Topic: Hand Matching Help

[shroominhumpy]

Hey all you knowledgeable tapers out there. I need some help. I want to hand match a pair of Oktava Mk012s and have no idea where to begin. What do I do, listen for ect... Thanks a million to all those who reply.

Jason

[kev B]

Yes, I searched as well and I could find no guidelines.

[BCostigan]

I doubt you'll find any "how to" info on matching mics.  There is plenty of conversation about matching in general.

[Chanher]

they way it was explained to me is that at the store you "use" them ( I 'm assuming you get them to bring you equipment) and use your ears to find a pair that sound the most similar.  Can anyone else shed some light on this?  please correct me if I'm wrong...

[Kindguy]

You need to look at the spectrum analysis graph & match em up.  Be sure the seriel #'s match the analysis.

You could never match them by ear alone.

[Kindguy]

[mhibbs]

Kindguy is right...no way to match by ear.  FWIW, a lot of mic manufacturers have stopped matching b/c production tolerances have become such that they don't believe it to be necessary.  It's kinda up to you.  IMHO, it's one of those things worth doing if readily available...like w/ the Schoeps for instance...it's easy to justify the $30 matching charge on a $970 set of caps...why not...but attempting to hand match some at the store isn't going to be easy w/out the right know how and equipment...and likely not worth the effort.


mitch

[Tim]

Mitch, we're not talking a fine german microphone here... I wouldn't bother paying for matching on Schoeps, Neumann, DPA or AKG. Okatava though is infamous for poor quality control.

[shroominhumpy]

Mitch If I had the money to drop $970 on some nice, matched mics, I would, but with the situtation I am in I do not have the opportunity. I am trying to get a close (to the ear), field usuable match, so I can get out and tape some shows that will hopefully sound nicer than what I have now. Thats all. I want something that sounds good to me, and sounds close to me. When the day comes I can drop the 1000 clams I will do so, but for now I am looking for a hold over. We are not talking $1000 mics here, we are talking about Oktavas...thats it. Thanks for the heads up on the lack of an exact match, but that isn't what I am looking for.

Jason

[sickrick43]

You're not gonna match them by ear...

This would be similar to the "bit accuracy test"

OK - here's what you do, bring a laptop with PocketVX (or some other way to get analog line in or digital into the laptop) & Wavelab/Soundforge, a preamp, boombox & CD with a track of white noise on it and a CD Player.  Play the CD while recording with the mic plugged in, 1 meter away from the speaker.  Do the same thing with all the mics you can get them to take out of the box.  Start doing the "bit accuracy test" (someone point out a link to this please) with all your recorded samples (1 minute should be good - label the mics and the samples so you know which is which), and the pair of mics that get you closest to zero is the "matched pair".

Theory being (like the bit accuracy test), that if you put the 2 samples out of phase with each other, they should zero out with equal amplitudes at the same frequencies.  Any remaining signal, indicates the "inaccuracy/mis-matched sensitivity" at that frequency.  The pair of mics that have the least amount of mismatch, are the matched pair.

While being somewhat un-scientific (and probably drive the salesman out of his frikkin mind), if you position the mics as close to the same place as possible, and shoot a reference sound (white noise being equal amplitude at all frequencies) you should get in the ballpark.

I paid big $$ for a "supposedly" handmatched pair of TLM-170's, and I really think they just stuck any old pair in the box.  Without test charts either - for $3700 you think you'd AT LEAST get frikkin test charts.

Rick

[1st set only]

jeez how badly matched are the mics now? I have a pair of unmatched and they are fine.

[mhibbs]

I have no experience w/ Oktavas, so if they're that bad out of the box, maybe it is worth matching exercise...all I've owned are AKGs and Schoeps.    I'd agree that Sickrick's approach is a good approximation...you just have to be careful to ensure that the only sound the mics are picking up is the white noise in order to hold the test constant.


mitch