Oppinions - $350 or less cardioid sdc pairs

[Brian]

Touch? on the expensiveness of mk012s. The sound guy at my church was telling me about how guitar center used to sell them for $100 each, and sometimes you would get lucky and they would have them $100 for a pair.

I have a bunch of them, all modded and I paid that for 6 012's and 4 319's.
I'm happy with them.

[b3groover]

Regarding Michael's offer, that's very cool. I try to do a similar thing, but more on a local level. There are a few guys around town that I have no problem calling up and saying, "Hey, are you using such-and-such right now and can I borrow it?" And likewise, I do the same thing for them.

It's a good thing to have!

[calaverasgrandes]

"This shitty room is making your next hit record, bitch!"!

Its funny cause its true,
seriously.

[gabe real]

oktava...

mk012...

i got a pair for $250 on ebay.....
with the -10db pads

they were actually sent from manley labs.....
i guess someone that worked there shipped them
from that account. half of my friends have worked there.....

they are great mics.

i would like to get the mod done, but they already sound great as it is.
i can just imagine what they would sound like after the mod...
my gosh!

[Michael_Joly]

Hiya!

I've been thinking a bit more about my OktavaMod Box of Mics loan program. The first thought is I'd like to make this offer available only to registered Tape Op message board users. You could sign up today, no problem.

Next, you all know that I'm a bit of an egalitarian socialist. Rather than me designing the program based on my assumptions about what the community could use 'd like you folks to design the program. Kick it around here or on another thread. The only caveat - I'm really trying to help young, poor or otherwise challenged artists / recordists for whom receiving a box of mics on loan would really help them make, in their own estimation, personally important work.

The challenge for me is I just don't have the time to sift through proposals, applications etc. Ideally, this offer of a box of mic would be a self-organizing project among the Tape Op community. I'll make the Box of Mics available - y'all figure out who gets it, for how long and to whom it goes to next.

Many of you may have participated in the great Tape Op ribbon group buy ("I'm in for two and I can pay!"). I think the positive spirit of camaraderie in that particular group buy eclipsed anything I've seen in other group buys I've watched. I think it?s another testament to the humor and community-oriented spirit of Tape Op'ers.

I know offering a single box of mics (perhaps I could put together two kits...I'll check) is not going to make a big change in a lot of people's lives, but it will affect a few. But along the way I'm hoping that by offering the community the chance to design and run the program lots of people can benefit from the dialog and camaraderie that comes with a group project.

Your thoughts?

[losthighway]

We could have a moderator make a sticky for the signup. Signup first come, first serve each person gets a month signed up by the name of the month. The borrower is in verbal agreement to finish with the mics by the end of his/her month and then pay shipping to the next person in line. Contact info and addresses can be arranged via PM. After shipping the box the first time you can publish the costs at the beginning of the thread so that anyone who signs up understands the shipping costs they agree to.

Maybe we could include an agreement that in case of mishap/malfunction it is the borrowers responsibility to send them back to Oktavamod headquarters for repair and/or fines.

[mjau]

We could have a moderator make a sticky for the signup. Signup first come, first serve each person gets a month signed up by the name of the month. The borrower is in verbal agreement to finish with the mics by the end of his/her month and then pay shipping to the next person in line. Contact info and addresses can be arranged via PM. After shipping the box the first time you can publish the costs at the beginning of the thread so that anyone who signs up understands the shipping costs they agree to.

Maybe we could include an agreement that in case of mishap/malfunction it is the borrowers responsibility to send them back to Oktavamod headquarters for repair and/or fines.

I like it, and totally appreciate Michael's willingness to offer mic's for something like this.
I think it'd also be good that if, at the end of a month's usage (or whatever appropriate time is decided upon), the user posts her or his thoughts on the mic's, like any other mic review.
Might also be good to have someone on the messageboard kind of keep tabs on the whole thing, considering that Michael said he doesn't have the time to be the organizer. I'm happy to do so if nobody else wants to jump in on it.

FWIW, my two cents on sdc's is the oktava mc012. I have three (unmodded), and use them on nearly everything. I also have a Lomo M1 cap, which gets lots of mileage.

[mscottweber]

This whole thing is freaking incredible. That kind of generosity just isn't seen. Anywhere.
Michael Joly, You are a great man!

[kayagum]

I think a reasonable minimum posting amount would be good too, just to sift out spammers. Maybe 50? 100?

[Jeff White]

oktava...

mk012...

they are great mics.

i would like to get the mod done, but they already sound great as it is.
i can just imagine what they would sound like after the mod...
my gosh!

Yeah, seriously, they are great stock. I find that they are even better modified, more clarity. I brought them to a recording gig in November and ran them through my friend's Brent Averill 312s and holy shit we could have used the overheads alone for drums. Huge. I recently recorded some acoustic guitar with them (my 2000 Taylor 310ce) and a friend last week commented on how nice those tracks sound. I feel that the Sytek's stock channel that I ran them through is a little too clean, however in a thick mix the MK-012s and the Sytek work well for acoustics that you'll end up thinning out anyway.

Anyway, I prefer the Joly MK-012s to a Neumann KM-184 that I have here on loan. I think that the Oktavas have more of a realistic natural sound, and let's face it, you can get a Joly-modified pair with three caps each for the same price as a single KM-184. I think that they get enough love around here and are priced low enough in the used market for anyone to jump on one to check out and make a decision for themselves.

Regarding the "box of mics", I think this is such an amazing opportunity for folks here to get involved with. Kudos to Michael Joly for his kindness and ideals and spreading the love back to the community. I want to say that as far as a business goes OktavaMod is top notch, workmanship is A+, customer service is A+, and his mods really do make a difference.

Also, I am so excited that the two companies I've had gear transformed by in the past two years are doing things together... OktavaMod and Black Lion Audio. Please support these folks by letting the online communities that you belong to know how great their products are.

Jeff

[qball]

Back to the original question...
Last year I spent some time going through all of my mics and testing them on acoustic guitar to find the one I liked best out of the bunch. As I tested each one, I rememberd thinking that they all pretty much worked okay and had decent sound, but nothing really WOW'd me...until I tried one of my Samson C02 mics. Holy cow, it really had a fantastic sound on guitar! It was no mistake. It was immediately noticeable how nice it sounded compared to the others!!!

I have never had a chance to try the pair on guitar, but I'm willing to bet that it will sound amazing. I find that starting at the typical 12-14th fret area and angling it slightly toward the body gives fantastic results.

I have been trying to convince others I know to give this mic a try on guitar and mandolin, but for some reason they won't give it a shot. I think the low price tag somehow convinces them that the sound will be crap. Who knows, but I'm extremely happy with the sound I get.

[qball]

Michael has some really great product and services, but let's not forget about the Peluso line of mics. The Peluso CEMC6 is really good on acoustic instruments. Great detail and not over-hyped like so many mics these days.

[calaverasgrandes]

I have been trying to convince others I know to give this mic a try on guitar and mandolin, but for some reason they won't give it a shot. I think the low price tag somehow convinces them that the sound will be crap. Who knows, but I'm extremely happy with the sound I get.

I think it has something to do with how ugly Samson mics are. I was tempted to buy their ribbon a while back (MF Stupid deal of the day)
But couldnt bear to have such an ugly POS in my studio.
And not ugly in a "we will bury you" kind of way. More ugly in a Chevy Chevette kind of way...

[trodden]

This whole thing is freaking incredible. That kind of generosity just isn't seen. Anywhere.
Michael Joly, You are a great man!

Totally. I wouldn't know nearly what i do, or have as many awesome recording experiences if it wasn't for an engineer here in town who would loan me out a mackie 24*8, alesis ai-3, some mics, stands, and cableing for free whenever I desired to record a band in my rehearsal space. I coudn't afford the gear I needed, he had it, and wanted to see it being used. As long as i took care of it, and got it back in a reasonable time, it wasn't a problem.

[kingmetal]

Busy week at work and I guess this thread is no longer e-mailing me when replies come up.

First of all - the joy this thread is bringing me knows no bounds. On so many levels. I love the idea of this roving mic pack - there were so many times when I had the time and desire to record but not the gear. If I'd had a pair of Joly 603s when I was starting out, the first record I made wouldn't have sounded half bad. I know it's not all about the gear, but the gear sure does help some times! I remember saving all my money as a teenager trying to buy enough mics to record my band at the time (band collapsed before I ever got enough pre-amps to really do it, which was much later) - if I could've scheduled a loaner mic package for a weeks worth of sessions or something during the summer way back then I could've gotten off to a much better start!

The mics showed up today (I was expecting them next week!). They're beautiful. I'll try to put up some pictures of them soon (my digital camera is literally from 1996 and takes some work to get the pictures off).

I've done some quickie comparisons. First I did a "blind" test of the Joly 603 vs the stock MXL 991. Blind meaning I mixed up the cables and couldn't immediately tell which was which.

I expected the difference to be big, but I didn't expect it to be staggering. The Joly 603 was open and detailed, but not overly bright. The 991 felt cramped and screechy. Neither mic really emphasized how bad my room is, which is a good thing. After a few back and forth switches I didn't want to hear the 991. Ever again. It's really not a bad mic for the price, and I'm not sure why I didn't use it more back in the day (I used two 990s to record the first album one of my artists ever did).

So then came the real torture test - the Joly 603 vs the Oktava MC012! Using the same setup I swapped out the 991 for the MC012 (which my co-worker has generously loaned me for the week). I didn't know what to expect, I've never heard MC012s before and I've heard so many great things about them.

The 603 came out on top.

I really tried to be objective and not just love the 603. I listened very closely and tried my best to mix up the cables so I wouldn't know which was which but it was just too obvious. The MC012s were detailed and sounded good, but compared to the 603s they sounded mid-rangey and shouty. The MC012s were not terrible, mind you - it wasn't like the difference between the 603 and the 991, but my ears just liked the sound of the 603 better. The 603s just felt much more smooth, and while the MC012s felt a little more present, it wasn't the kind of presence that I felt I couldn't add with EQ and get better results.

These are just initial impressions, but 5 minutes with these 603s had netted me the best guitar tone I've ever gotten to date. That's impressive at any price.

I've got a session tomorrow and that'll be the real test, but so far I am very impressed. Regardless of whether or not these mics end up being the perfect acoustic guitar mics for the project I'm working on, I want mics that sound like this in my collection. This modded 603 feels higher quality than anything else I've ever really used in my home.