Oktava still a good choice?

Several years ago, I got myself a Jolly modded Oktava MK012 exactly because I needed something less bidirectional than MKH416 for indoor dialog in a quite small roomy sounding room.

Sound-wise it was OK, nothing to complain about. However it was a nightmare having it on a boom because it was picking up even a slightest move of my fingers and representing those moves as relatively loud low frequency bumps in the waveform.

Now to be clear: the mic was sitting in a nice shock-mount on a boom-pole with the cable wrapped around really tight. And I was wearing woolen socks and soft like baby's butt gloves to reduce the rumble. Even my breathing was special on that shooting.

I have never had similar experience on location before and after that with any other mic - modded or not. I didn't care much what the problem was and was happy to let it go for $$$. But I think it had something to do with the mic being too sensitive at its input or not having proper construction to absorb handling, because even with a HPF adapter the rumble was there.

Never used Oktava stuff after this.
 
I will probably never get rid of my Oktava MK012 as long as it keeps on working. It's a great low cost mic that I use in situations where my Sennheiser MKH50 might be subjected to subpar conditions.

Likewise I will sub out an MKH416 in the place of my MKH60 in say very moist conditions.

It may sound silly, but I like to carry a couple of different mics for each situation I usually encounter. Like a plan A and plan B just in case mic.


Dave
 
Makendzis said:
Several years ago, I got myself a Jolly modded Oktava MK012 exactly because I needed something less bidirectional than MKH416 for indoor dialog in a quite small roomy sounding room.

Sound-wise it was OK, nothing to complain about. However it was a nightmare having it on a boom because it was picking up even a slightest move of my fingers and representing those moves as relatively loud low frequency bumps in the waveform.

Now to be clear: the mic was sitting in a nice shock-mount on a boom-pole with the cable wrapped around really tight. And I was wearing woolen socks and soft like baby's butt gloves to reduce the rumble. Even my breathing was special on that shooting.

I have never had similar experience on location before and after that with any other mic - modded or not. I didn't care much what the problem was and was happy to let it go for $$$. But I think it had something to do with the mic being too sensitive at its input or not having proper construction to absorb handling, because even with a HPF adapter the rumble was there.

Never used Oktava stuff after this.
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Hum..... I never had that experience, nor have I ever heard of anyone else having that experience on other audio forums. I researched the Oktava for months reading reviews etc. before I bought them. Most people I know rave about them. here is an excellent video comparing the MK-12's and the MJE K47 capsules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7YJjxleQOY
 
No doubt about it, the Octava mk-012 is a pig when it comes to handling noise. When I use it to record a band, I put up-side-down pieces of thick carpeting under the mic stand feet to isolate it. I've not tried to hand-boom with an mk-012 and wouldn't want to.
 
Exactly. This might have something to do with Jolly's mod of course. I asked Jolly about the problem and got the answer, that yes it's sensitive.

In fact I remembered one more thing. Because there were three girls talking all the time I needed to swing the boom from one head to another and it was really hard to not get "wind" noise. Even with a windscreen about half of the swings were with low rumble.

On the other hand I really polished my smoothness and got ripped.

Now because there are of course people who haven't experienced this and who did, seems like sensitivity of the mics differ big time.

Oh, and in response to Michael Tames - I bet I did the same amount of research before buying the mic (I needed to order one overseas which is much scarier), don't we do and overdue it all? And not once the hypersensitivity came up.
 
The Oktavia does have a bad rep for handling noise. But, that is hearsay because I have never used one.
 
Makendzis said:
Several years ago, I got myself a Jolly modded Oktava MK012 exactly because I needed something less bidirectional than MKH416 for indoor dialog in a quite small roomy sounding room.

Sound-wise it was OK, nothing to complain about. However it was a nightmare having it on a boom because it was picking up even a slightest move of my fingers and representing those moves as relatively loud low frequency bumps in the waveform.

Now to be clear: the mic was sitting in a nice shock-mount on a boom-pole with the cable wrapped around really tight. And I was wearing woolen socks and soft like baby's butt gloves to reduce the rumble. Even my breathing was special on that shooting.

I have never had similar experience on location before and after that with any other mic - modded or not. I didn't care much what the problem was and was happy to let it go for $$$. But I think it had something to do with the mic being too sensitive at its input or not having proper construction to absorb handling, because even with a HPF adapter the rumble was there.

Never used Oktava stuff after this.
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I've had a very similar situation with the same mic.
 
I for one had a couple of Oktavas and never felt it was that bad, but it sounds like I might be alone on this. I always felt that much of the bad rap on handling noise was due to less experienced booming. Though it is obvious some of the audio pros here feel differently. I still feel that for the price, around $300, it is still one of the best options.

Grant
 
well it is sensitive so yes you will get handing noise if you are not careful. But having use a lot of mics in the field I don't find it particularly hard to work with and about the same as say Schoeps, which is also a very sensitive mic. And for dialog you should have a roll off in so a lot should be eliminated before the recorder.

I have use a pair on regular mic stands on stage for chamber music concerts and have never had to put carpet under them. Of course this was a solid stage and folks were not jumping around. I have used them a ton for FX recording so that is generally using a pistol grip and no boom. Most of the people who have big problems with handling noise are people who are not experienced with booming, or are camera folks. You don't actually hear it much from people who boom or record sound for a living. Not that there aren't some.

That said it is not very forgiving of handling noise and for that reason I would not generally recommend them to folks who don't have a fair amount of experience or ones that don't want to do sound full time. If you want to boom for a living it's a great trainer since it will let you know if you are creating any handling noises.
 
It's more sensitive to handling than lot of other mics, but it's manageable in experienced hands and a good shock mount like the Rycote Invison. Despite it's low price it is not a good mic for beginners.
 
Rick R said:
Despite it's low price it is not a good mic for beginners.
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This!

It gets recommended so much because of the price, but it's very finicky and doesn't like to be mishandled one bit, which is of course what a beginner is predestined to do for a while.
 
Makendzis said:
Oh, and in response to Michael Tames - I bet I did the same amount of research before buying the mic (I needed to order one overseas which is much scarier), don't we do and overdue it all? And not once the hypersensitivity came up.
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You know there are the real Russian made Oktavas and the cheap Chinese knock offs. I made sure mine were made in Russia and not in China. Assuming Jolly modded them for you lm sure he could tell the difference. I guess we have different uses for these mics, and handling them sounds like not a good idea. For my purposes they were great. I only used them with the MJE k47H capsules, never with the small diaphragm capsules. Either way I've been on a few audio forums and have never heard people refer to them as junk.
 
I've used mine for years with no problems. However, I use it for indoors interviews, and I always have it on a stand and normally the stand on a carpeted floor. I am an OMB so there is never any booming going on.

If I was looking for one today, I'd take a very close look at some of the Chinese mics discussed here a while back.
 
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