Jim Ebdon, FOH engineer (Aerosmith) :
“Well good news.The D 5 mic was a hit! He wanted to use it for the whole show. It sounded good and full. There is one song which he used the XXX-mic hand held so I got a good comparison.The XXX-mic was punchy but lacked body. We will continue to use it for the next few shows.”
Stanley Soares, FOH engineer (Sepultura):
“It would be awesome if you would be there to see what we were doing ... But anyways. It was a great show and thank you for the D5 mics, they're great, good for noisy stage and the singer loves them already!”
Simon Croft (Play Music Pick Up, May 2007 p.58 / Source: Harman Pro UK) :
“For the D5, AKG actually recommends you to use it slightly off-axis so that you are singing
across it, rather than into it. AKG microphones suggests this to reduce pop noise and, although
there is an effective pop shield inside the cage, it does seem to help get rid of the odd explosive ‘pop’ that all mics can produce.
AKG specs the D5 as having a frequency response of 70Hz-20kHz and I have to say that the frequency plot looks a lot flatter and more natural than you’d normally expect from a stage vocalmix – especially a dynamic. I would reckon that AKG’s thinking is that as sound reinforcement gets ever closer to the Holy Grail of performing like a very loud hi-fi, there is less and less use for mics that put a mid-range ‘honk’ into the frequency response.
The AKG D5 will also take 147dB of sound pressure at only 1% distortion and you will never sing loud enough to produce those kind of pressure levels. The AKG D5 is bullet proof!
All of this may be down to AKG’s “new Laminated Varimotion diaphragm deep-drawing process”. To be honest, I have no idea what that means. All I can tell you is that this mic sounds good to me and
that you could have years of happy use from it without ever knowing what &rdquo.Laminated Varimotion” was all about.
Another area where AKG has put in some work is on the internal shock mounting of the capsule. While I’m not seriously suggesting that you use this D5 as a substitute for a hammer, you could probably get away with it. Certainly, normal handling doesn’t seem to present it with much of a challenge.
So what kind of challenge can we give the AKG D5? Well… our friends at Harman UK arranged for a bunch of these mics to make their way down to a sound check, where the engineer in residence had already set up the desk for the usual suspects mic-wise. Mick (as we’ll call him, because that’s his name) simply swapped
the existing vocal mics without making changes to the EQ on the desk. He was impressed by the resultant sound and – perhaps more importantly – so were the band. No doubt, you’d like to know where I stand on this. I think the D5 has a lot to offer. It’s an open and transparent sound that brings a touch of almost studio quality. It certainly seems to suit your modern sound system and I think it’s going to win a lot of friends. Assuming you’re looking for a live vocal mic, I’d certainly recommend you to give the AKG
D5 a try, but there are other models in the range that might suit you even better. The AKG C5 is a condenser version, with the extended high-end clarity that technology tends to give. Alternatively, the new AKG Elle C is designed specifically for female vocalists. It’s also worth mentioning that the D5 and C5 are already available in wireless versions: AKG D5 Wireless, AKG C5 Wireless. No doubt the Elle C will soon follow suit.”
In summary, the AKG D5 dynamic vocal microphone for lead and backing vocals delivers a powerful sound even on the noisiest stage. Its supercardioid polar pattern ensures maximum gain before feedback. The D5 stands for a crisp sound that cuts through every mix. AKG made the first microphone diaphragm ever whose thickness varies across its diameter. The new Laminated Varimotion diaphragm deep-drawing process allows the diaphragm itself to be fine-tuned with no extra tuning resonators, leading to a quantum leap in audio performance. The dual shock mount eliminates any kind of mechanical noise for trouble-free live use. The audience will hear nothing but the pristine sound of your voice!