What would you buy as backup for Okatava?

Charli

Charli

cool little "title"
Let's say I'm on location and 'oops' there goes the purty Okatava mic, sinking
down to the bottom of the ocean. What mic would you have as a backup to
the Oktava? I bought mine with warranty and am thinking of getting a back up
mic on Ebay.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Charli
 
vidled said:
"What would you buy as backup for Okatava? "

A second Oktava!!!
:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Exactly. The only thing better than the Oktava is a second Oktava. Anytime you start looking at other hyper cardiods you are actually moving up the laddar or performance or features. For example, I believe that the AKG BlueLine is a step above the Oktava with reduced handling noise as well as lowered wind sensitivity. Beyond that though, I prefer to sound of the Oktava. So while you could purchase the AKG, the Oktava then becomes it's back up. It goes all the way up the chain... You wouldn't buy a Schoeps to back up an Oktava.

For the money there isn't a better microphone than that little Russian bullet. So yeah... buy a second Oktava.

-Jeremy
 
Somehow I knew you were going to say that, cool, got a couple of them on my
watch list. Thanks.

Charli
 
yup, two, or even three oktava's! black ones! silver ones! woohoo!

what im really curious about is a hyper that sits squarely (price and performance) between the Oktava and the Schoeps. Id buy that. There was a while when I thought it might turn out to be the T.H.E., but it never amounted to anything, and people still seem to prefer the Oktava.

Maybe matt can chime in here, I know he has one.
 
Charli,

Be very careful buying Octavas on eBay. I have been told that even those that claim on ebay that their Octava's are truly Russian in origin, they are the Chinese knockoffs. The only place I feel safe buying Octava from is Sound-Room.com (and no, I have no tie to them, I just know that they are reliable and helpful). You may pay a bit more, but you know for sure you're getting the real deal.

Phil
 
Between the Oktava and the Schoeps there is the AKG Blueline and the AKG ULS system. From first hand experience I know the Blueline really is a better performing microphone than the Oktava but my subjectivity and wallet make me prefer the Oktava for it's price, functionality, look, and performance. Don't let that infer for a moment though that the AKG is superior is almost all areas to the Oktava. The ULS is superior to the Blueline...

Then again, those of you who know me and read my posts know that I'm an AKG & modular system fan.

The T.H.E. mic got a little hype and then sort of fizzled out... I think that it most likely will perform above the BlueLine and subsequently above the Oktava, but most likely not above the ULS.

Therefore the legit order of hypers might be:

Oktava
AKG BlueLine
T.H.E.
AKG ULS
Schoeps

You have mics ranging from $150 - $1500... Nice spectrum, and ultimately when you are looking at shotguns you see a similar range, there just happen to be more options with the Shotgun format.

Just to be clear on my stance with the Oktava and the AKG BlueLine...

I firmly believe that the BlueLine is a superior microphone. The fact that I prefer the Oktava is routed primarily in the financial standing of the Oktava, and if they were both the exact same price, I would ALWAYS turn to the BlueLine. The fact that the Oktava sounds so good (with proper wind protection and shockmount, which should be the case for any microphone) and costs HALF of what the BlueLine does just makes it my personal favorite microphone.

I know a lot of people can't go out and try these microphones before purchasing, so the last thing I want to happen from one of my posts is for people to get the impression that the Oktava out performs or is better than the AKG BlueLine or any other hyper cardiod.

The simple fact about the Oktava is that it is an amazing sounding microphone that should have a sticker price way above where it is currently priced. It is ideal for any interior shooting location (I've used it in an empty warehouse with 30' metal ceilings, a location where a whisper can echo) and will deliver a consistently pleasing result. The options of a variety of capsules makes this just an ideal combination.

That all being said, as a former BlueLine owner, I still am a huge advocate of this system. AKG doesn't get discussed much at all, but for 'location sound' the BlueLine system delivers in spades. I think that it is the most overlooked system (maybe second most overlooked to the AKG ULS system that Matt owns), but the ability to transform these mics from a hyper to a shotgun to a figure 8 microphone to a condenser really make them ideal for almost any shooting situation.

I know that this post is all over the place because I am a huge advocate of the Oktava and the price vs. performance cannot be doubted. I just don't want anyone to read this post and think that all of a sudden that the Oktava is on par with the next step up the chain.

-Jeremy
 
ah so many opinions!

nah, just kidding, thats a good post jeremy... ive heard the T.H.E. (pain in the ass to type that) isnt worth the cash compared to oktava, and you'd be better off with, say, two oktavas.

i dunno. this is a tough field, what we need is schoeps mics for everybody. that cost $50 each. huh, maybe ive taken too much medication.
 
I know it's hard to recalibrate your mind to look at two mics that, on the outside, APPEAR to the the same mic... and yet one costs twice what the other costs... but it's just like counterfeit money... Oktava fell prey to a situation of "almost legal" counterfeit activity due to the clever people that were at one time distributing the real deal. Whenever even GUITAR CENTER says that they won't sell those mics because of the counterfeit situation you know something's up.

BUT, you DID say as a backup... so if that's what you really want is just a cheap backup to an already cheap mic then I can't blame you... still, I obviously agree with the others in saying that I think what you get from Sound Room for $165 is such a bargain that it's nutty.

Tim. Since you're the second person to mention the T.H.E. mic I'll be sure to put up some little amature tests and video of the mic... I really like this mic because it's like an Oktava on nitrous... basically it's a really sensitive and detailed Oktava w/o any of the subtle Oktava weaknesses. When I first tested this mic I wasn't sure what to think... then I plugged in the Oktava and I was really surprised at the difference. I really want to get it in some tough situations... I'm kicking myself for not bringing it to Haiti, but I was worried about it with it's flashy look... at the time I didn't realize that I would end up wrapping everything that looked expensive with black gaffer's tape... that would have kept the T.H.E. from screaming "steal me!" But anyway, the T.H.E. sits squarely where it belongs at it's price... I think it's a better sounding hyper then my AKG 480b/ck63... which is about the same price (maybe a little more $).

I kind of backed off on my intial craze of the T.H.E. because of the last thread where I was comparing it to the Schoeps (and said that it was used in a major motion picture instead of the Schoeps) and then that soundguy came in and said "no, that's wrong... that never happened"... so I retracted my statement (which I read on the net... I wasn't making sh*t up). That prompted some BTS conversations and the gist is that I don't really know what to think about that situation... I don't think the guys at T.H.E. would intentionally set themselves up for conflict by publishing statements that somebody didn't give them the impression they should publish. The gist is that because a highly respected guy came out of NOWHERE to visit the forum specifically to tell me that I was wrong about the T.H.E. mic... that told me something... that somebody on here is either upset that I compared the T.H.E. to Schoeps, or somebody just doesn't like the T.H.E. mic for some personal vendetta against the owners of that company, or God knows what... I just felt like I was all excited about a new mic "discovery" and that a couple people made it their mission to shut down my enthusiasm... so I kind of backed off on it... and the T.H.E. has been waiting for it's opportunity since I've been in a lot of risky or low-pay situations... like working with kids and/or Haiti. I'll get some stuff up for you to check out.:)
 
A word on Chinese OKTAVA

A word on Chinese OKTAVA

ptalsky said:
I have been told that even those that claim on ebay that their Octava's are truly Russian in origin, they are the Chinese knockoffs. The only place I feel safe buying Octava from is Sound-Room.com
Click to expand...

Phil, et al,
just a word on Chinese Oktavas. This has been discussed before, and although I'd only buy Russian made Oktavas, the concern of someone having bought a Chinese one might NOT be as bad as thought; at least not from a performance point of view:

I quote myself from back in March:

===================
<snip>
1) The GC does NOT sell the Oktava's anymore. Here's a link to a letter from them: http://debris.com/journal/1336

2) The Sound Room DOES rock: they also are one of the only ones (THE only one??) that will sell you the Oktava MK-012 BODY only: something I was in the market for. A very good purchasing experience indeed.

<snip>

...although I [] would NOT buy a Chinese version, this might be also interesting reading for you, IF you are interested:

Background:
http://debris.com/journal/1280
http://debris.com/journal/1336

Test:
Interestingly enough, the Guitar Center claims that there IS a difference in sound quality between the Chinese and Russian MK-012, HOWEVER, there was a COMPARISON TEST made that had a different conclusion:
http://www.sound-patterns.com/mk012/
====================

Again, go for the Russian one every time; but if someone was conned, it might not be completely waisted money.
 
i remember that thread, and was also a bit bummed when it disappeared, but it would be good to look at this mic objectively. as i said in the other thread, im thinking about getting another hyper, and whether I should get a THE, or go with another Oktava.
 
One thing I definitely know about THE: clever name, but terrible for web searches. Put "T.H.E. microphone" into Google and you get over 7.5 million results.
 
Do like I did: a matched pair of Octavas (with 2 x 3 different capsules). Instant backup, and the possibility of different stereo pairs. And 2 hypers for indoor dialog at the same time.
 
I was gonna throw out what Petrus just said...mission accomplished. Gettng a matched pair will give you the dual benefits of a backup and xy stereo pair.

Cheers
 
Last question

Last question

Would you use the Okatava to record musical instrument? Like a guitar?
I think that's the last question I have on the Oktava.

Charli
 
definitely get a second one.

for the price i wouldn't risk getting one off of eBay.

i would get it from the soundroom.

i love ebay as long as i can tell what the item is...

i got my denecke ts3 slate on there but if there were cheap knockoffs of denecke slates where you couldn't tell i wouldn't have gotten it on ebay.

but then i probably wouldn't have paid full price for it.

has anyone tried the M1 or M3 addition to the oktava?

matthew
 
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