More on the Oktava MK012 mic.

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
I was over at DV.com and a really old thread that I started was revived. Unfortunately when I changed my name from GettemeierBrothers to MattinSTL the forum software changed every post prior to that change to "guest"... so I lost all the "credit" for my tenacity on stuff like this.

Anyway, the gist is that some guy was asking about an ebay mod for the Oktava.... and he wanted to know if the performed mods were worth the $50 fee. So I replied that if you have an Oktava that's NEWER then 3 years old then you probably wouldn't gain much from the mod. I sold two Oktavas to two different members on OUR board and both of them look pretty much like this on the inside, 1 cap may be different or something minor and this is the inside of the black Oktavas that I just bought 2 months ago. You can compare that with the pics of an OLDER Oktava which received the full gamut of Scott Dorsey mods... hopefully this pic will stay up from ebay for a while.

Once again the gist is that Oktava got a bad rep for poor quality control some years back... and after the Recording article in Sep 2003 from Scott Dorsey I think somebody at Oktava took notice... and realized that tightening up the components like this would only increase the cost of each mic by about 25 CENTS... and my guess is that's what happened and they did it. Now you don't see Oktavas for anything less then the sound-room price and I think this is why.

I was so pissed that I couldn't post a pic over there to explain this... since it was a good question... that I wanted to start a thread over here just so future Oktava investigators can find some good info when they need it!

As long as Jarred doesn't mind the realestate taken by pics like this (I try to make them SMALL files) then I may turn this into pic-o-rama and just explain everything there is to know about the Oktava mics.

Some days it seems like the same information... that's still valid... is just LOST in the archives rather then ACCESSED from the archives! It bums me out that if you don't refresh/revisit a topic every now and then that there will be people who come along and dillute really good info with some bad info they picked up someplace. (Meaning the people who still believe that you might get a poor quality Oktava even if you buy a new and genuine one... not the Guitar Center copy... and so this idea of the mod is still alive and kicking even though you may only be able to change ONE part... and even then the improvement may result in a net gain of ZERO.) In the pic of my mic at the bottom the only parts that could be changed are the silver-gray FET (which I have several of around the house) but I don't think I'll even mess with it. If it 'aint broke...

First two pics are the modded Oktava... second two pics are one of my mics.

top-a.jpg

Bot-a.jpg

Oktava INSIDE 122505.jpg


For the two people who got an Oktava from me... if you ever open up those mics you'll see that yours ALSO have the updates done. The only difference I can see is that the dark green cap (looks black) on the top side of the board (on my mics)... which is the yellow bit on the modded ones... is actually a light blue Philips cap which Scott Dorsey himself said that if you spotted that then don't touch it! That was one of the lucky samples that got upgraded caps from the factory!

Also if anybody EVER decides to see what's inside of thier Oktava you must screw the tiny screws at the base (3 of them) DOWN AND IN... NOT up and out... yes you turn them as if you are TIGHTENING them and they will go down... but do NOT turn them too far or you will have to take the mic apart completely! You just want them down far enough that the outer sleeve will slip over the heads. Make sense?

After I get this technical crap out of the way we can talk about how good these little babies sound. There hasn't been any quality control issues with these little mics in over 3 years now! I just want to do my part to squash any worries about that. If you get one of these it will sound good and it will be tough as hell.
 
i just got one of the black one's with all three capsules a month ago.

i already used it on an interior scene for a short i'm working on and it sounded great.

i have decided to pretty much use the oktava for all interior stuff and use my sennheiser 416 for outdoor stuff.

i'm kind of kicking myself for not getting the pair of matched mics...

i wounder if i could return the capsules and get a second mic and a set of matched capsules for both the current and new mic.

how much of a difference do matched capsules actually make?

matthew
 
Not that much... Didn't you get frequency response charts with your mic? If you did... and you bought your mic from Paul at sound-room... then he will do you the favor of choosing a close match from stock anyway!

Just take a picture or scan of the frequency response plot that came with your mic and send that as an attachment with an email. Say something like "Paul I got this mic from you a couple months ago and I'd like to get another one with response curves that are as close to this as you can get."

I guarantee Paul will be very cool about it.

I've bought Oktavas that were specifically matched and ones that weren't attempted matches at all.... and there isn't that much difference really. I did it more for piece of mind then anything. Also realize that it's ONLY the caps that are matched, not the bodies!

If you get a "selected match" versus a "factory matched pair" then you'll be so close that you couldn't even measure the difference with a scope.

Occasionally you'll get an Oktava with a slight dip or peak at a given band of frequencies... and we're still just talking a couple db... but the gist is that Paul can look over a box of mics and find another that shares that peak or dip... or the lack of one... to match what you already have. I wouldn't ask him to do that with 3 seperate heads though... unless you say that it's really important to you and you'll gladly pay a matching fee for his time.

If you didn't buy the mic from him then he'll probably STILL do a selection match for you on one head... but it helps if you are a returning customer.

The moral of the story for anybody else reading is that if you think there's even a CHANCE that this will be important to you then just wait until you can buy a matched set... and you'll pay an extra $50 or so per matched cap pair... and you may not even be able to tell versus an unmatched set.

Since I'm somewhat of a fanatic with encouraging people to check out the Oktavas I felt obligated to pay the premium for the matched heads.
 
i definitely got it from the sound room and it did come with the nifty print out of the mics performance.

the only thing i'm still trying to figure out is a way to mount the mic in my shockmount on the boom so it sticks out a little bit more.

from some angles its hard to tell how close the mic is to the talent vs. the shockmount.

i'm using the at-8415. i'm pretty happy with that mount. i bought a second one just so i don't have to switch so often between boom and the on camera one.

matthew
 
Matthew, if you're using the 8415, one thing I strongly recommend is to get the K-tek rubber gaskets for it. They fit in the same place as the "rubber bands" but hold the mic much more firmly in place. You might be able to get a little more extension that way. When I bought my 8415 from B&H, they had a bundle deal.

Phil
 
yes i have had the k-tek rubber bands since day one.

one of the best tips i got from b&h when i placed my initial order for my first shotgun mic, shockmount and wirless system.

that was before they had a "kit" you had to buy the k-tek bands separately.

when i got my second at-8415 i got the "kit"

matthew
 
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