Cables for Mics?

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Dracon

Dracon

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Is it worth it to go with Blue Cables for microphones or is any standard cable good enough for recording? :cool:
 
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i use plantet wave cables they bend and they are a life time warenty at GC
 
I say that as long as it has a good warrantee there's nothing to worry about. ;)
 
I just did a search on this forum for cables and I read that some people say building your own is the best. Save money, get good quality cables and do the work yourself.

I've found some BPA 15' cables for $25.00 and some Blue Microphone Blueberry Mic Cables 20' for $24.50. I'm I seeing wrong, do these cables only work on the specified microphone or is it that much cheaper to make your own?
 
Yo Dracon, we meet again. They're right that the way to buy cables is to make cables. Use Mogami, Belden, or Canare cable, and Neutrik connectors, and you can have top notch cables at a fraction of the price. If you're lazy, like I am, I can tell you that B.L.U.E. cables sound great and are tough SOB's. I've got about a dozen Kiwi quad cables that I've been beating on for 3 years, live, and in the studio, without a failure. Hosas and Live Wires are pussy cables. Monster is OK, but usually overpriced.-Richie
 
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Richard Monroe said:
....They're right that the way to buy cables is to make cables. Use Mogami or Canare cable, and Neutrik connectors, and you can have top notch cables at a fraction of the price. If you're lazy, like I am, I can tell you that B.L.U.E. cables sound great and are tough SOB's. ...Richie
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Hey Richie:

I'll probably buy my cables from the Rack. I got rid of my cheap soldering iron about two months ago, and I will not make my own until I start needing a lot better equipment.

However, I'll keep Mogami or Canare in mind if I ever do. After years of building home electronic kits I learned that I don't want to build them nor fix them. I want to use them and play with them.
 
grn said:
blue kiwi is the way to go.
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I will go with the Blue Kiwi then. Although they are a little more expensive than the Blue Blueberry cables. Is the shielding that much better? Never mind I'll look at the specs and find out.
 
Dracon - in all honesty ... for what you're doing ... any will be fine. Get the best you can afford but don't pour money into them, remember what you're trying to achieve!!
 
noisedude said:
Dracon - in all honesty ... for what you're doing ... any will be fine. Get the best you can afford but don't pour money into them, remember what you're trying to achieve!!
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You are right, I gotta keep reminding myself of what I'm trying to do. I get too caught up in all the excitement and I end up thinking I want to build a Professional Studio or something. I may not get the blue cables after all, 'cause I don't know if the local outfit carries them Guitar World (I know it's Guitar Center, but somehow Guitar Center does not capture the true meaning of the store).

I had seem them on-line at a local store, but it turns out their warehouse is in Chicago and they charge shipping. I'm not paying $5.00 to ship a $25.00 item or whatever they are charging for shipping.
 
Dracon said:
You are right, I gotta keep reminding myself of what I'm trying to do. I get too caught up in all the excitement and I end up thinking I want to build a Professional Studio or something.
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May I suggest CBI Quad cables? They use Belden wire, Neutrik connectors, and in the 25foot length they seem very quiet. And they aren't too pricey. I treat all my stuff like fine china, so I have no idea if they'd stand up to heavy use.
 
Dracon said:
You are right, I gotta keep reminding myself of what I'm trying to do. I get too caught up in all the excitement and I end up thinking I want to build a Professional Studio or something.
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Hmmmm ... I fall into that trap at least four times a week!!
 
I say if you can afford it, buy the better cables. They will pay off in the long run just due to durability. Secondly, they can greatly change the way things sound. It may not be night and day when you just A/B test them side by side, but added up track after track after track, it can really make a difference. It's kind of like making a smaller converter upgrade. On individual tracks you may not understand why they are different, but in a whole mix it make make a real impact.

Of course if you can't afford it, then you can't afford it.
 
Most of my "regular use" cables are made by Peavey. They're what my local axe shop sells and they cut me a pretty good discount on em. I'm can't remember with 100% certainty what brand the wire is, but i'm pretty sure it's belden--it's heavy gauge wire....anyway, the connectors are Neutrik--that much i'm 100% certain of.

i've had these cables for the better part of 3 years now. i've beat on em, run em over with chairs, walked on em, gigged with em (and flooded them out), coiled em 100's of times and they're still in as great a shape as they were when i bought them.

i also picked up a pair of BLUE Blueberry cables when my local GC had their Labor Day sale and was blowing them out (got the last 2). got them for $10 each--that was a no-brainer. those cables are VERY nice, and they only get used in the studio, and only for the "mission critical" things like vocals, etc. in retrospect, i prolly should've picked up a couple kiwis or cranberrys then too, but i was already buying a Dragonfly and that was something i hadn't planned on doing. :D still, i'd eventually like to replace all of my peaveys with blueberrys (or better) and relegate the peaveys to gigging only......but fact of the matter is that the peaveys are quite solid cables....


cheers,
wade
 
billisa said:
May I suggest CBI Quad cables? They use Belden wire, Neutrik connectors, and in the 25foot length they seem very quiet. And they aren't too pricey. I treat all my stuff like fine china, so I have no idea if they'd stand up to heavy use.
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I'm not sure what too pricey is but I looked up the price on line and they are comparable to say the blue cables in price.

For now, I'm probaby going to go with something that looks like a mic cable, works like a mic cable and it's relatively in-expensive. The reason for this is because I do not yet how involved I will get into the recording business yet.
Let's just say that if I record some vocals and mix it, and my wife falls in love with the results then I will be upgrading my sound card, getting a better mixer and most likely build my own cables. Hell, the tower case that I bought about 6 months ago (sitting in the closet laughing at me) will probably become my recording computer or it may just be even cheaper for me to get another refurbished Dell (we'll see). I already have $200 invested in a barebones that I haven't even put together, plus my old system that I have the closet (which is there 'cause it pissed me off - 700Mhz).
 
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mighty good post. I was - well - suprised at the differnces in price/performance. You can get a 15' cable from MF for like $5, and it can to up to $30 for pretty much the same thing in some of the stores.

You know, for commodities like this, it would be really nice to have a "consumer reports" lab to test the basics. Is there such an entity?

If not, it might be a good idea to start one. All you need is a mini RF anechoic chamber and possibly some automated cable flexers.
 
KevinDrummer said:
mighty good post. I was - well - suprised at the differnces in price/performance. You can get a 15' cable from MF for like $5, and it can to up to $30 for pretty much the same thing in some of the stores.

You know, for commodities like this, it would be really nice to have a "consumer reports" lab to test the basics. Is there such an entity?

... QUOTE]

I agree with you. I know that people rave about ebay, but unless you are buying something from ebay locally or something that does not cost too much to ship. I'm sure you can find the same or close to the same in your local area for less money. E-bay is not much different than your local pawn shop, except that you have to pay for shipping.
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CBI Studio Quad - 20 ft long, $13.50 --- $17.50 With Belden "brilliance" 1192a wire
 
xstatic said:
CBI Studio Quad - 20 ft long, $13.50 --- $17.50 With Belden "brilliance" 1192a wire
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Cool! Where do I pick them up? :)
What I mean is where did you see them advertised or are you selling them?
:confused:
 
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