IRPA/Oktava MK61

This is the Oktava MK61, an end-address tube condenser microphone manufactured in the mid-late 60’s at the Oktava plant in Tula. It uses a unique medium diaphragm single-sided edge terminated capsule. There are a series of holes around the perimeter that give it its directional characteristic. It comes with a rubber ring that can be slid over the holes that give the microphone an omnidirectional pickup pattern. The microphone body contains only the capsule, three resistors, and a 6J1P tube, the same tube used in the LOMO 19a9. The circuit is very similar to a 19a9, with a similar toroidal output transformer housed inside of the power supply, but because of the capsule design the sound of the MK61 is quite different than the 19a9. It has fantastic low-end, and a beautiful rising top end that gives a sound profile that is surprisingly similar to an AKG C12, making it a great choice on vocals, acoustic instruments, and overheads.

This microphone is unbelievably rare, we’ve only ever seen three MK61’s out in the wild, and we own all three of them. We’re keeping two, and making this one available for purchase. It comes with a repurposed Oktava BP60 PSU (typically used for the Oktava MK13M), which contains the original toroidal output transformer that is critical to the sound of the mic. We've never seen the original PSU for this mic, please reach out if you've seen one before. The mic has a beautiful new hammer tone green paint job, and its original swivel mount.

You can hear three MK61’s in action by streaming the recording in the audio player below.

The song was recorded using the MK61 for every instrument. Three MK61’s were used on drums using the Glyn Johns technique with a kick mic, and then a single one for each amp, and one close mic and one room mic for vocals. Everything was recorded at modest levels through our Sphere Eclipse console preamps into a Burl A/D without any processing whatsoever.