Long cable runs impacting audio clarity?

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twangbuck

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Ok, I'm a home recording newbie. I'm still experimenting with trying to get good recorded tone at home. The tunes where I've been the most successful is when I've had the guitar amps and the singer in one particular room. Unfortunately, it's the room where my daw is set up. Dang!
Those particular tunes just seem to have the most clarity. In other words each track just seems really clear. The others, there's a little bit of, I wouldn't call it 'muddy,' just a little bit of a lack of clarity. Not horrible, it's just each instrument isn't quite as clear sounding.
However, on some of those tunes where I've gotten a nice, clear guitar amp sound by recording in my daw room, the amp was actually in a closet as a makeshift iso room.
All other factors remain the same: same amp, same guitar, same mics, same compression settings, etc etc. (by the way, I've experimented with compression settings by slowing down the attack and using a lower compresssion ratio and that kind of thing, and it hasn't helped).
All of which leads me to believe that maybe it's not the room or the compression settings, maybe it's the cable runs. The other rooms where I've recorded and gotten a less 'clear' tone I've been running two 25 foot cables together from each mic to my interface. I'm not using super high dollar cables either, maybe middle of the road, Live Wire cables I think they're called.
That's a pretty long way, plus I have those two cables plugged into each other for those long runs from each mic. Could that be the culprit?
Appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!
 
I use 50ft cables and have no problem.
Try using one instead of the two 25' cables. The connector alone could be causing it, at the very least get some connector cleaner.
 
You can run balanced cables (from balanced connections) much farther than unbalanced. You may start to pick up hum and noise on unbalanced runs. Avoid if you can.
 
Unbalanced guitar cables or long small gauge speaker cables can lose quality quickly. Are you playing in your control room with the amp in another?

Balanced mic cables should not be an issue. 100' snakes and much longer have no issue.
 
The length of the cable between a passive guitar and its first active stage (amp or pedal) can have a pretty big impact on the treble passed from the guitar.

Most active sources, as well as most microphones, shouldn't have much problem with even really long runs of halfway decent cable.
 
Yeah, if balanced cable run was an issue, people wouldn't have been able to use 100' mic snakes at concerts for the last half a century or so.

Unbalanced? Yes, that's another story. Unbalanced cables pick up interference and more resistance over long distances which impacts the tone, particularly in the top end.

If you're using balanced mic cables you shouldn't have a problem at all up to 100'.

Cheers :)
 
Just dropping by to say what others have. If it's a TRS or XLR run, it's not likely the cable causing problems. If you're running 40' guitar cables and 100', thin/low gauge speaker cables, then that could be the culprit.
 
You're not running a super-long cable from your guitar to the amp are you?
 
If clarity and high frequency content is your worry no matter what the cable which should be balanced, then do a sweep with the right equipment to find out what the issue is. A guy with an Audio Precision One Plus analyzer would be able to tell you what is going on. I have had to do proof of performance at Radio stations and used the same device and I never had any problems I could not resolve. Most of the problems were from punch Blocks. Most Radio stations are wired balanced The first thing you need to do is define the problem exactly not just say it doesn't sound good. That term tells you nothing.
 
As others have said, if we're talking a pair of balanced cables then 50 feet is nothing. Everything I record at home goes through a 100 foot snake plus whatever length of cable gets plugged into the stage box (this just saves running a bunch of individual cables. I've done much longer runs than that with no problems (as checked by professional set up gear).

Connector faults generally result in either no signal or buzzing/clicking--it'd be hard for a connector to affect clarity.

So, unless you're running an unbalanced signal from your guitar, I'd be looking at the room acoustics rather than the cable.
 
Everything recorded at my studio goes through a 75 foot snake. The guitars go through that snake, a 25 foot cable into a wall outlet, then at least another 25 feet through the wall, and finally out of another wall outlet through a 10 foot cable to the mic. Thats getting close to 200 feet with 6 connections without a problem.

My guess is the other room has some acoutic issues.
 
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