The WA-CX12 is a faithful recreation of the most natural and balanced tube mic of all time, lauded for its organic tone and pleasing top end. The original AKG C12 was produced in Austria from 1953 – 1963 and is the definitive version of the 12-style mic. The WA-CX12 sound profile and circuit design is inspired by the original production run of only 2500 mics, which are highly coveted for their ability to capture the natural beauty of vocal performances, room sounds, and other far miking techniques. The list of famous recording artists who have never used a 12-style microphone is likely shorter than the list of those who have. Some of the most notable artists to create music with the original include The Beatles, Lupe Fiasco, Tom Petty, Michael Jackson, Alanis Morissette, and Taylor Swift, just to name a few. The WA-CX12 cuts no corners in achieving the highly coveted open, airy, and natural sound profile used over and over again by some of the world’s most recognized engineers and artists.

The WA-CX12 is a professional large-diaphragm tube microphone with premium components, elite build quality, and is hand-inspected in Austin, Texas. The circuit design of the WA-CX12 is faithful to the original production run from 1953-1963, and serves as the basis for the historically accurate sound profile. Like the original, the WA-CX12 tone is mostly flat until a slight dip at 2kHz with a gradual boost between 5-10kHz. At the beginning of the chain, the CX12 has an edge-terminated, all-brass CK12-style capsule, that stays true to the frequency response of the original-run 12-style microphones. This capsule allows the WA-CX12 to have 9 polar patterns with the typical cardioid, omni, and figure-8, in addition to 6 intermediate patterns. Moving down from the capsule, the WA-CX12 uses a premium 12AY7 vacuum tube for added warmth. At the end of the circuit, the WA-CX12 uses a custom TAB-Funkenwerk (AMI) USA Output Transformer, which gives the WA-CX12 a very full, wide, and open sound, getting the most out of the capsule and additional circuit components. The WA-CX12 has premium capacitors throughout, and a no-solder mask board for the lowest noise possible. As with all Warm Audio products, we focus heavily on quality components to ensure we release the best sounding product possible.