Cable types and what kind to use as "outs"

[fris9]

I'm getting ready to buy some cables to use as outs from my board into my Firewire interface. I'm a little confused about TS, TRS, balanced, etc. What kind would work the best in this situation?

 

[Farview]

If both the outputs of the board and the inputs of the interface are balanced, use TRS. If not you can use either TRS or TS, it won't matter.

 

[fris9]

Cool, thanks....so right now I'm using the Mogami Gold series instrument cables and they've worked fine, but looking online I also see a separate line called unbalanced patch cables. Are these the same thing as the instrument cables, only shorter? By the way, the board is a Mackie 808 and I'm using the insert jack, which is unbalanced, as the outs.

 

[Farview]

Instrument cables and unbalanced patch cables are the same thing.