AT4073a & Oktava MC012 hyper vs. AKG

EA_Cru_2002 said:
Hey Mattin, in your experience, what boom pole do you think is the greatest deal right now?
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The LightWave GT10c is 6" longer (extended) then the K-Tek KE-110cc, but it's also 6.5 oz heavier then the K-Tek. That's a big difference... If you go from the aluminum Avalon (KE-110cc) to the graphite one (KE-100cc) you only save another 6 or so ounces... and that costs you an extra $180.

So what's the difference between the LightWave pole and K-Tek, besides the K-Tek is 6.5 oz lighter? The K-Tek is $218.45 and the GT-10c is $229 (Both B&H prices and FREE shipping... that's cheap.)

But if I'm gonna' be honest with you then I'd suggest you try the Gitzo G-7680c which is $249 at B&H (and $219 at Adorama)... because it goes from 33" to 151" (almost 13') and I've found many times that 9' just doesn't quite get there. I'm considering getting that Gitzo pole myself right now. I bought one of the highest-end Gitzo monopods this summer and if the locking collars on the boom are anything like they are on this pod then it may become my favorite pole. (even over my cabled graphite pole)... The ONLY thing the Gitzo is lacking that the other two have is internal cabling, but the extra length more then offsets that luxury.

Have you ever heard the saying, "size matters"? Well think of it as "length matters" because with boom poles there's no way to over-emphasize how true that is.

If you feel totally certain that you won't need over 9' of reach then I'd go with the K-Tek... but if you think you may need more then I'd probably have to go with the Gitzo. Simple as that.
 
I'm using the CS-1, and while I am gettihg good sound from it in SOME interiors and SOME exteriors, there are limits to what it can do. I think that buying the pair of microphones would grant you a wider range of options and you will have a slighter higher capacity of going to a little noisier exteriors and a little more reverberating interiors. The problem is that if you are so close to those extremes, I doubt you will get great sound anyways...

I choose the CS1 over a pair of mics because I really did feel it was the cheaper option, afterall you definately save on wind protection and support gear, and it is definately a very high quality mic. It is comparable to the 416 in interiors (I kind of prefer it slightly), adn a little less approrpiate in exteriors, so overall, it justifies its lower price. But it is getting me through... Before buyng another mic, I plan on testing the mic further to see which I need the most: a longer shotgun or a quality hyper, since I'm kind of stuck in the middle. Once I have a broader range of quality mics, I think the CS-1 will somehow loose it's usefulness, who knows...

Just keep in mind I'm not such an audiophile, I'm much more into camera an all, but that is how my untrained ears (and limited knowledge) feel about all this.
 
i made a couple of fishpoles out of aluminum tubing from home depot. different lengths. I don't know if they're hard to hold, i let Quasimoto do that stuff.
 
EA_Cru_2002 said:
As a small addendum, has anyone had any experience with the AT 4053a? It's a hyper card like the Oktava so it's more suitable for indoors. Is this supposed to by like the hyper card version of the 4073a? If that's the case, would the sound on this mic be a lot better than the Oktava? Or is the Oktava the better deal? (if the 4053a is better, but only by 10%, I rather save the 50%+ savings and get the Oktava).
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i would very much like to hear if anyone has an update about this

how does the 4053a compare to the oktava? Which one is higher in quality? regardless of price.
 
I would be interested in any results for the tests mentioned in this thread regarding the ck98. I recently picked up a ck93, which I am very happy with, and am considering getting the ck98 capsule as well.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
Our particular application is almost exclusively boomed dialogue and we use both the ck93 and 98 caps and are very pleased - recommend both as excellent bang for the buck. The 98 is certainly not a schoeps but still sounds very nice.

Sourcing was a bit of a problem, Matt (MattinSTL ) has recommended RVA Canada but our attempts to contact them via the internet have been fruitless. Have a crew member headed for Toronto next month, will try and track them down and report back.

Boxymusic out of Belgium was another source we used but they've apparently been absorbed by Piens and their international dept was - lets be kind and say "having problems" last we tried.

Anyone out there having info on good sourcing for AKG please share.

Audio dealer websites suck! It's become such a universal truth I'd be suspicious as hell of any that didn't.

Hope that helps. . .

Thanks.
 
man I wish everyone was hyping up the AKG gear way back last year when I sold my extra ck69ULS and c480b on here. I forget who bought it, but they got it for a steal!
 
EA_Cru_2002 said:
I know I've been asking a bunch of questions, especially about audio, but I've become a bit of an audio nut lately. Before I was always thinking about when I was gonna get my camera. Now I only think about when and which mics I'm gonna get, which booms, etc.
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I'm in the exact same situation now, so this has been a very useful thread that's kept me from asking the same questions.

MattinSTL said:
The ONLY thing the Gitzo is lacking that the other two have is internal cabling, but the extra length more then offsets that luxury.
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From what I've been hearing from various people is to never use a boom with external cabling. I used one on the 48 hour film competition that sparked this same sort of mania as EA is experiencing and I got basically what I was told to expect.

Is there a boom pole out there that offers that length and is internally cabled and what kind of price range are we talking about for something like that?

Thanks.
 
Jason K said:
From what I've been hearing from various people is to never use a boom with external cabling. I used one on the 48 hour film competition that sparked this same sort of mania as EA is experiencing and I got basically what I was told to expect.

Is there a boom pole out there that offers that length and is internally cabled and what kind of price range are we talking about for something like that?

Thanks.
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wrong , much less people use internal cabling , esspessially on films .
i hate internal cabling :-)
 
NewYorkLion said:
man I wish everyone was hyping up the AKG gear way back last year when I sold my extra ck69ULS and c480b on here. I forget who bought it, but they got it for a steal!
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Dude I posted back then that I thought it was a steal and I wanted to buy your mic... shortly thereafter it sold. D'oh!

In my opinion the AKG ULS line is at least 85% as good as any top-end mic offered by another manufacturer for a given polar pattern... meaning that if you have a really big budget for top-end mics I'd still suggest getting a Schoeps mk41 for hyper, an mkh-60 or 81i or cs3e or cmit for short gun, an mkh-70 or 82i for long gun, and so on... but getting what I honestly think is 85% (or better) of the performance in all these different $1K mics... in a modular system, which saves a LOT of $$$ after the 480b is paid for... well, for my budget and audio taste it was a no-brainer.

The ck69 was the cap that pushed me to the ULS over the BlueLine... because the ck63 is great, but the ck93 is also great... trust me... it was a hard decision. I've considered adding a ck93 to my kit just for the active cable option that AKG has in the BlueLine... which is mysteriously NOT an option in the ULS line. I had a Rode NT-6 for the past 6 months or so... and I was really hoping that it could be the answer to this desire for a specialized mic setup like that... but... well... it wasn't. Unfortunately I was disappointed in the sound quality of the NT-6 (in case you remember me being all excited about it last spring... well this is the reason that there hasn't been any follow up on it.)

I've been working on some things recently (that I may not be at liberty to disclose details on) where we used the ck69 indoors to illustrate some points about booming... and one of the comments was that we were struggling to get the off-axis coloration that was expected in demonstrating poor booming technique... it was more a case of inconsistent volume rather then coloration... and that, my friends, is what good mics are all about.

In all fairness the Oktava is way better at off-axis response then you'd expect it to be... the argument to spend more is increased overall detail, elimination of the slight lower mid-bass "bloom", a little smoother off-axis, and increased sensitivity... which all add up to a justification of spending more if you can afford to, BUT the Oktava is flattering to most voices and the mentioned "mid-bass bloom" is only problematic in rare situations and certain voices... otherwise it's virtually unnoticeable... and most newbies won't notice it EVER unless they do a direct A/B comparison.


As for booms and internal cable... you gotta' be smooth as glass on the pole if you have internal coiled cable... you can swing like a monkey with external and at least you know you won't get a slap in the audio track... the g7680c has an exit at the top so you can run a thin mic cable through the pole internally and coil up the unused portion at the bottom and velcro it there... that's what I do with this pole and it works great... running a straight wire through the pole has a lot less chance of cable slap then having a coiled-cable pulled tight and suspended inside the tubes, ready to bounce. If you want to have a cable dedicated to the 7680c then you gotta' solder the connector on AFTER you pass it through the pole though... and it takes a thin cable to make this work... thin StarQuad or the Instalux (thin Musilux) works well. Then when you change length you simply need the pole to be at an angle with the mic up and the excess falls out or feeds in easily.
 
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MattinSTL said:
Dude I posted back then that I thought it was a steal and I wanted to buy your mic... shortly thereafter it sold. D'oh!

In my opinion the AKG ULS line is at least 85% as good as any top-end mic offered by another manufacturer for a given polar pattern... meaning that if you have a really big budget for top-end mics I'd still suggest getting a Schoeps mk41 for hyper, an mkh-60 or 81i or cs3e or cmit for short gun, an mkh-70 or 82i for long gun, and so on... but getting what I honestly think is 85% (or better) of the performance in all these different $1K mics... in a modular system, which saves a LOT of $$$ after the 480b is paid for... well, for my budget and audio taste it was a no-brainer.

.
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Yeah, i need to get a hyper cap for my c480b. A while back Oleg said he knew a place in europe where they were super cheap, but he never told us where!
 
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