Oktava 219, Mod PE.

Posted on | July 31, 2009 | 3 Comments

My Oktava 219 arrived yesterday afternoon, back from Oktavamod.  It was great working with these people – they kept me informed every step of the way.

I haven’t had a ton of time to really put this mic through its paces, but I did want to hear what it sounded like, compared to my Rode NT2.

It’s…really different.  The Rode, being designed to be an “airy” mic, has a lot of top-end.  Sometimes this is very nice, particularly with female vocalists.  But it can be rather “eshy” and brittle too, and lacks punch in the low mids.

The Oktava, on the other hand, is a much darker mic.  It imparts a very warm, punchy character to the material.   It makes my voice sound pretty damn good, I’ll give it that.

As a little experiment, I set up the Rode right next to the Oktava, plugged it into input 2 on the ULN, linked the trim settings and set the preamp characters to neutral.  Then, I sang.  The difference is very audible.

Rode NT2

Oktava 219

Given that, back in the late 90′s when I bought the Rode, I paid somewhere on the order of $400 for it (it was before the explosion in low-cost condenser mics), and the Oktava I managed to snag on ebay for a whopping $70 + the $270 charge for the mod…well, the Oktava ends up being a simply fantastic value.  The Rode is by no means a bad mic – particularly since it has a multiple patterns, very low self-noise, etc.  But for my own vocals?  219 FTW.

I do wish I’d kept a few sound files of the Oktava before the modifications, though. It really is an entirely different beast now than it was before.

I’ve been watching the eBay auctions – the trick seems to be to get the 219.  The newer 319 has a nicer-looking Neumann-style cylindrical body.  Because of that, they’re in higher demand and seem to command higher prices.  Given that the capsule design is identical to the 219, I don’t know if there’s much advantage in the 319.

The OktavaMod people also do other mics, not just Oktavas.  I’m half-tempted to buy some cheap ribbon mics and let Mr. Joly work his magic on those at some point.

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