Customer Reviews

CAD M179 Variable-Pattern Condenser Microphone

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this microphone just or one purpose: Tom miking.

Prehistory:
After having read raving critics about the CAD - mainly from US engineers at Gearslutz - I couldn't resist any longer and wanted
to make my own picture.
Since I'm located in Germany, having done a search for shopping resources over here quickly revealed: Nothing.
No CAD M179 was available in Germany at that time, which seems to be strange because CAD produces in China.
Anyway, I finally found it on Amazon.com in the U.S.

Buying experience:
Although I've always been a bit skeptical about customs, delays and whatever else can go wrong with oversea transports, I ordered the price reduced bundle of 3 units.
To my greatest surprise, the package arrived quite fast (10 days, 2 of them in the customs), was safely packed and 100 % as described.
Import tax was very low by the way, only 2.5% of the microphone price plus shipping (tax for Germany, other countries in the EU may vary).

Packaging:
The CAD comes in a very large, cube-like package, printed with the-more-the-better zillions of colors, mainly in purple, red and blue.
One could say the carton design looks cheap, but as always, taste is a personal thing and in the end it's the content that counts, isn't it?
Although not my piece of cake, I must admit that the microphone seems to be well protected by this giant package.

Construction:
The microphone is sturdy built, with a anodized metal surface while being surprisingly heavy.
The capsule is placed safe inside the solid metal windscreen.
Part of delivery is a ring clamp plus a professional shock mount - highly recommended to reduce vibrations when miking drums.
The overall construction is very good, in my opinion even exceptional for the given price.
The CAD M179 offers a pad switch, which is a must for drum miking or the capsule could tend to distort.
Both, variable pattern wheel as well as the pad switch, are easy accessible in front of the mike.
Overall impression: No bells and whistles, but a solid workhorse, built for pro's.

Sound:
The CAD offers a warm, natural sound, that perfectly fits for Toms, but also for clean Guitars and even background vocals.
I personally wouldn't use it for Lead vocals, but what can you expect for the price.
Of course, the CAD wasn't built to be a concurrence to Neumann and other high end brands. But it does its job extremely well.

The main purpose for me was Tom-miking, so the following research is covering only my experience with Toms.
Set to cardioid, surrounding sounds from back and side are successfully suppressed, quite important when dealing with bleeding HiHats or cymbals.
The Toms immediately sounded really big, not to say huge, without messy crash sounds coming through.
Although having used Sennheiser MKH-40 for Toms before (one costs 10 times the $$ of a M179 ...), the results were doubtless significantly better then ever!
You can turn up the Tom tracks in your mix, really push them in breaks and the like, and at the same time your mix won't suffer of the typical cymbal bleeding as known from other microphones (like the MKH-40 or MD421).
Amazing.

In Short:

Pros:
* very good and sturdy crafted
* exceptional good sounding results, specially with Toms
* low price

Cons:
* heavy weight that demands for mic stands
* typical microphone clamps will place the CAD more over the center of Toms, not at side, due to it's size.
I can live with that, although your setup will be cluttered even more when using stands.

Conclusion:
I love this microphone! My dream of a perfect drum sound has become more true, day in and out.
A clear recommendation: Buy it!

I have used many mics over the years, from AKG's to Neumann's, and as you know, they're pretty costly but get you that great full warm sound. I always thought that to get that sound, you needed to shell out the bucks for studio time in the places that use them. How can you get that sound for less than $1,000 (and that's IF you're lucky enough to find them for that price!!!)? GET YOURSELF THIS CAD M179 MIC!!! I kid you not-it's versatile Variable pattern selector function alone is worth it! With a low self-noise rating, sleek design, great shockmount, and just an overall warm vintage-but-still-modern sound, this baby has impressed a good number of my clients that SWEAR it's been souped-up with high-end German tech modifying! Get it...you won't be disappointed!!!

Contrary to the product description, all CAD mikes are made in China now, and receive only batch-level inspection in the U.S. (according to CAD Sales). I bought one of these to go along with my U.S.-made M177. Based on my initial tests, the two mikes are quite comparable in sound quality, which is to say, they sound quite good and are certainly worth their price. My older U.S.-made M177 has been very reliable.

Noise: very quiet (low self-noise from the mike). The M179 is slightly noisier than the M177.

Frequency response: designed to be flat, almost like a reference mike (what you hear is what you get). Good low-end response means that low frequency rumble is easily recorded; a roll-off switch is provided that will clean that up.

The neat feature of the M179 is the ability to change recording pattern from Figure-8 through omni. This works as advertised, although fresh out of the box the dial is quite stiff and generates noise/clicks as the pattern is changed (since this is normally set prior to recording, this should seldom if ever actually matter.) This feature is usually only available on relatively expensive mikes. Having it on the M179 makes this mike a good choice for a first home studio mike. Given the variety of uses this mike can be put to, I suspect I'll be giving it plenty of work.

Ok here's the deal...I'm just a small home studio type of guy, and honestly I wasn't expecting much when I shelled out the $120 for this mic. I have just always seen it around and I thought it would be a solid choice for my first multi-pattern mic! The first time I recorded with it, I had it on omni mode and played some acoustic....it sounded amazing! I can't believe this mic is that good. Crisp, clean sound (who cares if it's made in China like that one guy says?), and very flexible usage. I've since used it on toms, acoustic, a room mic for amps, and even some background vocals, and it has shined every time!

So if you're like me and looking for a low-price LDC with multiple patterns, GET THIS. You won't be disappointed at all! :)

A great mic, really good for small studios because it is so much versatile. It has a crystal sound and you won't be disappointed buying it!

so this mic is pretty versatile. sounds great on omni with my acoustic guitar, it records my amplifier very well as a room mic with the pad switch, also sounds pretty decent on vocals set to cardioid. still testing on the drums, but so far, nothing to complain about. i will say that i had to send the first one i got to CAD because it was buzzing when you'd touch the dial, they sent me a brand new one, and it is fine.

I bought this mic after hearing good things about it, but I had never tried it. It has impressed me quite a bit since then. I use it in a small home studio set-up, along with a Presonus Firebox and Logic Pro on a Macbook.

For the price, this mic is a very good deal. It sounds much better than an Audio Technica 3035 that I had (and ended up selling shortly after getting this mic). I also got an Oktava MK-319 that is a much more expensive mic, and that was then sent to be mod'ed by Michael Joly (and therefore cost even more) and I'd say the two mics are very similar. I end up using the CAD M179 a lot more because it's less valuable, but sounds just as good.

What else? It has low noise and combines the crispness you want from a condenser without being unpleasant. It sounds particularly great for male vocals, in my opinion, although I have used it for as a room drum-mic. I would highly recommend this mic, especially at this price point.

I believe this mic will do me and my rapper friend well, because so far, it's blowing us away!!! You will thank me when this arrives at your doorstep, and gets hooked up..

Got mine for under 130, and it's a great Mic. I can use it for vocal tracks, or recording for webcasts that kind of thing, or recording studio guitar sounds etc. Awesome mic.