Wiring Studio witih 4 conductor cable question...

G

GABritton

New member
Hey guys....new to this site.....I'm in the process of building a small studio in a 16 x 12 building. I have a small control room and iso booth on one end. I have bought 4 conductor cable for the mics and 2 conductor cable for the headphones.

Now here's the question.......

1. There are 4 connectors on the back of my XLR wall plate. All 4 of the conductors will be connected to the back of the plug (assuming white=pos; black=neg; green=ground; red=?) Not really sure what the 4th conductor will be used for. I just knew it was better sheilded cable. Am I on the right track?

2. 2 conductor cable will be used for the headphones. The won't be phsycally touching the mic cables. What will be used for the ground on this cable?

I will post some pictures tomorrow to give everyone a little view of our work.

Thanks
Gabe
 
Did you buy 4-conductor mic cable? If you did, you should have two pairs of the same color, and probably a braided wire shield. You have two wires for plus, two wires for minus, you twist the ends together and solder them to the xlr connector. That fourth little tab on the connector, apart from the others, is not used. The third connection is made by unbraiding part of the shield and twisting it into a wire, which you solder to the third solder connection. When people say two conductor mic cable, there is a third wire called the drain, which is kind of implied, as sometimes it is a seperate wire, in cable with a foil shield, or you "make" it by connecting the braided wire shield to the xlr connector. It's not really one of the conductors.


pin 1 shield

pin 2 hot (plus)

pin 3 cold (minus)

Your headphone cable needs three connections. One hot for each side, plus a common negative.

p.s. yes, the four-conductor does provide extra noise rejection. Each of the pairs is twisted together, which without getting technical helps reduce some noise and interference.
 
GABritton said:
2. 2 conductor cable will be used for the headphones. The won't be phsycally touching the mic cables. What will be used for the ground on this cable?
Click to expand...

How about the extra wire on the 4 conductor cable? Just kidding. ;)

You don't need 4 conductor for the mics, only 3.
Assuming you want you headphones in stereo, you will probably want to use 3 conductor cable for those too.

When I wire my studio, I am planning on using a "snake" cable that a friend sold me cheap, he had it left over from a sound system installation. It has 20 channels, I will use 16 for mic and 4 for 4 separate headphone mixes.


(BTW:I think this belongs in Studio Building and Display)
 
If you had 2 pairs of different colored wires ....say blue and white...

Blue 1 --> +

Blue 2 --> -

What would happen to the signal (noise/hum etc.) if you used one of the whites as the ground ?

Make it more succeptable to noise?
 
You may get more noise, you may not. Really the two conductors want to be fully encased in a shield, be it a braided shield connected to the xlr plug or a full foil shield with an extra drain wire connected to the xlr plug. The best solution is to buy real microphone cable. If you use the wire you have, just make sure the same wire is connected to the same pins at both ends, and be prepared for there to be noise.
 
The 4 conductor cable is actually quad mic cable from mogami - the 4 conductors are 4 seperate colors though (green, red, white, black). Good idea to twist 2 together and use the silver shield as the ground. I've already ran 16 channels of mic cable and 8 channels of headphone cable through the walls so it's in plalce now.

This quad mic cable is VERY VERY good quality and for only .31 cents a foot it's not a bad deal at all. It has a silver braided shield that is very thick compared to a lot of cable.

The "headphone cable" (actually mic cable) is 2 conductor and I think I'll just twist the copper shield and solder it to ground on both ends....at least that's what I've heard is the best thing to do. It doesn't have to be best quality since it's not going to track. That's why I spent more money on mic cables. I was concerned that this headphone cable would not be able to run as stereo but now knowing i can use the shield as ground, this works great...

I believe the hard part is out of the way. It's time to start soldering....
 
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