AKG C414B-XLS

Been making music on computers for 8 years and playing electric bass, keyboards and sax. I've produced demos for people the last 3 years in different project studios. Now based in a semi-pro PT Le studio with a nice booth and nice drum room. My trusty Genelec 1029A active monitors + subwoofer have followed me for two years now.

Multipattern (5 incl. wide carboid) condenser. Basically the facelifted C414B-ULS, though i think that the XLS i transformerless, whereas ULS does have an output traffo. Also the mic self-noise is even further down.
This is the mic you pull out, when you have someone, who sounds cool in their own right. It doesn't add any sparkle, but it definitely catches the sparkle that's there. If I want to add to a dull voice or intrument, i'll use a Neumann tlm-103 (for voices) or an Audix SCX-one. The 414 is the 'best case scenario' mic, not the magic alchemist session-saver.
It's great for blues vocalists, every good sounding acoustic instrument, generally representing the source in a very 'natural' way, making it ideal for jazz and other acoustic music.
It's also very usable as a mono drum-overhead in loud rock music. I place it about 5 meters in front of the kit in a nice-sounding room, closer (about 1,5 meters) in a not-so nice room.
I will be getting a stereo-matched pair of the 414B-XLII-flavour (which has an more accentuated top end) for drum overheads and choir recording.