boost makes sense, and added lows and tops to give a heavily scooped, more aggressive sound may be used for heavy bands. They loosely fit with AKG’s suggestions about open or closed kick drums but they can simply be auditioned to find the setting that is most complimentary to the particular instrument. It took me a while to warm to the presets; there’s nothing wrong with them but the volume drop seemed a little odd — and the mic sounds so good as a simple dynamic mic. At first I was inclined to use the ‘natural’ sound and add EQ on the mixing desk, but after hearing the presets in action I began to appreciate what a handy option they are. Some users will benefit from the way the presets work for their situation, others for the convenience of not needing external EQ.
CONSPICUOUSLY COOL
Time for some live use and on a stage the D12VR looks fat, in a good way, standing out like a large German car on the road. You could, but you wouldn’t use it as a live vocal mic unless the singer was extremely shy and wanted a mic to hide behind… it would be good for that. It’s too big for vocals and for full effect it should be used on bass instruments. I first tried it at a Save The Kimberley Benefit at super-cool artist colony, Lot19, in Castlemaine. Over the course of the event I used it on several kick drums, a bass amp, two didgeridoos and a big saxophone. It was great on all these sources, with plenty of body in the low-mids on the brass and bass amp, an overall natural presence and real weight down deep on the kick drums. This was not a show for experimenting with EQ shapes so I relied on the desk EQ. But I didn’t use it much — the D12VR is one of those mics that you put in front of things and look forward to what it will give you rather than having to look for a sound that works.
It also got a run at the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine when Sol Nation came to town. Their driven dance grooves need a big, punchy and deep kick drum sound and the D12VR was a natural. We had time for a good soundcheck and it was fun to audition the EQ presets. I chose green (scooped-mids, added lows) for the closed-drum-with-a-hole kick and was able to then run the channel flat. The sound system has plenty of subs and the D12VR had lots of controllable energy well below 50Hz. If you want to explore the very bottom of a system, this is the mic.
Overall the D12VR was a pleasure to use and while I found the mic to be perfectly functional without the EQ presets, they’re available if you want them, and the lights add a theatrical touch. I think AKG has designed the D12VR to be a logical and worthy successor to the much-loved D12; like the original, it’s not just a one kick wonder, but presents a truly contemporary design. Its retail price is not bargain-basement but this is a high-quality, distinctive microphone that feels strong enough to match the longevity of the original.
Many thanks to Broden Penna for the loan of his original D12.
RESPONSES