These days, boutique recording mics like the Manley Reference, Blue Kiwi, Nuemann U87 and the like are more expensive than ever. Most of them are financially unattainable to budding home studio owners. A lot of people have asked me what’s the best bang for your buck on a large diaphragm condenser mic for all around utility and vocals.
Meanwhile, cheap knockoffs like the Carvin LDC CM87s and Avantone CV-12 seem to get cheaper and cheaper. I wrote a great blog HERE about converting a $200 CV-12 into a AKG C12 clone that sounds very similar to the $10k original as I discovered on a Bjork session!
In 2009 I was working on Bjork’s Volta album, setting up mics and cables, where the chief engineer demo’d the C-12 with the CV-12 and everyone in the room was blown away how similar these two actually sounded! I guess there’s a reason Taylor Swift loved this mic too. At $200 it can’t be beat.