Oktava MK-012-01 ?

T

Talidan

New member
Hey there,

I've been wanting to try to get some basic set-up going for a while, just for vocals really, and haven't been able to afford to do anything for it. The other day, I found an Oktava MK-012-01 at a swap meet. The guy had no idea what it was worth, but with my general knowledge of technology, I figured it was worth more than the $7 he wanted and thought I'd at least give it a shot.

Getting home, I looked up what I could. They sell for ~$250+ on eBay (barring auctions) and retail price is about that, it seems. So, I think I got a decent deal.

I went by a music store today to check if it works, they took a look, hooked it up, everything seemed in working order, but they didn't know the brand or anything beyond being a small condenser microphone.

So, I was wondering if anyone here could tell me a little bit about it since I have no idea what any of its product page means.

Oktava MK-012 condenser microphone. Oktava-online - only genuine Russian made studio microphones
Oktava MK-012-01 Microphone

Images for verification (in case anyone can tell me if it's not legit):
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Also, in relation to this, would this item Amazon.com: Behringer Xenyx 802 Premium 8-Input 2-Bus Mixer with Xenyx Mic Preamps and British EQs: Musical Instruments be all I need (besides cables and such) to use this microphone for basic recording of vocals (monitoring included), both singing and spoken word?

Thanks! :D

EDIT: On the side of the bottom, where it plugs in at, there is a number: 1592033. I don't know if this makes any difference, at least to verify it's not a knock-off, but thought I'd include the info.
 
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Looks legit to me. I have a couple. You have the typical plastic case. I find it hard to believe that ANY music store would fail to recognize the Oktava name.
 
Mickster said:
Looks legit to me. I have a couple. You have the typical plastic case. I find it hard to believe that ANY music store would fail to recognize the Oktava name.
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It was Ted Brown Music, just about the only store in my area. I asked if the employee if he knew anything about the microphone, or brand, and he said he couldn't tell me anything.
Glad it seems legit. I also shot an email to Oktava USA to ask their opinion on it and got this in response:

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I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappointed for such a simple response. It answers the question, but... so lacking in anything else.

What could you, Mickster (or anyone else reading), tell me about it? I'm completely ignorant to this sort of thing, but I won't fuss if you don't want to educate a total noob a little.
 
The Oktava MK-012-01 is an excellent mic used by many top pros. It's great on instruments of all sorts and even some vocals.......although not a vocal mic really. It's been around for decades and is made in Russia. The price you saw on EBay is probably about right......give or take........for one as yours is outfitted. You need to have a phantom power supply (48v) to operate it. If you want to record only your voice and nothing else.......you could certainly do that but you could also probably sell it or trade it for a better vocal mic. You don't mention much about your overall goal so I can't tell you what mic would suit your intentions. In any case.......you scored BIG...congratulations!! When you brought the mic to Ted Brown Music.........did they even wonder if the name and model number on the box meant anything.............like a brand?????? Go on line and research this mic. There's tons of info on it out there. Have fun....and good luck.
 
Mickster said:
You don't mention much about your overall goal so I can't tell you what mic would suit your intentions. In any case.......you scored BIG...congratulations!!
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My current plan is to record singing and speaking. The singing style will vary, mostly just to try to find what I think I could excel at as well as enjoy most, while the spoken word will be for voice acting (which will be the current primary application). According to my mother, who is a classically trained singer, I have great range and could probably use my voice for just about anything (though she could just be acting like a mom and trying to make me feel good). I've always loved creating character voices, so I hope for that to become something I can do professionally some day (or even just as a hobby), but I also enjoy singing to myself. I'd like to monitor my voice and refine it before ever attempting to create real music with it.

Eventually, if I believe I can sing well enough to attempt to produce any kind of music, I would like to push into instruments. I play piano and that would probably be the first instrument I would record, guitar (acoustic) being second (definitely amateur at that though).

So, would it work well for what I want to do in both short-term and long-term? I know it's kind of spread out and I should probably find more focus, but I am short on funds so I can't really experiment with what may work best for each application right now. If it will work for general use right now, without needing to be amazing for one application or another, then that's alright for me.

Mickster said:
When you brought the mic to Ted Brown Music.........did they even wonder if the name and model number on the box meant anything.............like a brand??????
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Nope. He honestly didn't really even seem interested in it at all. He seemed more annoyed than anything that I brought it in, asking if he could check if it works well. He offered very little information and didn't care at all about what I would use it for, or that I got it as cheap as I did.
 
Well........you don't mention what you'll be using to record on. If you have only a PC right now.........the Oktava won't work (straight in) as it needs phantom power. You could get a cheap audio interface @$100 or so.........making sure it has phantom power built in.........and get a free DAW program from the web. I HIGHLY advise Reaper..........but there are many. For what you need and as a starter.......maybe Audacity is more for you. Other than a mic stand and a pop filter you'd pretty much be on your way. Read through the threads here on this site and you'll find a lot of good advice for both the AI and the mics that can work for you. Have fun!!
 
Talidan said:
Nope. He honestly didn't really even seem interested in it at all. He seemed more annoyed than anything that I brought it in, asking if he could check if it works well. He offered very little information and didn't care at all about what I would use it for, or that I got it as cheap as I did.
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LOL. Maybe he was pissed off that you didn't know.
I know I'd be thinking 'lucky bas**ard'! :p

+1 to a cheap audio interface with phantom power.
Focusrite, tascam, presonus etc.
USB or firewire interface.....not a standalone preamp!
 
At the end of my original post, I brought up this http://amzn.com/B000J5XS3C if it would be suitable for the mic. The product page does list +48 V phantom power, so I assume it would be fine? As far as DAW, the big one I know is Audacity, so I was going to start with that. I'll be looking more into others if I don't find it meets my needs, and will also look at Reaper in a few minutes.

I will read through the forums and learn what I can!
 
You don't need a mixer, unless you know something we don't.

You'll probably get better quality out a similarly priced straight interface.
 
Steenamaroo said:
You don't need a mixer, unless you know something we don't.

You'll probably get better quality out a similarly priced straight interface.
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What would you recommend at about that price? I only have a budget of $100 to spend right now, for interface and all extras (stand, cables, pop filter, etc). I can go over a little, but things are tight. I've been waiting too long and want to dive into this immediately, especially with how uncertain my finances are at the moment.
 
Talidan said:
What would you recommend at about that price? I only have a budget of $100 to spend right now, for interface and all extras (stand, cables, pop filter, etc). I can go over a little, but things are tight. I've been waiting too long and want to dive into this immediately, especially with how uncertain my finances are at the moment.
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$100 wont take you far. I'd suggest saving up a little.
Like I said, focusrite + tascam have good entry level USB interfaces.

You might get a used tascam us122 on ebay for that money.
 
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Your budget is a bit tight for a this project. Also, you didn't mention what computer you will use to run the software. If it were me I'd wait a bit and save up just a bit more.
For $99 you can get this PreSonus Audio Box. Maybe you can find this used.
You can make your own pop filter. DIY Pop Filter
A mic stand can be found for as low as $17 on Amazon. A cable will run you about $20.

I've used my Oktava 012 for recording acoustic guitar. Experiment with it.

Some advise. The foam in my Oktava case started to breakdown and got gooey. I thought it destroyed the extra capsules that I had. I spent some time cleaning it up and it works and looks fine now. I've move the mic to a new case. Something to watch for.

-David
 
Thank you both for your recommendations. I have to ask, would it really be a substantial decrease in quality to get the mixer, just to get started? For at least just spoken word, do I really need anything more?

I'm sure you get this, "Well, yeah, but couldn't it be cheaper?" crap from newbies all the time, I'm sorry. You have worked with professional equipment, probably for a good number of years, and I'm trying to figure out if this is really something I want to start getting into, so, in my mind, just getting what works (regardless of how well it works) is what seems right to me.

If there is a significant difference in quality, how about the M-Audio M-Track?

And I'll probably be moving it back and forth between my Windows 7 desktop and a Macbook, experimenting, seeing what works best, and trying out different DAWs.
 
I love those mics. I got two like that (in white plastic boxes) at a pawn shop for $25 each and I consider that a major kill - $7 - wow. I have three total (got the other one at Guitar Center a few years ago for $50, but with some extra capsules). I use the first two of them all the time for acoustic guitar (actually like them better than Neumann KM184s for this most of the time) and sometimes drum overheads - I did replace the ceramic "coupling capacitor" on all three with a polyester (or something) one and that made them sound smoother, but that's definitely not a requirement.

They're small diaphragm condensers - they require phantom power, but any cheap interface should be able to supply enough - they don't use much juice. Because of the diaphragm size, they pick up a lot of sonic detail - transients - and that's not necessarily a good thing for spoken word, because you'll tend to hear little mouth noises and smacking and stuff more in your face. I would really recommend save a little for the better interface, like a focusrite, because the lower rent interfaces and mixers tend to add a high end harshness of their own that will further intensify what you don't like. All that said, and like the posters before me have said, if you use a pop filter, and play with mic placement and technique, and use some EQ later, it might sound great.

You can get a large diaphragm capsule for the 012 (I've never tried it) but for some reason they always cost a lot. But if you see one at a swap meet, grab it :)

Even if you wind up not liking the mic for vocals, I would hold on to it just in case you want to record an instrument of some sort later.
 
Is it generally safe to buy used/refurb for audio interfaces? I know many electronics I've bought used or refurbished have been just fine, but this is territory I am unfamiliar with. When I'm working with a tight budget and I see a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 for ~$110, instead of the new price of $150, it's tempting. Especially when all you guys are saying not to cheap out on the brand. Obviously new is safest, but is it often that people are burned by used/refurbed interfaces?

And as I've now got plenty of info on the microphone itself, should I move these questions to a different part of the forum? Or is it okay here as it's all branched from my initial questions about my microphone?
 
The one I have (a little) experience with is the focusrite sapphire USB - it has two ins and four outs. My son took it off to college and uses it sometimes. It is metal cased, and I thought it sounded pretty good. I bet they're fairly cheap used - they're out of production. It was rugged enough that I wouldn't worry too much about buying a used one. I don't know about any others.
 
Sorry to bring this back, but I got a Focusrite Scarless 2i2 for the microphone, but it's not working. I'm not entirely sure what to do, if I did anything wrong, or what.

The mic worked fine when I brought it to the music store, like I mentioned a ways back, so it couldn't be that, right? I got a cheap cable, this: Amazon.com: Your Cable Store XLR 3 Pin Microphone Cable (6 feet): Musical Instruments , but I can't be certain if that's the problem. Some reviews are good, some bad, most at least say it worked at first...

If I really yell into the mic, it'll pick some of it up, but barely.

The Scarlett 2i2 was refurbed, but it arrived very nicely packed, no cosmetic issues on the device itself, and everything works fine as far as I can tell.

Based on this, my best assumption is the cable, but maybe I'm just doing something wrong?

EDIT: Turning the gain up results in fuzziness through the direct monitoring, and in recording, but doesn't pick up any better. Really not sure what else to try.


EDIT2: Went out and got a new XLR cable. Works like a charm now!
 
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