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Originally Posted by Storyville  There were a few mics that absolutely blew me out of the water. The Akita was definitely one of them. That's one that hopefully I'll have the bank to purchase for myself. It belongs next to the Neumanns, Sound Deluxes, and Royers in the mic closet. We tested it out on Langston's singing vocals - again I didn't man the helm for the RnB stuff so I don't know if it's recorded.
The Akita is not a predictable mic - it actually requires a little bit of consciousness to use. It grabs transients from the low mids a little harder and faster than it grabs them from the highs, which is uncommon in a microphone. It's excellent for grabbing vocals at farther distances like two feet or more - you don't loose body or top end and you still get all the openness. Which is fantastic - it's a void in utilization that has now been filled. Up close it takes much better to the "crooner" style - the action of the mic performs much more like an RCA ribbon at this distance (with no roll off and higher fidelity). Next time Jim and/or Langston come through we'll experiment more with it.
I used the Taho to track Noesis' voice (rapper from Philly Slick). It's not completely transparent, it has a bit of that vintagy vibe to it, which you can hear in the samples. But the capture was great, and the mic really helped to bring out some "chest" sound.
Anyway, I did attach another session I snuck in. This is a rapper named Wendell Holland using the Akita. I like it a lot for rap vocals because it has a very present, very "hard" sound, and has a nice low mid and low pickup without feeling pushed. |
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post the clip with Dame's voice on the modded MXL 2001 aka the Chocolate Lab.
The Akita sounded crazy on my boy Wendell's voice. He was floored....I remember the fact that he had a very controlled dynamic was the reason we choice the Akita vs the Chocolate Lab on his voice.
I noticed that the Chocolate Lab can take some signal and gain a nice taste of edge and that it fairs very well thru really nice pristine pres on my voice. I remember that the Blue Robbie was used on these guys right?? I love how the Akita has a nice natural dose of built in compression. Listen to that TOP END!
Dame (his partner) was absolutely freakish on the Chocolate Lab (U87 modded MXL 2001).
Peace
Illumination