Topic: ISO: Guitar Source Oktava MK012

[shroominhumpy]

All right I have heard of this Guitar Center's 2 for $99 deal. This is of high interest to me but I live in the Midwest and do not have access to a Guitar Center, so here is my proposition. I want to know if any of you would be willing to hand match a pair for me. I would reimburse you for the mics and you effort. If anyone would be interested in helping me out here pop me a PM or email, or post, just get a hold of me somehow. Thanks for those of you out there who are willing to help us newbies.

I would also welcome opinions on whether this is a smart move for me. I just got some AKG C1000s. Would these Oktavas be a good move, or would I be throwing my money away?

Jason

Sorry to post on here, but I want to get some opinions on this and this thread gets a lof of traffic. Thanks in advance guys and thanks TS for the space.

[cleantone]

I assume you want them for recording shows? The deal with those mics is quality control from the factory. From everything I've gathered, the ones guitar center sells are least desireable form the factory. You can also get these mics for about $300 each. Or maybe thats for a matched pair, I'm not sure. I'm sure I could get some use from the ones at guitar center but not for two track stereo recording. Plus you'll have a hard time getting 2 mics that sound alike. There a pretty good deal for what they are but you'd be better off buying a matched pair from a proaudio dealer if you want them to record concerts...

just my 2db

[John Kelly]

I assume you want them for recording shows? The deal with those mics is quality control from the factory. From everything I've gathered, the ones guitar center sells are least desireable form the factory. You can also get these mics for about $300 each. Or maybe thats for a matched pair, I'm not sure. I'm sure I could get some use from the ones at guitar center but not for two track stereo recording. Plus you'll have a hard time getting 2 mics that sound alike. There a pretty good deal for what they are but you'd be better off buying a matched pair from a proaudio dealer if you want them to record concerts...

just my 2db

I like to think I did a pretty good job of hand matching mine.  For $100, I'm sure lots of people feel the same way.    If I'm going to shell out $300+ for my pair of mics, I'm going for something a little better than the Octavas...like maybe some used AKG 39xs...

[shroominhumpy]

I like to think I did a pretty good job of hand matching mine.  For $100, I'm sure lots of people feel the same way.    If I'm going to shell out $300+ for my pair of mics, I'm going for something a little better than the Octavas...like maybe some used AKG 39xs...

See this is how I feel, but I am trapped with a high schooler's cash flow, so I wanted to see if someone out there could help me out. If these really are the POSs clean says they are then I will pass and keey my Ck's but if I can upgrade, I would like to. I like the sound of these and for a hundred buck am will to invest in some.

[jpschust]

I assume you want them for recording shows? The deal with those mics is quality control from the factory. From everything I've gathered, the ones guitar center sells are least desireable form the factory. You can also get these mics for about $300 each. Or maybe thats for a matched pair, I'm not sure. I'm sure I could get some use from the ones at guitar center but not for two track stereo recording. Plus you'll have a hard time getting 2 mics that sound alike. There a pretty good deal for what they are but you'd be better off buying a matched pair from a proaudio dealer if you want them to record concerts...

just my 2db

regardless of what anyone says, I've emailed around- the ones GC sells are the same as the ones that sound room and everyone else sells- with sound room you are getting the benefit of testing and matching and a nice case, thats your difference.  don't make them out to be "different" like they are made with inferior components for GC- cause that isn't how it is at all.  I am willing to bet you could poke around and find sound room selling from the same production line as some that come from GC.  The deal is that GC just buys in gigantic quantities so they can do stuff like sell them for 100 bucks for a pair.  They also don't provide any extra services.

oh and its not that hard to find 2 that sound alike, just take some time and hand match them at GC.  

[shroominhumpy]

oh and its not that hard to find 2 that sound alike, just take some time and hand match them at GC.

Which is what brings me back to my original post. Can someone help me out here. I do not have access to a GC and I would need a go between. Any takers on helping me out here?

[kev B]

How do I hand match a pair of Octava's? Do I ask to plug them in? Into my own JB3? What am I listenening for? Can anyone give me some pointers? I want to use them with my UA5 > JB3. I will use it at shows were I may be the only taper or maybe bars where the drums aren't mic'd. I see these mics as a good starter set. Any tips?

Shroomin', if I decide to go to a Philly area GC this week, I will let you know beforehand. PM and we can talk if you are interested.

[kev B]

bump for hand matching... please see post above.

[cleantone]

This is kind of impossable to answer. Expessially in text. In matching a mic what you'd be looking for is the closest "frequency responce" in two mics. This is something that really needs to be done in a controled enviorment to be done precisely. You would have to chart the responce of each mic to controled tones from equal distance at equal volumes. So you have a graph showing you what each mics frequency responce is, then pic two mics that are the closest to eachother. But obviously you nor I can "really" do this. So you have to faux judge it by ear I guess. With these mics in paticular youd be in for a big effort. I bet me ears would be dead before I found two. Probably why I don't own any of these mics yet. I'd like to add some to my collection at that price though, for multitrack and studio stuff. I'd love to do the modifications I've read about for them too.

[Phil]

D00d, you live in KC, go to the Musician's Friend clearence center down on Front and Universal street.

[Cooker]

best way to hand-match them in the store is just to try to get them close in dB. I hand-matched mine and one is about 2dB off the other - i did this by setting them up directly on top of each other, plugging them into a mackie mixer, setting the trim the same on both channels, and then running the output into a tascam hd recorder. i then had the salesman play a cd in the sound room and i swapped mics out until i had the closest two. i would swap the mics position for each pair, but this didin't change the dB levels at all.  they only had about 12 mics there, and i basically only swapped out the top mic the whole time.

if i had spent more time there, i may have gotten a better match, but what i do is when i first xfer a tape, as long as it's not really hot, i just boost the lower channel by 2.09 dB before i start tracking it.

there was one mic closer than mine in db but it had a real tight XLR jack. the other mics were sometimes 4-5 dB off.

[shroominhumpy]

Cooker,

Thanks for the first real bit of help in doing this. I thank you for the information. Did the sound guys there care? I am not familiar at all with local shops like this and how they feel about us testing and using the stuff before we buy. Any and all information is appreciated. Thanks.

[kev B]

shroomin, I had an unexpected chance to stop by the local GC (on the clock, I mean on my luch break  ). They were all sold out of the Oktava's. The sale guy seemed to think that thy would be reordered and at the same price. Kev

[ClevelandMike]

How do I hand match a pair of Octava's? Do I ask to plug them in? Into my own JB3? What am I listenening for? Can anyone give me some pointers? I want to use them with my UA5 > JB3. I will use it at shows were I may be the only taper or maybe bars where the drums aren't mic'd. I see these mics as a good starter set. Any tips?

Shroomin', if I decide to go to a Philly area GC this week, I will let you know beforehand. PM and we can talk if you are interested.

He may have been full of shit but this is what I was told by a friend that worked at GC. Look at the back of the capsules, you'll see a color coded dot (I did see this for myself) yellow, pink, blue, red etc... Basically he said find 2 that match and they should be relatively close. Out of 23 mics we could only match up 3 sets. I bought a set, then returned them the next day. The mic output was damn close in db output, as for sonically I have no idea. I just didn't care for the mics themselves. my $0.02

[Cooker]

my oktavas both have yellow dots - so that makes sense... but i never looked at the dots on the other caps. for all i know they all had yellow dots....

i matched whole mics, not just caps, because i heard so much talk on here about how taylor at soundroom matches the bodies as well. also because i didn't want to piss the GC guys off by mixing up caps and bodies.

they were generally pretty cool with it - the one guy who was helping me since i walked in the door was interested in helping me, and didn't seem to mind at all - i think he wanted to better understand the process and be able to help other customers do it..

the other pro sound salemen were kinda annoyed we were in there - getting in the way of them hassling all the other customers.