Oktava MK012 v. MC012?

FuzzyPuppy

New member
Hi! I'm a lurker that needs the brave and fearsome intellect of the forum to answer this puzzling question:

What, if anything, is the difference between an Oktava MK012 and an Oktava MC012?

You see, I'm about to purchase my first condensor Mic (for Acoustic Guitar and Vocal - Folk/Bluegrass) as a step up from my SM58 with the ball unscrewed (aka poor man's SM57).

From reading all the posts here, the Oktava seems like the unit most appropriate to my purposes in the cost range that will not justify my wife moving out.

So I'll take alternative suggestions -- but I also want to know if the $199 (for two - I read Harvey's suggestions on recording acoustics) MK012 is the same as the MC012 everyone seems so fond of?

Many thanks for your accumulated wisdom.

FP
 
It's probably just a translation problem from the cyrillic alphabet. I don't speak Russion, but if I remember corectly, in the cyrillic alphabet a "C" is pronounced like an english "S", and to get a hard "C" sound, you have to use a "K". If I'm wrong I'm sure one of out multilingual members will correct me.

But the bottom line is, they're the same mic. Maybe just different production runs.
 
You may want to check out www.oktava.com AKA The Sound Room.
The quality control (& lack thereof) of Oktava's means that having
a separate company like The Soundroom go through them is a
worthwhile consideration.

Having said that...
I did score a nice MC-012 with the cardiod capsule at Guitar Center for
$60 out of listening to a group of them. There's always a risk, however,
that the interior components will fail because I don't have the background
to check that properly. If I didn't have enough other quality microphones
to fall back on, it wouldn't have been purchased there.

Chris
 
Same mic, and I got mine at GC too, but only after making the salesperson bring out a dozen of them to choose from. I like mine a lot.
I don't think there's any way that the Sound Room can weed out component infant mortality issues before the fact. What they should give you though is a tested mic that measures up in sensitivity, output, frequency response, and off axis response.

Regards, RD
 
One's for domestic (russian) and one's for exprot and they?...MC for micophone and MK for Mikrofone or something isn't it?
 
Thanks all!! You're responses were very helpful when I started to negotiate price with the GC sales guy by mentioning the online prices and he said "Now were those MKs or MCs?"

LOL.

I don't like to test anything at GC, so I take advantage of their 30 day return policy and test stuff at home. I've got a couple of M*K* 012s at home now, listening to them.

In place of the SM57, they sound soooooo good. One is clearly a little better than the others, but I'm wondering if there are any specific "tests" you all would advise me to run through?

Also $60?!? They are selling them for $149, and I felt like I done good when I got him to knock off 1/3. Was that $60 used, or should I push harder?

FP
 
Sound Room

One other note on the Sound Room, apropos of the post a few above and the "infant mortality" concern: they will gladly repair or replace a mic that has a problem, no charge, no question.

No, I don't work for them or have anything to do with them ... but they did once fix a mic I got from them.
 
One of my favorite tests is to jangle a set of keys in front of the mic. Listen to how the mic resolves the individual keys banging into each other.
 
I was lucky to score one for $60!
They usually don't go lower than $100.
The original one they tried to pawn off on me had problems,
so I swapped it for a better one.

Chris
 
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