AKG C12 for her voice was perfect and clear.

Without a doubt, the microphone that best suits her voice is the Telefunken ELAM 251.

Interesting isn’t it. The 47 just slots so well in a mix and you can see why. That mid range honk just great. The Elam251 sounds mix ready though. Great sound.

The 4 best mic's in the world.. and what a voice!!

251 for her beautiful voice.....

Well damn. You really have the whole lineup of basically all the important ones. Her vocals are just outstanding! The bottom end of the U47 was excellent on THIS subdued tune, but that C12 literally sounds like "a record that some grammy winning diva just made".

WOW What an incredible singer and an equally incredible recording !!! This is in every way the perfection we all strive for, a quiet recording that is also intimate and full of emotion... This is Brilliant

congrats! probably one of the best mic comparisons here, it's very useful!!

Really nice mic comparison. Great singing. I find it hard to pick between these classic mics. You couldn't go wrong with any of them. All are outstanding in different ways.

BEAUTIFUL singer! thx for this video

That's some CRAZY good tone!! ...both vocalist and gear. Kudos

Beautiful voice and killer mics!

They are all awesome mics.

Emotion carries best with the U67. My clear favourite for sound and musicality. Great voice indeed!

Wonderfull singing ! Thank you very much for this video !

I like the U47 best. The emotion transfers better and there seems to be more space around the vocal.

C12 is pure perfection. Thanks for this shootout!

The U47 had a kind of 'human' quality to the sound, and the 251 had fantastic detail and tonal balance. I preferred these two to the others, although they were all amazing. Love the singer too.

Beautiful Voice ! I love the U47 ! beautiful warm for this voice and song ! very good combo !

They all sound fine.

The winner is you for having these four mics! I would probably choose the 251 because it's the most modern sounding, but all are amazing.

Fell in love with the voice!!

The U47 sounds abdsolutely awesome - followed by the U67

Incredible comparison video

Nice to hear a mic shootout with actual music and not the typical autotuned pop pap. Very nice! I liked the U47 and ELAM 251 best, depending on the intention. Amazing clarity on the 251 with the U47 providing a more 'vintage' but equally amazing sound. The U67 is also great but I hear a bit more of the mic working as opposed to the naturalness of the voice itself. Like it's a bit veiled sounding, though very intimate and pleasant still.

Great comparison, unbelievable how little views this has gotten. All these mics sound great, but the U67 is a clear winner for me.

They're all super good. But the ELAM 251 is simply magical. Vocals are super nice. Thank you.

Ok all of these mics are great in their own way, but what I’m really impressed with is your voice!

U47 again. So smooth and rich. Fits just perfect for her voice. The ELA M251 is also great, sounds abit more upfront/modern.

Well the open top end of the 251 is very apparent and in such and intimate setting maybe a little too much, but for more complex settings that was the one that required the lest effort to keep present in a mix. I worked for a long time in a facility that had 67s, 47s, but just 1 251. The 67s lived in the piano. The 47s came out when something needed to sound "larger". Upright especially. Harmon mute (covered with a sock, bell touching the windscreen). But that particular 251 more or less lived on the big vocal boom with the wheeled base - just tied a felt bag around it when not in use.... Thanks for this - so well done. Listened for an hour on my little Genelec "ones" ... What a vocal delivery!

Great shootout, a great singer, and song choice. I'd love to hear the .wav files. I love the chest of the Neumann's and the air of the C12 and Elam 251. They are all classic mics.

This is the best shootout I have seen on KZfaq for these mics. The singer, the music and the song itself makes it easier to compare them. Really nicely done guys! Would love to see more videos from you! The vocalist is just top notch! Could you please publish the signal chain? Thanks a ton!

My Goodness this man is very Talented I did not expect that, because I was here for a college assignment research, but found a nice mellow singer too. and I am going to go ahead and get this Microphone.

A outstanding comparison best example on KZfaq 🙏👍

The Telefunken brings out every single detail in her voice

Telefunken ELA M 251 was so beautiful!!! The low frequencies were captured greatly! For me, it was the most superior..✨😇

I think the U47 is the odd one of the bunch. It was the one that I didn't expected to do so well on her female voice, but I actually found it to be the most emotional. All the others are great as expected, but are more articulate and that seemed to take away some of the emotion for me. Cheers. Fabulous video by way!

Beautiful mic comparison! My favorites are the U67 and the C12. The U47 is like a more perfect version of the U67 but the imperfections of the U67 is what makes me want it more because it sounds so damn unique lol. The 251 is like a more balanced C12 but the fact that the C12 is the C12 makes me want it more :) Plus, I like the high end of the C12. Gorgeous ;)

wow awesome ! They all great...love the c12 most

Beautifull demo. Thank you so much A joy to listen... And usefull too

Beautifully done, thanks. What I really loved was that they all sound fantastic. You wouldn't be wrong to choose any of them. The 67 had the best low level detail, but the 251 was the most polished for her vocal. The C12 sounded really good too, but I kept noticing a slightly boomy resonance on certain notes that wasn't on any of the others. It was a little like when a bass has a few notes that boom out and drive you mad when mixing. The 47 sounded truly classic. I'd love to hear the exact same shootout with a powerful male vocal, hint hint ;-) Great work!

Mic paradise right there… thanks for the video!

This is some of the most beautiful singing I have ever heard

0:29 2:58 5:28 7:59

All mic have very nice sounding features but the C12 on her vocals was hands down the best!

I love how there's no blanket consensus on any of the mics in the comments here! Usually these mic shoot-outs compare industry legends and modernised clones, reissues, or budget options and comments usually gravitate towards the industry standard regardless so it's really refreshing seeing a lineup of legends and a real honest diversity of opinion. Great great vid! To me, surprisingly, I loved the U47. I'm used to hearing that mic emphasise bassier male vocals and didn't think it'd stand out in this lineup but it was so good. It had *just* enough of an open top end to add definition and clarity to the consonants and the full mids and low end just made it feel so intimate, it was a very emotional sound and I loved it. The U67 and C12 were good, but I don't think they lent themselves to this piece much. They were well rounded, but they both felt a bit bombastic in their own way, the U67 in a more classic way, the C12 in a bit more modern a way, and I think either of these could have been contenders if you were belting this piece but as it was I don't think they made their cases as well as the U47. The 251 is one of my personal faves so I was really rooting for it and I was really disappointed with it here honestly. It added so much to your high end that it went well past the point of airy and open and felt a bit too sharp and sibilant. Did you have a favourite out of these?

Professional all the way. Why can't others that attempt these comparisons even come close to this presentation? This undeniably set's a standard.

With these 4 mic models, the problem can only be coming from the sound source. For the rest, it's sure of excellent quality, you can't go wrong. honorable mention to U67, which, in my view, among the 4, must be the one that recorded throughout history the greatest number of hits in the phonographic industry. greetings from Salvador-Bahia, Brazil!

Best demo ever......67 had a perfect balance with body , the 47 was sexy, warm and gorgeous but a lot of lip and mouth noise was picked up. The AKG was simply lovely ....and Telefunken was too much everything ..harsh at times

Fantastic video, great singer! To me you can really hear how the microphone changes the mood. They're all fantastic but as people who care about gear, we need to discuss that more than just which one is 'better'. We rarely talk about how gear changes the mood, which is what music is all about isn't it? With that in mind, here's how I would rate them for this song and singer: U67 - lean and understated but natural and classy. gorgeous without even trying. U47 - bold, refined, and luxurious. that special big date night kind of sound. C12 - classy, refined, flawless. if a mic were and occasion, this one requires your best outfit, jewelry, and fragrance. 251 - a little more on the raw side, almost aggressive on a sweet song like this. those qualities bring a vulnerability to the singer's voice that seems appropriate.

For me, they are all amazing, but on this material and her voice, I liked the C12 best, followed by the U47, U67, and the 251 last. But, none were bad.

Ditto the comments on her amazing voice! To my old ears, I thought that the softer passages had an ethereal quality on the U67, which I liked very much.

1:24 3:54 6:24 8:54 some time stamps for the same phrase in each version. I think this line is really emotive and a good point to hear the differences

Magical ❤

She would sound good on a standard SM-58, however from what I heard here all are great by the C12 seems it would need less processing in the track where the u47 seems kinda spongy I noticed that with my U47 on some vocals. The U67 was duller again great mic just leaned a tad dull. But the C12 & 251 were really good with the C12 coming out a little on top. Great mics & Great Video thanks for sharing!!!

U67 way above the others for her lovely voice...! Thanks for a great job..! don't get me wrong the others are fabulous mics too... second best is the U47 , third comes the C12 and last by far the ELAM 251.

Great singer! Very good representation of those mics. I wish an M49 with M7 capsule had been thrown in and that would have pretty much covered the vintage tube mics. Still very good shootout!

It went in order from worse to best . 251 dominates🤤💯🙌🏾🔥🔥🔥& that C12 is dope af🔥🔥

Amazing !

Wow! Great ear candy! My ears using headphone, hear the C12 as the winner. Sorry I'm so late to the party, but better late than never. Cheers!

That 251 had everything for her voice. It had the full body with all the transients and high end you'd want without being splashy. The c12 was close but was missing the body.

great singer, great test. thanks :)

I'm in love with C12

Outstanding, a great singer who doesn't do creaky voice.

Like a number of other commenters I found the ELA M 251 quite captivating on her voice in terms of the pushed sound and the warm air. And the sound may have benefited from the known proximity effect of this mic. That said, sibilance on the top end is noticeable and IMHO distracts from the loveliness of the performance. I actually found the U67 to be the most balanced for her voice. Subjective listening of course.

Basically, I thought that the U47 and 251 conveyed the most emotion (and were the most acoustically pleasing). And, I felt that the 251 conveyed the most intimacy. But of course, everyone's ear is different, and it depends what speakers/headphones they are listening to this on. I'm listening on the speakers of a Macbook Pro.

She's so close to the mics it's a bit hard to really judge. But for me it's the U67 and the C12. But that could be because there less proximity effect with those mics.

Greetings, This was an amazing comparison between great mics!!! Also if I may add thank you for having a vocalist who's voice didn't take away from the listening experience, but rather added to it overall. You can really hear the prox effect on the mics. It sounded like you did multiple takes and did not do them all at the same time because the delivery changed everytime. BUT, things still can through fairly well. I gotta agree that the C12 was my choice of all these takes, but once again I'm so happy that this video was made. Do you have the waves available for download? I would love to hear these go up against some of the clones using the same song. I wonder how things would stand up.

Well, if you want "what comes out is what went in", most people in the industry know the U67 wins every time (with just a micro tad of sweetness added from the tube). The rest of them add more color, which is usually what people want ( if the "color' added is what color they want). I know, back in the day,..female vox (at least the ones I was aware of) leaned more heavily to the C12 than the others. We usually always went with U87 unless there were some U67s around. Now that the world is digital, you can't just go with a U87 and be good. You don't get help from natural tape compression,etc.,

It's the Telefunken without any doubt whatsoever and Telefunken has just reissued it using the original design! It's 12 grand but it's a lifetime mic and well worth the investment!

The 67 was so good it made me watch the whole video to see if the others were as good: they were not.

U67 for this one. It's warmth fits an intimate track like this imo.

Thank you for this comparison! ❤ They are all legendary mikes and each one is incredible... However I have been a u67 fan for years now and I find the sound of it the most natural and most pleasing to my ears of all the microphones ever made.... but it's always nice to read other people's opinion to see how different they percept the sound. Anyway, I am picking up u67 this month and it's my dream coming true... Thank you again!

For me, u67 delivers a very consistent tonality throughout, although at the cost of very very slight dynamic range, almost like compressing some of the tonality, if that makes any sense. The u47, regardless of freq response, seems to deliver more midrange presence throughout (not what I expected). C12 seems to be a tad brighter than all, but in a very sonically pleasing way. At times, the ELA m 251 sounds a bit thin, and just doesn't fill a niche with this singer (nit pick). I think, interestingly enough, the u67's almost subdued tone works best for this specific performance and singer. Of course, the caveat is, all these differences are minute and the actual tangible differences between mics of this caliber are just that, minute. The performance is stellar and all of these mics shine in their own regard.

C12 sounds phenomenal as well as the 251!!!! I would love to hear comparsions from your vintage Mics against the Townsends Labs Sphere L22. How close will this moddeling Mic come against the real ones? But I'm sure nothing beats the real deal!

nevermind the great mics, this is just pleasure to listen

Classy song choice Classy mic locker Classy singer Classy mix Is this an advert for Orange Room lol

U47 and 251 for sure are the winners. 251 the brightest without being brittle. The C12 felt a little harsh and thinner, but the u47 felt so full

Wow! U47 comes in and the vocals get that 3rd Dimension that catches you immediately.

In my opinion, the best for her voice in order were: 251, 47, 12, 67

wow nice comparison review

Loved the smoothness of the u67, the u47 sounded the biggest, C12 had too much audible distortion, the ELAM 251 sounded the most modern (my choice). They all sound phenomenal though. It's choosing between royalty, really. All major sounds are represented, and just about all others are clones of these in some manner.

The C12 was probably the best fit here, but the U67 was a damn close second...I think the U67 was my personal fav (just felt so full and balanced) but the C12 did have a lovely definition about it! The 251 just didn't work...too bright for this type of song. The U47 was great (duh) but almost felt too thick and saturated to me.....too colourful in the midrange maybe. Thanks for doing this! Killer vocalist

what a nice shootout, surprisingly useful too for those who want to have some idea what modern copies of those try to achieve i don't like too warm/fat sound so i'd rate them c12 > u47 > 251 >u67 u67 sounded pretty much like a ribbon, that's way too much for me

Hi, Thank you for this great video. Thank you for musicians. Little question can I know which tube and transformer are in the c12 it sounds perfect.

67 all day on this vocalist and this song. Any of us would be luck to have any of these, although I'd never buy a 251 or even a clone as I always find them too ripping in the highs. We own a vintage 87 here and eventually hope to own a 67 and 47 RI or high end clone.

WOW! Wonderful comparison! Wonderful Singing! Thank youuuuu! C12 makes my bold hair stand up! :D i like her voice best on the C12! hands down!!!!!!!!!!! witch one did you like ? witch one did the singer like?

for her voice and recording selection, the U47 is king here.

Great voice!! All sound great but favouring the u47 and u67

I almost said U67 but the AKG just shines. The U47 has amazing low end but it lacks top end range. U67 has incredible top end but sort of misses some of the low end sparkle. AKG almost seems to combine both of those. I can see each one being useful for different applications. All around stellar mics. My favorite for her voice after listening back and fourth many times turned out to be the C12.

Should've have given the singer credit on this one, man. Sorry if I couldn't find it below. And the 251 is just stunning. I mean, they all are outstanding. But holy friggin' cow that 251.

nice comparison..best vid

U47 sounds thick, great for big sound, but overall I think the u67 is a more versatile mic the most honest sound, gives some thickness with no harshness, handles the dynamics great.

the powerstrip 🔥

U67 has clarity and brightness, but still smooth enough when more vocal presences is given by the singer . The ELA M 251 sounded very close to the U67, but lacked a little behind in the U67 smoothness when the singer pushed more presence into the mic. The U47 would be my 3rd pick, with all obviously having the ability to sound better than the other depending on the vocalist voice. Great shootout and very nice vocals!

Telefunken is very impressiv.

The C12 is the clear winner for her voice.

Hi: Thank-you for posting this comparison ! Out of curiosity, are these all different takes or the same?

For me, it is the U47 for this singer and for this performance, easy. U67 is a close second then probably the C12 and then the 251. The U47 is out of this world yet real sounding. Something magical for sure.

Great comparison video. Thanks! The ELAM 251 sounded insanely good on her voice, left the others in the dust. I could never afford a 251 but I have a 414eb with the CK12 capsule so at least I got that. If those mics are yours congrats!