Need Advice on Mic Cable

T

teetopkram

New member
Greetings -

Based on advice I have received here as well as information I have read, I have just invested in my first LDC, an AT3035 for $130. I will be using this primarily for vocals, and will be getting a pair of SDCs for acoustic not too far down the road.

Anyway, my "studio" is in my home office. However, this is likely not the best place for me to record vocals with a condensor given its layout and lack of sound proofing. The best place, I believe, is my bedroom walk in closet, with a low ceiling and every wall sans one completely covered with hanging clothes...there is no echo at all in there. But to get there, I would need a mic cord of at least 30'

So my question is, in buying a cord of at least that length, are there any special issues that need to be considered compared to buying a shorter 10 or 15' cord, such as extra shielding, better quality cable, better quality connectors, etc? I am not sure that I buy into the Monster cable hype, but if you can recommend a good quality cable/brand for that length, it'd be appreciated.

Thanks, Mark
 
cable length

30 ft is fine, no sweat. I think you can go about 100 ft before you have to start worrying-- not positive on the max distance, but I know for sure anything under 50ft won't give you any trouble. Generic brands will do the job just fine. Shielding is always a good idea, tho
 
uncle_j73 said:
Generic brands will do the job just fine. Shielding is always a good idea, tho
Click to expand...

i dont know if that is always the case. i've used to generic brand cables, and at longer distances, you can sometimes get noise. why skimp on cables, they are the 'veins' of your recording system. plus, better cables last longer, if you take care of them. i just bought cable for my studio and got mogami... you dont have to spend that kinda money (50 bucks for 25') but you shouldnt skimp on cheap cables. you can hear the difference, it some applications, and they will fall apart.
 
Cable

If your handy with a solder iron:
go to your local electronics supply and buy mogami quad cable, Belden has a quad cable as well but Im not sure what its called at the moment.

I get my Mogami quad for around 76 cents a foot, thats cheap. Buy Neutrik XLR connectors and your set. They run around 3.50 ea I think.
If you have any questions about actually soldering what to where, theres plenty of help online or right on this message board Im sure.

I like to make all my cables, that way I know exactly whats going on from point A to B. It's cheaper too, especially if you have alot of cabling. I suppose if you only need a few then it may be more feasable to buy them already made.

Good luck!

Makes
 
Something I've noticed a lot over the years is that a lot of manufactured cables don't ground the connector's case tab. I'm not sure whether that's to save wire, to make ground lifters easier to make, or because the companies assume that the gear will provide jumpers between the ground pin and the case, but I've seen problems in certain environments when using cables with such construction.

I used to do live jazz band gigs (in High School) and later, event videography (mostly in random high school and college theaters, notorious for being some of the most electrically noisy locations in the known universe...). In both of those environments, I used to have fits with hum and RF noise on moderately long (30-50 foot) runs, particularly when multiple cables were chained.

In every case, soldering jumper wires to the connectors' shield tabs cleaned the problem up quite handily (except for plastic-backed connectors, which I've actually resorted to wrapping in foil and grounding on more than one occasion).

I guess the point is that if you're going to be in a noisy environment, try to use longer cables so you don't have to chain multiple cables together. If you have to chain them, though, and if you start experiencing odd problems as a result, make sure everything is shielded end-to-end without gaps. Most of the time, it probably won't make a detectable difference, but when it does....
 
mogami "neglex" cable with neutrik connectors.
if you're really anal about it, and want to extract the best possible performance out of the cable...get the neglex with only 2 conductors+shield.

the quad (4 conductors+shield) is if you have noise problems...

just say no to the monster "looks-over-function" hype machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top