I’ve been a long-time enthusiast/user of the AKG C 24 stereo mic, so it was a treat to review the new P-24 from Peluso Microphone Lab. I have been a fan of Peluso for years, and several mics in their line have been on a lot of albums that I have produced, including the P-12 [Tape Op #72], P-87, and P-47, plus I own a pair of brass capsule P-414s [#148] that I travel with when working in studios with lean mic lockers. Peluso has seen the ins and outs of just about every vintage mic out there as part of their restoration business, so it's no shock that after all those years of repair and research that their latest offering is a sterling reproduction of a mic that's financially out of reach to many recordists. Ever since I first used an original C 24 at a commercial studio in 2009, I have been looking for something that would get me close to that sound. My search has ended with the P-24.
I used this mic on three sessions with three different artists: Nothing, Blackwater Holylight, and El Ten Eleven. The P-24 traveled with me to Sonic Ranch [Tape Op #94] (where they have an original AKG C 24), I used it in my personal studio, plus I took it to Animal Rites in Los Angeles for a tracking session. I placed it everywhere I could: Drum overheads, front of kit, ambient room mic (on and off axis), acoustic guitar, piano (inside and outside), my bathroom for reverb (seriously), vocals, and in a few weeks I’ll use it for a small chamber orchestral recording. It became my floater mic that moved with me everywhere in the rooms so I could utilize the actual space that I was recording in. The more I could use this mic to achieve direct or indirect ambience, the better. I’m constantly looking for ways to get sound into the stereo field without using the same plug-ins or hardware that everyone has access to, and the P-24 got me there. It was so fast and convenient to have two mics in one body that I could swing around with me, point at the source a few feet away, and say, "That sounds like I’m in the room." Simply turning the mic away from the source to capture the pure room sound has made mixing the material so much easier. I am fortunate to work in amazing rooms, and I try as hard as possible to bring that into the listening experience. The room is everything – this mic helps show that. The ability to set up a speaker in a space, re-amp into a room, then record the ambience is a breeze. Having a super tight stereo capture also helped with processing. The mic took EQ with no problem, and I found myself sending the processed P-24 channels to stereo plates, chambers, or effect units to manipulate the ambience even further. I didn’t expect to get such good results, but I loved what I was hearing and so did the artists that I was tracking.