ENG-44 and Oktava MC-012 at DVinfo.net

Chris Swanberg · August 23rd, 2008, 05:37 PM

This thread is kind of a review of both of the items in the title, separately and used together.

I purchased an Oktava MC-012 on E-bay some time ago... and after doing my homework made sure it was a genuine Russian made model prior to purchase - even pasing up a couple of Chinese knock-offs. Once I had it I sent it off to Bill Sitler in NY to mod, and I have to say the mod does improve the mic...

Recently I had a chance to extensively use the mic on a mostly indoor shoot for a 48 hour film challenge. I also got the chance to hear how it held up in a theatre. I think our soundtrack was among the best there.... in other words it held up really well. For the money it is one great microphone... and using the hyper capsule... performed extremely well indoors, and out.

I also had the opportunity to use an ENG-44 Field mixer. Now I have NOT used the SD 302, only the Mix-Pre, but that alone gives me a flavor of the SD line which is pretty awesome.

That said, the ENG-44 is a darned nice field mixer. The preamps and nice and quiet and the unit overall performed quite nicely. It is not quite the build quality of the SD line, and some of the features are a little more limited, but for the money, it is a very good field mixer. If you are on a budget, I'd not hesitate to recommend it to you.

August 23rd, 2008, 05:37 PM	#1
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	ENG-44 and Oktava MC-012 This thread is kind of a review of both of the items in the title, separately and used together. I purchased an Oktava MC-012 on E-bay some time ago... and after doing my homework made sure it was a genuine Russian made model prior to purchase - even pasing up a couple of Chinese knock-offs. Once I had it I sent it off to Bill Sitler in NY to mod, and I have to say the mod does improve the mic... Recently I had a chance to extensively use the mic on a mostly indoor shoot for a 48 hour film challenge. I also got the chance to hear how it held up in a theatre. I think our soundtrack was among the best there.... in other words it held up really well. For the money it is one great microphone... and using the hyper capsule... performed extremely well indoors, and out. I also had the opportunity to use an ENG-44 Field mixer. Now I have NOT used the SD 302, only the Mix-Pre, but that alone gives me a flavor of the SD line which is pretty awesome. That said, the ENG-44 is a darned nice field mixer. The preamps and nice and quiet and the unit overall performed quite nicely. It is not quite the build quality of the SD line, and some of the features are a little more limited, but for the money, it is a very good field mixer. If you are on a budget, I'd not hesitate to recommend it to you.