Using Your Microphone; General Hints - AKG PERCEPTION 120 User Instructions

4 Using Your Microphone

4.1 General Hints

The PERCEPTION 120 and PERCEPTION 220 are gen-
eral-purpose cardioid microphones for recording,
broadcast, and onstage use.
Every instrument radiates its sound in a specific
way. Therefore, to get the best sound it is crucial to
experiment with microphone placement.
The following hints apply to both the PERCEPTION
120 and the PERCEPTION 220.
• Refer to fig. 3. The front of the microphone is
the side of the body with the AKG logo on it.
Therefore, always aim the logo at the sound
source you are going to record!
Being a unidirectional (cardioid) microphone,
the PERCEPTION 120/220 will pick up very little
sound from the rear.
• When recording wind instruments or vocals,
make sure not to blow or sing directly into
6
PERCEPTION 120 PERCEPTION 220
Fig. 3: Microphone front.
the microphone.
To avoid unwanted wind and pop noise or mois-
ture problems, place an optional PF 80 pop
screen from AKG between the microphone and
vocalist/instrument.
• Keep the microphone dry. Moisture from
blowing or singing directly at the capsule from
a short distance, or extremely high humidity
may cause the microphone to start crackling or
go very quiet due to partial short circuits in the
polarization voltage.
• If you use the microphone in the open air, use
an optional AKG W 4000 windscreen to pro-
tect the microphone from moisture and reduce
wind noise.
• High volume instruments: You can use this
microphone for close-in recording of very loud
instruments (brass instruments, kick drum,
etc.). Just switch the preattenuation pad in to in-
crease the microphone's capability of handling
AKG PERCEPTION 120/220