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a few AKG C34 ( C422 C426 ) questions

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bobby bourbon:
Hi. It's been a long time since I've asked questions here and I'm grateful to want to be asking some now. I used to record a lot of concerts and occasionally use the same rig Ive had for 20 years to record other things and those other things have led back to wanting a stereo microphone again. I loved having one when I did. 
I lost my taste for concert recording a few years ago for a few reasons but Im interested again and also look at the opportunity to record sounds in general more conveniently with a single point.  I am likely going to be getting a C34 soon and have some mic control bypass and cable/connector questions Im sure this forum can shed light on.  I'll left the cable questions in the mic section since these things are connected.

Im excited about a 20M cable but most of the time I wont want to use that much. The person selling me the mic kit can modify the stock cable before I take delivery. Perhaps make some as well but if I can be sure of what needs to happen, any out of the ordinary requests are probably better asked of a friend of mine. I've read here Amphenol makes the connectors and C091 is the base part number. I can see a few places where I might be able to buy these things if the seller does not have them.  I can see the different types of connection and build quality I think.  First off, is there a version of this connector that I may look for that is better than the OEM issued one or one I may want to stay away from?  Its my intention to have the cable cut into a typical working length ask to attach a M&F to the ends so they can be rejoined or used independently. To buy another to do this is probably an unnecessary expense but maybe some day.

Is there anything particularly good about the AKG cable itself that may dissuade me from purchasing some "other" cable and have built from that?  If I did that I would want to buy a version of the 12 pin connectors and cable that at least matched what was used back then but maybe something better exists. Catalog I have from 1988 indicates cable is MK 42/20 and later 426 uses the same part number but are they still the same inside with the amount of actual connections in the pins? Somewhere I read it may be only 8 of 12 connections and if that is the case perhaps I should purchase 8 conductor cable or ask to have the 4 extras doubled up on both sides in the points where it may benefit.  Sorry for the long post but Im pretty much asking who knows about this. I like to get these kinds of things out of the way at a convenient time if I can.

**My most important question** for owners of this mic or its larger counterparts is about not using the box. During initial conversations I asked if I had the mic and didnt want to use the box, did I have to. This may have been spurred by a C34 I saw on line which is a MS mic thats got a problem. No box, 5 pins out of the base and I guess designed to do 1 thing but is working as an XY now. Im not going to want to use the box all of the time if I don't have to for a few reasons. Initially I was told if the capsule set is not told to be at figure 8, the back side will not pick up and pretty much sits there while the main side does whatever else its asked to do. It probably sounded like I didnt know what I wanted, but I did get the impression that if I had a cable that went from the 12 pin from the mic to L&R 3 pin that without the
S 42 the capsule would pickup in cardioid pattern and it stood to reason the C34 could essentially be a C33 if I wanted it to be.  When I asked about this recently when it seemed like this thing may come to fruition, I could tell it wasn't something that was going to be suggested as a good idea. There may be a chance of something happening because the voltage controls the pattern and I guess this voltage control is what the box does. I didnt want to be annoying in asking about this deviation from intended use too much but was left with a different idea along the lines of, I may not want to do that because something bad could happen to a nice old mic. But does someone know?  I was thinking its 48 but now think 48-52 can go into the box and it does what its supposed to do. I obviously don't know the ins and outs of this box but if there is a SAFE way to get around it, it would be wonderful to get some 12 pin connectors and the correct cable type or maybe even buy another if I can and have a few different lengths of 12 to 2 3s made. I am enthusiastic about learning the possibilities of the mic and box and 20M reach but I also know there will be times when I may want not much more than a yard or few of cable, no box, no stand, no bunch of stuff to be concerned with with and a simple recorder and a means of sending the correct voltage to the microphone. This is sort of what got me into this to start with. I had an AKG 522 a long time ago and have wanted something I could walk around with again. I am glad I didnt react to some of the possibilities thus far because I can learn things with the mic but do want to know if I can use it in the most simple way I can see with a custom cable with no risk to it getting unfettered performance in cardioid pickup at 48V.

If you've gotten this far thanks for reading and I look forward to understanding more about my questions and ideas or suggestions in general.

Also if there is a wind screen that is not just plain foam that will grip on to this properly I would like to know. I want to be using this outside in quiet places sometimes.

Nick's Picks:
I do believe the pattern selector box to be a requirement.  That c34 MS mic is sort of
an outlier in this case as it's just a mid-side stereo mic and would only require a 5pin output, two for R, two for L
and a shared ground.

EV676:
I would like to suggest contacting Richard Land in Nashville.  He's the go to guy for AKG, especially the vintage units.  He serviced a C422 I purchased last year.  He's familiar with the S42 box and should be able to answer your queries.  The C422 also uses the S42 pattern box.  Those connectors are pretty much un-obtanium.

barren4:
Richard Land   615-338-4443

dnsacks:
interesting question on the box and something I've wondered about -- seems at the highest level that these mics are a pair of dual diaphragm capsules.  Since it's my understanding that traditional selectable pattern mics use electronics/switches to select/blend the diagphrams to create appropriate patterns, and presume the controller box does the same thing, I wonder whether these mics' outputs (that feed to the external controller box) contain discreet outputs from each of the 4 caps and whether one could, using a 4 channel recorder, record each of these outputs independently and then mix them in post to create whatever pattern sounds best.

I.e. discard the 2 rear facing caps' signal to create a pair of x/y cards, blend in a bit of the rear in reverse phase to create x/y hypers, blend the rears and fronts in phase to create "omni" or blend rear and front out of phase to create blumlein.

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