Wagener's Secret Snare Drum Microphone

[brandondrury]

You may have read in Day #2 of the Michael Wagener Recording Workshop we mic'd up the drums. As mentioned in the article, we tried many mics on the snare just to hear the difference between them all. It turned out that the SM 57 sounding boring when A/B'd with our “secret” snare mic.

So if this mic blew away the SM 57, what mic was it?

Well, you will probably be surprised because this mic isn't known for being an amazing sounding microphone. In fact, I've read reviews where people thought this mic sounded boxy and even “dirty”. Well, I never heard the mic on any other source, so it may be downright terrible on every other instrument, but on snare drum it absolutely killed!!

You should be able to pick this mic up for about $100 used. I've read reviews that have said that this mic has good versions and bad versions. Well, I don't know anything about that. The reviews that said this mic sounds boxy don't seam to be consistent with what I heard on the snare drum. Of course, I have a feeling that most people wouldn't try this mic on a snare drum in the first place. This may be the real lesson to be learned here. The fact that Wagener has tried “questionable” mic on a snare drum shows that he's put in the hours experimenting. We all should experiment more.

The Microphone.



Oktava MK219


I want to repeat that this mic on that particular snare in Wagener's room, was bigger, thicker, but still had plenty of crack. Some mics do sound really thick (we tried a Royer R121, for example) but didn't have the upper mid crack to keep the snare cutting through the mix. The Oktava MK219 sounded great.

Wagener said that he had done other shootouts before and his favorite snare mic was a LDC condenser mic. (I believe one of the Groove Tubes models). However, he said the bleed was outrageous so that mic was out of the equation. The Oktava MK219 had plenty of rejection but still sounded way more exciting than a Shure SM57.

Brandon

[snoopy]

Oktava......is it from Europe?

[brandondrury]

Oktava......is it from Europe?

They are made in the Soviet Union, from what I understand, but I'm pretty sure you can find them in Musician's Friend.

Brandon

[snoopy]

www.oktavausa.com

It appears to be the only dealer for the States?
$175 on the site.

[brandondrury]

I did buy some Oktava MK012s from Guitar Center about 5 years ago, but when I tried to buy 2 more, they had none. Same with Musiciansfriend.com.

Maybe their distribution crapped out or something.

Brandon

[phangeaux]

I recall seeing a couple of these advertized on different occasions (used) on craigslist SEATTLE.

That would stand to reason since Seattle is an international port city and gateway to the Orient as well as imports from Russia.

You might be able to find a good source in the Pacific Northwest like Seattle, WA or Portland, OR.

I'll see if I can find anythig and get back to this topic.

also, maybe we have to consider the economic disasters in Russia after the implementation of American style capitalism. I think we'ere fortunate that they are still able to produce them, hopefully of same quality, which is another thing to research, but at that price one would assume that they are of equal or beter quality