AKG CK 98

Use: atmospheres in town, quiet environment in nature.
Technology: condenser microphone super / hyper-cardioid "lobe" short barrel.

OVERALL OPINION

- For how long have you been using it?
For 10 years,

- What thing do you like most/least about it?
The +: change capsule hyper-fast one click, the super-light weight,
The -: no windscreen that comes with really serious,

- Did you try many other models before getting this one?
The entire range AKG "Blue Line" SE 300 B and its particular cardioid capsules, as well as microphones TELINGA.

- What is your opinion about the value for the price?
May mean it is expensive compared to the capsule cardioid range. Why such a difference new?

- Knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice? ...
Yes. But now, I would put these capsules by their successors in the range AKG ULS ... A cut above but also the price!
I kept sixty recordings with these hyper-cardioid capsule and these recordings are among the best I could achieve. They respond very well to my research in general: isolating a subject without much to dissociate from its context. It is too difficult with cardioid and parable, cumbersome, does also not enough to balance the bandwidth.
In short, they are perfect for:
- Isolate a specific scene in a context too rich,
- Individualize a subject without losing the bass,
- Pointer to a subject medium without acute neglect context,
- Or even compose a stereo scene with two main protagonists not too remote.
However, without being more sensitive to wind than the cardioid, they are much more complicated to keep the wind simply because of their length.
As for directionality, as all super-cardioid microphone and even while it is obviously frequency dependent and it should not be relied upon for sound isolation from the bustle of the city, it is perfect for rejecting sounds mediums such as acute or rubbing noises, whispers etc. - or the same thing, to isolate them from the rest. Note that this is not a cannon but a short barrel, AKG offers no real gun (more selective) than for its modular ULS. So do not wait for a total selectivity. For this, use a dish 90 cm wide and cut in half your gain!