AKG are among some of the best producers of microphones. You may of recently read my review of the AKG D112 microphone in which I can happily say it is one of the best kick drum mics I have used. The C1000s is a small diaphragm condensor microphone from the same fantastic company.

At around £100 it is a fairly cheapish microphone compared to similar others priced around the £300-500 mark.

The C1000 is a condensor microphone meaning it needs phantom power. However not all mixing desks, especially the budget ones, come with this feature. To help this problem this microphone can have a battery plugged into the body. This is definately a benifit if your studio is more of a bedroom/budget studio. Being a condesor microphone the diaphragm is a lot more sensitive picking up great clarity on the high end of instruments such cymbols like hi-hats or picking up fret noise and sparkle from acoustic guitars. The frequency range is from 50Hz which is still extremely low but goes up to the peak of the human hearing range at 20,000Hz.

The feel of the microphone however isnt a favourite of mine. It can feel slightly cheap compared to other microphone and this has had to be repaired several times if it has been dropped.

Whilst the sound does bring a sparkle to the recording the quality is not also that great. It has quite a warm feel to it which isnt always exactly what you want for situation such as cymbols. A warmer sound would be ideal for vocals however being a small diaphragm it isnt exactly suitable.

My personal favourites for these microphones are for stereo pairs or over heads for drum kits but there are plenty of better microphones out there. If you can pick these up for a good price however, then theyre worth a purchase!