CK 69-ULS Condenser Shotgun Microphone
($785)
AKG Acoustics
1525 Alvarado Street
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 351-3500

Just in case you're new to Videomaker, and you haven't yet heard our stance on the importance of good audio in every video production, here it is again: when you're shooting video, you can't forget that the sound is at least as important as the image. Few things can ruin an otherwise good video production like a poor sound track. So what's the first step in getting good, crisp audio to go with the video? Use an external microphone.

A wide variety of external microphones are available for video production at an equally wide range of prices and features. The budget-conscious videographer can get by with a pair of inexpensive lavalier microphones, or perhaps just a good hand-held mike. But another avenue available to the serious videographer who wants an all-purpose solution is the shotgun mike. Though the high-quality models do tend to be a bit more expensive than most other microphone types, a single fishpole-mounted shotgun microphone can replace multiple-microphone setups in some situations.

AKG's CK 69-ULS is a high-quality, high-priced shotgun microphone that's designed for film, television and video use. Its highly directional pickup pattern and rugged construction make it a good choice for long-distance pickup at sporting events, staged productions or studio interview settings. The CK 69-ULS also takes the versatility of the shotgun design one step further by making about half of the pickup element--the "capsule"--removable, thus making a whole new microphone with reduced sensitivity and directionality. This fact alone makes the CK 69-ULS less expensive than it seems, because it's really two microphones in one--a long-barreled shotgun mike for picking up sounds from a distance, or a short-barreled shotgun mike for handheld use or other applications.

As stated before, the CK 69-ULS--in its longer configuration--is a highly directional microphone, even when compared to other shotgun mikes. It picks up sounds mainly from a very narrow angle extending outward from the front of the capsule. This makes it very useful for long-distance audio pickup, and for selectively choosing which audio sources to focus on and which to leave out. For example, let's say you're shooting an interview near a busy street. A typical omnidirectional microphone will pick up audio from all directions, including sounds of the passing cars and other unwanted noises. A well-placed unidirectional microphone, on the other hand, will focus the audio pickup on the interviewee, leaving the traffic noise well in the background.

Other uses for the CK 69-ULS include sporting events, stage productions, handheld interviews (mainly in the half-size configuration) and fishpole-mounted studio settings. The latter configuration involves the use of an audio assistant to suspend the microphone above the talent with a long pole--commonly called a "fishpole"--effectively reducing the number of microphones necessary in a studio setting to one.

One of the main problems with on-camcorder microphones is the fact that they operate at such a distance from the talent. A good shotgun microphone mounted onto the camcorder, however, can effectively reduce this distance by ejecting unwanted noises coming from the sides. The very tight pickup pattern of the CK 69-ULS makes it an excellent choice for a camcorder-mounted microphone, or for those situations where you can't place the microphone very close to the talent.

In all tests we conducted, sounds produced by the CK 69-ULS were very crisp and true to life. Also, the long-range sensitivity of the microphone was exceptional; picking up a spoken voice from 25 feet away indoors presented no difficulties.

For rejecting unwanted wind noise, the bass rumble of air conditioning machinery or other difficult on-location noises, the low-cut filter of the CK 69-ULS works well, but at a price. Though you can set the low-cut switch on the microphone's barrel to filter out all frequencies below 150Hz, the resulting audio tends to have a flat quality that lacks warmth.

As stated before, the CK 69-ULS is an extremely directional microphone. More specifically, it has a pickup pattern that's twice as narrow as the average shotgun mike. As a result, you can place it twice as far away from the sound source while still rejecting the same amount of ambient noise. At times, this makes it too directional for other conventional uses, such as standard handheld interview situations. This is part of the reason why the removable capsule is such a good idea. By providing two microphones in one, AKG turns a highly specialized microphone with limited uses into an all-around performer that works well in a number of situations.

Let's face it: the CK 69-ULS is no toy. It was designed for professional video and film production, a fact that is clearly reflected in its price (which is equivalent to that of a typical 8mm camcorder). But when you consider the number of situations in which it can be useful, the quality of the sounds it delivers and the number of microphones it could potentially replace, its price might seem a little bit more in reach.