...Since the time that these mics (Oktava MC012) have became available in the U.S. (primarily through Guitar Center), there have been many complaints of unreliability, inconsistency, and general quality control problems. I have talked to people who, on my recommendation, have bought 012's from G.C. (Guitar Center) that either didn't work or were too noisy for critical use. And putting together a stereo matched pair was about as likely as winning a lottery which requires you to have TWO identical winning tickets!
Over time I have bought 3 of these mics from G.C., and two of them matched well enough to use for overheads. I have been very happy with the pair, and have used them almost all of the time on drums. The third mic is handy for tracking acoustic guitar, hi hat, or percussion at the same time. The cardioid capsules are all that Guitar Center had, and they sounded very good, but I was intrigued about other possibilities for this modular system.
Then, through r.a.p., I found out about Taylor Johnson at The Sound Room, an independent U.S. distributor for Oktava mics, capsules, and factory-matched stereo pairs. Taylor kindly sent me a matched 012 set to audition (the factory-matched stereo pair, or FMSP), including a nice cedar box for each mic set, omni, cardioid and hypercardioid capsules, shock mounts, and a Lomo M1 large diaphragm capsule that screws on to the 012 preamp body.
A little detective work turned up this interesting tidbit; according to Taylor the FMSP mics he sells are initially checked for overall quality, cosmetics, sound, frequency, and electronics, then set aside for matching. In an email message Taylor elaborated "After the FMSP and single units are chosen they go to a recording studio in Moscow that specializes in classical music... Here, they are checked and tested again and from these tests, units are shipped to the Sound Room - where they are tested by me."
So what happens to the mics that don't make the cut? You don't think those Russian guys are just going to throw them away do you? You can guess where they end up. Taylor said that his 012's receive 4 levels of testing, while the G.C. stock gets passed after a "red light/ green light" inspection.
Anyway, I took it upon myself to do some testing of the various 012 lines, employing standard methods which I've developed as a magazine reviewer. And I can tell you that there is a BIG difference between the FMSP stock and the G.C. stock 012's. Here's what I found...
In a blind test using Focusrite Green preamps and Monster Cables, I listened to four cardioid mics: one of my matched G.C. stock 012's, a FMSP 012, a FMSP 012 body with large diaphragm Lomo M1 head, and a Neumann TLM 103. The mics were clustered together in front of a loudspeaker playing full range music mixes, and each mic came up on an individual, unidentified fader on my board with gains carefully matched. On paper I made 4 columns, with the fader number at the top of each column (1-2-3-4). I then listened to the mics randomly, making comments in each column, and when I was done I matched the mics to the fader numbers. Rather than paraphrase, I'll present the raw notes here.
1 (G.C. 012): midrangy; thin and bright; small-sounding compared to 2/3; thin compared to 2/3; warm low mids, but not enough bass; richer than 4; generally prefer to 4; fairly even frequency sweep, but midrangy at 750 Hz.
2 (FMSP 012): open, airy, close; good warm lows; clear non-sibilant highs; no honkiness; lots of 4-8 kHz; smooth; smoother than 3; more character and depth on room/ ambient sounds/ reverb etc.