{"id":9854,"date":"2016-11-01T08:30:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T15:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/?p=9854"},"modified":"2016-10-31T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T05:09:08","slug":"mod-report-oktava-mk-012mc-012-microphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/01\/mod-report-oktava-mk-012mc-012-microphone\/","title":{"rendered":"mod report: oktava mk-012\/mc-012 microphone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oktava has some great microphone designs. But the quality of the components can be pretty random, particularly in the used market, since a nontrival number of those were made in the early post-Soviet era. My two 012s sounded pretty different – one in particular rather unpleasantly harsh – so I implemented Recording Magazine’s recommended component upgrade<\/a>*<\/sup><\/small> on the harsh one, which we’ll call Nr. 1.<\/p>\n

Nr. 1 may have been modded a bit before. It’s certainly been opened<\/em> before; one of the three screws was stripped and useless, the other was jammed badly. I had to drill both out, so I’m hoping I can order replacements. The third was fine.<\/p>\n

As soon as I had the microphone open, I saw what Recording<\/i> meant by random components. The key transistor was a make so old that it had a metal shield ground cap, and separate lead to that cap, something I haven’t seen in gear made after about, I don’t even know, 1978? I also saw what they meant by “fragile circuit board,” because wow, you could lift these circuit board traces with an overly-aggressive hair dryer. Take care!<\/p>\n


Comrade!<\/i><\/center><\/p>\n

Still, it was mostly a matter of being methodical and not rushing things, and in good time, I had the key components upgraded, with no surprises other than the transistor’s extra lead.<\/p>\n

These are three unmodified before\/after snippets in one recording – recorded under identical conditions other than the internal microphone electronics – of Oktava mk-012\/mc-012 nr. 1 in my studio. Even on laptop speakers, I can hear the harshness, particularly in the first sample. In all cases, it’s pre-modification first, then post-modification after:<\/p>\n