The AKG D 12 is a dynamic microphone that I have seen used in a local studio that we go to called Studio 82, I have seen this mic on almost every single drum set up they have used. I have only seen it on the kick drum though and used directly in front of it to get the full feel and thrust of the kick. I would never purchase this mic at this point just because we are going more digital and for the price of this mic we could get a whole drum vst that would serve us much better. But from time to time we do get some live drum recordings on some of our more synthetic music. Now I do request that they use this mic before recording , most of the time at that studio I don’t have to request it because they already have it mic’d up and ready to record. I think It was and probably still is the main kick drum mic over there and has been for years now. OVERALL OPINION You wont find many mics that will sound this great directly in front of a kick drum without getting muddy sounding or the vibrations causing the sound not to sound natural. So I think the AKG D 12 is probably the best one that I have heard in a long while. I havent heard a lot of the newer kick drum mics that are out now or coming out now and within the last year, but having been using this one since around 2008, I can say it sounded great and still does. I highly recommend this mic to studios in need of a good kick drum mic. The mic will serve as more than just a kick drum mic though if you need it to but you can get the most out of it in my opinion directly in front of the kick.
