Josh and the team from Graffic Jam tested out the AKG C411 Miniature Condenser [Contact] Microphone here is what they thought about the Microphone following their first review of the Optogate PB-05E Proximity Triggered Gate.

Hey guys, Josh here from Graffic Jam with a review of the AKG C411 Miniature Contact Microphone which we got from Audio Technik.

So it uses this gel here to stick on to whatever you want to record which is, you know for us, symbols. So we chuck it onto the bell of a symbol and it measures the mechanical vibration of the symbol rather than the soundwave coming off like a regular microphone.

So it plugs in with an XLR cord, same as a regular microphone. But the advantage is that you don’t get any bleed and if you’re doing it in a subpar room you don’t get any room time and then you can add that all back in later. A disadvantage is that it can dampen the snare a little bit so you get a slightly duller sound but you can’t get around this with saturation, EQ and reverb so if you are in a subpar room it’s really handy to use one of these.

Another application we found a very handy for was on the high hat. There’s no bleed. So when you pan the high hat out, you’re not affecting the stereo image of the entire drum kit which can be particularly useful if you’ve only got one or two shots at it and you can’t go and redo everything.

I wouldn’t use it in a room that sounds awesome because it’s designed to not take in the sound of the room but in any other application it’s particularly handy and can also be very handy as a supplement. So you can put it on each of the symbols you might put another couple of mic’s on and then it can almost act as like a DI would for a guitar where you just have this straight no-bleed no-room sound that you can take just in case something ends up being wrong with the room or bleed.

So the AKG C411 Miniature Condenser [Contact] Microphone is very handy little device that you can get from Audio Technik. Thank you.

You can check out the AKG C411 Miniature Condenser [Contact] Microphone by clicking here.