PROAR C414 Microphone Comparison Test with the Original C414

While this mic says “C414”, it is not a direct clone of the original. The Proar mic is still a decent condenser mic but it’s not quite exactly the same. A few notable differences are:
- Original mic has pick up pattern selection switch, Proar mic can only do one pick up pattern.
- Original mic has a pad and frequency selection switch, Proar mic doesn’t.
- Original mic sounds much fuller, warmer, higher gain, and more low end. Proar mic doesn’t have as much gain or low end and it sounds a bit hollow compared to the original but not in a bad way. It just sounds like it has its own characteristics.

I recorded some sound sample using my acoustic guitar. The mic is set to point at the same spot where the neck and the body of the guitar meets. Both mics are about 6”-8” away from the guitar. Both mics are set at the same exact gain in the DAW and both are recording at the same time. In the video, I isolated each mic so that way you can A/B the sound between one and the other. There’s no effects or EQ applied to either microphone.

As you can hear in the video, both microphone sounded almost the same. The Proar mic just sounded less full but it doesn’t sound bad. My suggestion if you want to make the Proar mic sound a bit more like the original C414 is to add about 5db more gain, add just a tad of low end, and experiment with adding some midrange frequencies to make the mic sound less hollow.

All in all, the Proar mic is pretty good deal given the price point. It’s a pretty decent condenser mic and it has its own characteristics and sound that is reminiscent of the original C414. With a bit of tweaks in post production, I have no doubt that you can get a pretty convincing “C414” sound from this mic. Highly recommended.

Below is the Amazon affiliated link. If you’d like to order this microphone, please consider using the link. It would help out the channel a lot. Thank you!

https://amzn.to/3qRWYEz