AKG D12

Released way back in 1953 the AKG D12 was the worlds first dynamic cardioid microphone & is the daddy of all kick drum mic's. The D12 was actually released as a vocal mic & it soon found favour with the broadcast & studio industry in that role, but as studio multi-tracking took off in the 1960's engineers soon started using the D12 for kick drum & bass guitar.

Released way back in 1953 the AKG D12 was the worlds first dynamic cardioid microphone & is the daddy of all kick drum mic's. The D12 was actually released as a vocal mic & it soon found favour with the broadcast & studio industry in that role, but as studio multi-tracking took off in the 1960's engineers soon started using the D12 for kick drum & bass guitar. It's larger diaphragm combined with built-in effective pop-shield, spring mounted transducer (originally to reduce handling noise) & it's larger sized bass resonator chamber allowed it to handle bass & high SPL's (Sound Pressure Levels) really well to deliver a bass-end which was deep, clean and well defined & it's response extended down to 30Hz. The mic went through various revisions & variations were also released including the D20, D25 & D30. The original D12 production run ceased in 1976, but it was soon re-issued in 1978 as the D12E with an XLR connector rather than the attached cable of the previous first version.