mic sales at Guitar Center

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randompurpleness

New member
hey i got this catalog thing in the mail from Guitar Center, they have some mics on sale. I've been wanting to get a pair of condensers to mic overheads for drums, as well as use one of them for acoustic guitar and vocals. I've been looking at the AKG C100S for a year and they've always been $200 each. Right now if you buy 2 you get them for $150 each. I was thinkin about that until today I noticed under it they have the Oktava MK012 for $150. The list price on that is $500, while the list for the AKG is $288. So I'm assuming the Oktava is better, but I don't know because I've never heard of them much less used them. Same for the AKG's but they were recommended to me when I first started my home studio. So does anybody have either or both of these and could compare the 2 for me? They're the same price, so basically I wanna know is one better then the other? Or are they just different so I have to pick the one I like best? I have 2 Shure dynamic mics that I've been using for everything, including drums...but then I add another dynamic and try to pick up as much as possible of the whole set while using the Shure's on the bass and snare. This way sucks, so I'm looking to keep those 2 mics on the bass and snare but have a good pair of condensers overhead. Happy Holidays...and stuff :)
 
sorry I can't help you with the mic issus, but I just wanted to say:

I like that name: "randompurpleness". really cool
 
Oh Recording Engineeeeer!

Well, I'll take Recording Engineer's job here and tell you that the Octava MC012's are better -- but not from Guitar Center. You see, Guitar Center gets the "left overs" if you will, from Octava. They are 90% of the time not as good as the ones you get directly from The Sound Room ( http://www.sound-room.com ). A matched pair would cost more than $600. This would be what you'd want to get IF you could afford them, they are much better than the AKGs. The quality of the mics that GC gets from Octava varies from crap to good. The quality direct from the Sound Room is 100%. Now, comparing the MK012's from Guitar Center versus the C1000's, that's a good question. I think most people would still pick the Octava. Maybe we should have Recording Engineer put his $0.02 in.
 
I'll agree with the above post that Octavia QC is VERY iffy.You have to really look to get the select few that are well-made.That said,the good ones have a big,warm sound suitable for vocals,acoustic guitar and other cases where you want detail.I don't like their propriatary connectors at all,though.Any problems with that and you are screwed.
The AKG C1000S is a small diaphragm condensor,unlike the large diaphragm Octavia.It has an on-board battery (so can work as an electret condensor)or use as normal with phantom power.AKG is real good stuff.This model would serve well for the drum overheads but you might want a little more presence (say a large diaphragm C2000) on vocals.Same price range is the Rode NT1,the respected Aussie cheapo condensor.
Tom
 
the mc 012's are small diaphram, oktava's large diaphram is 319. You can get the 12's from soundroom with just the cardiod capsule and wooden box for around 200 a piece. (i asume gc only gives you the cardoid cap anyway)

You just have to order the preamp body and the cap and box separately. You can buy additional caps, omnis and hypercardoids for $64 apiece.

-Jett Rocker
 
mc012

I bought a pair of them a month ago and I love them. I did a bunch recording. I bought them as general instrument mics but since I'm starting my mic collection I started using them on vocals. They sounded wonderful, very transparent and warm. Since everyone here was recommending the at4033 I went out and bought one. Now equipped with a real vocal mic, I was excited to hear the extra warmth and transparency I was going to get. Honestly, to me the difference is so small, with the octava nudging ahead. To me, the octave is warmer and smoother. My guess, though I haven’t tested it, would be that the 4033 might sit better in a thick mix. However, on solo vocals or vocal predominated music, I prefer the octava. I confused by all this but I think I'm going to trust my ears. If anyone wants I could post a couple of MP3's. If anyone is interested I will probably sell the 4033. I'm excited now because I want to try the large diaphragm cartridge for the 012. Has anyone tried this?
-Wes
 
Just for the record Wes, did you buy the matched pair from The Sound Room? And I believe Recording Engineer has used the large diaphragm cap for the MC012 and he highly recommends it. Just do a search on this forum for MC012 and I guarantee you Rec Eng has a say in each post about it. He prolly has a macro to copy and paste his praise for this mic :)
 
The sale actually ends Dec. 24, and I don't see anywhere in that ad that says you have to buy 2 of the C-1000's to get them for $150 each, I think you can buy one if you want.
 
MK NOT MC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

blinddogblues i don't know what you're reading but in my GC catalog, page 47..top half of the page it says this...

Now only $149.99 ea. WHEN YOU BUY 2

then right underneath that little red box it says...

Or $199.99 each.

the list is $288 for each on the AKG's. Now directly underneath that is the Oktava MK (NOT MC or anything else...) 012. The listfor one is $500, yet for the sale they are also $150 each.

so maybe it's different in yours, but yeah it ends the 24th. The person who asked that emailed me too, not knowing that other people would reply and that I'd check it as well, so that's why I didn't answer it on here. So now that we know the Oktava and AKG's are not the best cuz GC gets them...are they still good enough to use? I mean, how much do you then have to spend to get a good sound? It seems like you'll only settle for the best, but my pocket doesn't go that deep. For $300 I could now have 4 mics on the drums and have a better mic for recording vocals...better then my Shure SM58. AND, I'd have a condenser to mic my acoustic guitar. Is it really gonna be that bad so that it's not worth considering?

I may not have made myself clear so far...so I am saying now. Every reply in this post that has mentioned the Oktava's have said they were the MC's. The one's in the catalog say MK! That was NOT a typo on my part, as I'm now assuming you all thought it was. But IS it in fact one in GC's catalog? Does such a mic exist? I went to that sound room site and couldn't find anything called MK...well, anything...although several were MC's as well as others.

WHAT'S UP WITH THIS????????????????????????????
 
Yo, randompurpleness- it is MC, not MK.

Trust me: I'm holding an Oktava box in my hand (one of my four), and it says MC 012. That is also what is engraved on the preamp body... The catalog has the typo, not you. To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as an Oktava MK 012- I don't thing the C is backwards in Cyrillic, or anything (;-)...

The _large diaphragm_ condenser from Oktava is the MK-319, with a dash and a K: maybe that's where the catalog typesetters got confused.

Don't worry. Investigate the MC 012s in good health. $149 is the going price for those guys, in a little plastic box with the cardioid capsule and a 10dB pad only. Just listen to them very carefully before you lay out the green.
 
Hey like I said, it's only 200 for a good pretested, identically equiped Oktava from the soundroom. When and if I ever have the cash , I'm going to get one or two from there. It's not worth playing jeopardy with guitar center, plus from my limited testing, I'd say that it's better to go with nt3 or crown cm-700 in that price range.
 
Yup, all 4 of mine came from Guitar Satan, and 2 of the 4 have had problems. If I ever need to get any more RTT mics, they'll definitely come from The Sound Room, and the two dodgy preamp bodies will be going back there to be rehabilitated.

If you want to read the story of how I came to buy them from there instead of The Sound Room, check this thread...

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=20045

You can indeed save a few bucks getting them from Guitar Satan, but be very careful and listen to them with all possible care before buying. The convenience of picking them up locally is a plus, but the complete lack of support in case problems crop up is a definite minus...

[Edited by skippy on 12-16-2000 at 10:18]
 
Mine came from guitar center and both were fine. You still get a 30 day return from GC so you can really test them out. It's true that the GC catalog says MK but I think it's a typo. While I was at GC they were chating about (not knowing that I listening) about some guy who came in and tried asked to try about 15 to match them up. I guess he wasn't really able to tell any difference between them. Not that that means anything. But the differences maybe small enough that you should use your own ears and decide if it's important.
 
I almost bought the Octava last year with all three caps, but instead I got a terrific deal on a multi-patterned tube mic. But my next mic will probably be the MC-012 (from the sound room). If RE, recommends the Sound Room, I would follow his advice anytime. Also, as jet-rocker has stated twice, you can buy just the preamp body and the cardioid cap for just $50 more than GS. In addition, at a later date you can buy the LOMO M-1 head for the preamp for just $349 and you'll have a vocal mic that competes with mics that cost 4-5 times more. Here's a thread where RE does some good explaining: http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=12181
 
That's right...cause of health reasons. But they usually give a 5 day trial on expensive mics like that. They did with both my NT1s.
 
same mic...

by the way, the mc-012 and the mk-012 are the same mic. i read somewhere that they use the different letting depending on the intended line of distribution. i think the c and k stand for "condensor" or "kondensor" depending on which country it was intended for.

who knows, maybe i'm making this up. or maybe it came from one of my microphone hallucinations.....
 
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