I produced a song for a friend in a studio here in Sweden a couple of days ago, and the engineer used a AKG C460b on the hihat. I absolutely loved the sound of this mic (on hihat anyway) and I'm thinking about buying one for my own studio. I looked on the AKG website, and I noticed that this mic is no longer in production. It looks like it have been replaced by the C480B. Are there any differences between these two mics, or will I be satisfied with the 480?
Iยดve heard a few recordings from a studio where c480b was the ONLY mic used on all instruments. Drumkit, bass, guitar, vocals. c480b on everything. I have to say that those are among the best sounding recordings I have heard.
The mic seems to be very transparant and neutral.
If you want colour and hype, its not a good choice though.
When the C460 came out (years and years ago), I seem to recall George Peterson's review in MIX saying it was a great hi hat mic. But I don't record hi hats, so I can't confirm this.
The C460 preamp doesn't overload gracefully. Sometimes that's cool, but mostly it isn't. The C480 preamp reputedly fixed that issue, and caused many folks to develop a new appreciation for the CK61 capsule.
Conventional wisdom seems to be:
1) If you have a C460, get Jim Williams to modify the electonics.
2) If you don't, buy a C480 instead.
I remember using a pair as overheads a few years back. I really liked them. Much better than the re-issue 451s in this area (those are just too damn bright, even the originals as well). They were on loan so I had to give em back regretfully. Always thought about picking up a pair if I saw some available. Great mics.
I've used the c460b a lot and owned one. It's a solid mic that can work in tightly on a hat or sound quite big even for a voice. The capsule is on the large side for a pencil condenser class.
The c480b was a hotter mic though I've never used one. It's the exact same capsule with a different preamp.
It's not the most open sounding mic but if you liked the sound of it I'm sure you'll like the c480b.
I'm not sure if the pair I use is a "b" or "c" but I know that ours have the CK1 capsule from the original 452, and they sound great. I use them on acoustic gtrs all the time, and a lot on drums.