Cool Russian Gear

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 6:01 pm

Hey Hey!

I and my family travel once in awhile to Russia (Moscow).

What cool gear might I be on the lookout for at flea markets and such?

I know Oktava's line and of course am well aware of OktavaMod, and I've heard a bit about Lomo, Nevaton, and RTT, but what are the good ones, the great finds?

Years ago, by the way, when Oktavas were hitting the US, I was in Moscow. I decided to look for a good deal on a matched pair of Mk-012s. Everywhere I went, however, the question of "Do you have Oktava mics?" was met with the same response: A scoff and a point to the glass case of Shures. I repeatedly laughed and told them I was actually from Chicago and have plenty of Shures. They couldn't imagine why I would want a Russian mic.

Thanks,
Archmart

Electro-Voice 664 · Post by **Electro-Voice 664** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:28 pm

I'd love to find a dusty old theremin. Once called the Thermenvox

http://www.vor.ru/English/Footprints/ex ... 5_eng.html

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:59 pm

Hey Hey!

Yeh, an original Theremin, sure. I wouldn't normally think of it as Russian, though. Now, what WOULD be cool along his lines is that wooden American seal with a mic and transmitter built in that wasn't detected for years in the American Embassy in Moscow. What a story...

I haven't even heard of any Russian Preamps. I wonder if there are any worthy of putting to use.

Archmart

djimbe · Post by **djimbe** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:59 am

Lomo and Nevaton made more than just mics. And there are some eastern bloc versions of the classic German and Dutch preamp/compressor/EQ modules. The company in Warsaw called Tech-Film was making boxes very similar to the V276 and I'm sure other things. The Tech-Film amps I worked on were kinda cool sounding.

TOMB member Russian Recording down in Bloomington In. could probably help you with some info too...

DGoody · Post by **DGoody** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:07 pm

I have several pairs of different Lomo tube preamps, and they're great. Heavily coloured, but amazing. The EQs are incredible as well. I'm sort of a soviet era gear collector, so I have a bunch of these things. They get used every day, if that's an indication of their value.

Mostly, that stuff is parted from old consoles. I'm not sure there was much made that wasn't modular (ie- rackmounted).

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:35 pm

I was only able to find one Russian preamp picture:

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:54 pm

Hey Hey!

I want it!

Does that come with a wall-wart or a line-wart?

Archmart

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:42 pm

LOMO made a great tube eq channel that was from some sort of transfer console or something...

LOMO made a lot of stuff. If I was going to Moscow tomorrow, I would look for the following:

Lomo 19A19
Lomo microphones of any type. especially the 19-A-"XX" series, though. 19-a- ANYTHING. really.

All of them have their place, and they are fetching more and more money these days. Great microphones. Forget the oktava stuff. Look for RFT, Gefell, Lomo.

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 6:03 pm

Hey Hey!

Thanks, Joel.

That's just the kind of answer I was hoping for, though I do appreciate a hugemongous diesel ship engine as much as the next guy, especially in the Turbo model, I'd rather be making records. If I had to be in shipping, I'd rather see what the control room of that thing looks like.

Thanks,
Archmart

Bear's Gone Fission · Post by **Bear's Gone Fission** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:49 pm

Figure out the customs consequences of taking a carpet bag full of Shure mics with you and doing trades at recording and broadcast studios in the vicinities you'll be headed to.

Bear

vier-personen · Post by **vier-personen** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:54 am

Bear's Gone Fission wrote:Figure out the customs consequences of taking a carpet bag full of Shure mics with you and doing trades at recording and broadcast studios in the vicinities you'll be headed to.

Bear

http://www.innarecords.ru/eng/equipment.html
http://www.statusmusic.ru/?basic=1

do you think russia is the end of the world? sounds like "give those russians some cheapo 57 and get the microphone-gems of the eastern block" or "glass perls for gold" to me.

Bear's Gone Fission · Post by **Bear's Gone Fission** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:03 am

vier-personen wrote:
Bear's Gone Fission wrote:Figure out the customs consequences of taking a carpet bag full of Shure mics with you and doing trades at recording and broadcast studios in the vicinities you'll be headed to.

Bear
http://www.innarecords.ru/eng/equipment.html
http://www.statusmusic.ru/?basic=1

do you think russia is the end of the world? sounds like "give those russians some cheapo 57 and get the microphone-gems of the eastern block" or "glass perls for gold" to me.

No, but I saw the first post of the thread which went to the point, and I am aware of the fact that import costs can inflate the costs of goods across borders. That and broadcast studios, as I had specifically identified, have very different priorities than most music recordists and have been known to practically give away premium vintage gear. If people in Russia think they are holding junk and would put a premium on getting new foreign product, that's their choice. An economist will tell you that goods are worth what the market thinks they are worth, and this isn't quite trading glass beads for Manhattan, so what's the problem?

Bear

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:18 am

Hey Hey!

Yeh, no insult intended, whatsoever.

Even here in the good ol' USofA trends ebb and flow and what's the state of the art and the top of the price list one day are considered useless and thrown away the next and then not long after becomes the next bidding war on eBay. I myself have acquired much good gear from the very college where I work. The key is to find something out of vogue for one reason or another and find it's usefulness. A worthy thread topic might also be, "What's the current bargain? OR What's tomorrow's must have that's a throw away today?".

Just as an immediate example, at neither of those studios you link to do they have ANYTHING Russian in their preamp or mic lists. They have great mics! Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have a C12, a U67, and an M150. (Ok, so I have a matched pair of M150s, but that's beside the point.) And look, the "appreciation of non-domestic gear" there even extends to studios labeled in English: "Control Room B". I mean, anyone up for a game of "Where's Lomo?" in the pics of these two studios?

Of course there's also the flee-market factor. In a post-Soviet Russia there has been great chaos and many things, not just audio get sold off to tourists and other clever bargain hunters.

And then yes, sometimes the customs and duties factor comes into play.

I will give you, though, that there aren't a lot of Shures in their lists, just the normal representation you'd see anywhere else.

Archmart

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:18 pm

Archmart wrote: flee-market

That so is what I am calling ebay from now on...

Flee! Run for your life!

Archmart · Post by **Archmart** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:27 pm

Hey Hey!

And I'm calling it "Where's Lomo?".

Happy New Year to ya.

Archmart

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