Microphone Cable Length

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weeks82

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Hi all.

I was wondering if longer XLR cable runs affect sound quality when recording. I always assumed balanced line didn't matter that much. Is there an audible difference ? Whats the longest suggested distance ? Thanks.

-Brian
 
With good quality cable, connectors, and soldering, i would think you could go at least a couple of hundred feet without any noticeable degradation. At least i hope so, because i often do!

My tt patchbays came prewired with 50' of Belden cable on each point. So everytime I patch a piece of gear into the chain, i'm adding 100 feet of cable! Ouch! I never really thought about it until just now... thanks a lot, weeks!!! :mad:
 
Yes, makes a huge difference, especially with hceap non-ofc cable or quad cable. Quad cable (and cable in general) changes the overall load that a mic sees, affecting its sound. Also, if the cable isnt very good, and its super long and not quad cable, you run into RF problems and loss of signal due to degradation.
Lesson: use the shortest, best cable you can buy.
When I record, I have 25 foot cables at my disposal (good ones, Canare and Mogami) but when I go to record a guitar for instance, I automatically reach for the shortest good cable I have, which is a Mogami quad at 10 feet... not by accident, but as a rule. I'm Going to buy a 10 foot Zaoella cable (10 foot is all I can afford) and use it for all overdubs.
 
While some would post here and say that for live applications cable length does not appear to matter, I assure you that for critical recording apps, it does. The main reason is not only interference from outside sources (such as power cords, computer monitors, etc.), but collision interference on the molecular level. This is why the upper end manufacturers use O2-Free copper. Oxygen-free copper makes a significant difference in signal flow and accuracy of the end image. I suggest you take 5 or 6 cables of varying quality and length, run them into a decent quality pre, then monitor them on some good headphones. You will see quite quickly what I mean.

For a decent all-around and readily available cable, I advise the Monster 1000 Studio-Pro cables, at 20' and under. Since many of the best tube mics have their own required multi-pin cables to get to the power source, I advise using the shortest possible cable to get from there to your mic pre--the Monster 1000 at 10' is fairly useable at about $75 each. I assure you, it is well worth it. Unless you are a Mastering engineer, you may not notice such signal quality issues, but if you do the side-by-side tests I suggest, you will soon see the difference.


Cheers=)
 
natpub said:
...snip
...but collision interference on the molecular level. This is why the upper end manufacturers use O2-Free copper. Oxygen-free copper makes a significant difference in signal flow and accuracy of the end image...
snip...
Click to expand...

er, um - this sounds most intriguing - could you be more specific, and explain some of these terms for this ignoramus...

Thanks in advance -

- Wil
 
natpub said:
... The main reason is not only interference from outside sources (such as power cords, computer monitors, etc.), but collision interference on the molecular level....
Click to expand...

What is "collision interference"? Is this just a fancy word of "impedance"? Or is somebody just marketing something here? "Collision interference" on a football field, I think I could interpret ....

An observation: at $75 a pop for a cables that are merely "fairly usable," an ordinary home studio could easily have considerably more than half its cost in cables, rather than equipment.

Let's say everything's going through a patchbay, so each box requires its own full set of cables. A minimal stereo in-out connection would run $300. A quick, rough count of cables connected to a not-that-large mixer yields the number 72, which would run to about $5,400 just for "fairly usable." Does it make sense to hook up a $1,000 mixer with $5,400 worth of cable? What kind of cables are inside the mixer?
 
If you need to run mic signals a loooooooooong way before they make it to a recording device, you're better off putting a preamp near the mic and letting a line level output push your home run cable. I've sent signals thru close to a mile (4900' actually) of cable and things were just great when it hit the tapes.

Personally, I don't own any mic cables longer than 100'. If I need to, I put preamps in the middle so I can feed a 'hotter' signal down the line. My studio/basement is only 41' on the long edge and my control room is pretty much in the middle, so getting a run over 75' takes effort.

Back when I did live work, we routinely ran mic signals thru anywhere between a few hundred and a couple of thousand feet of cable. Sometimes there were active splitters, and they helped a lot. BSS makes some very nice ones.

my $0.02.

-dave
 
i tried to find some of the articles online that i had read that explained O2 in copper and cable quality but didnt have the time to find them

i came across the info a few months back when searching for the best possible guitar and speaker cable i could find, so i was surfing like mad and doing a ton of research, as well as A/B stuff.

anyway, as far as spending so much money on cable, well, i myself just save and buy the best i can afford at the time, and collect better and better ones for critical applications as i go along---eventually i hope to have a pretty good collection..

Yes, i know it can get up into the thousands (if you are gonna cable a whole studio), but it seems that everytime i track down a little noise in my system, it ends up being a cable. Being a person who hates using too much processing, plugin or otherwise, i try to get the very best signal i can right from the top. In that sense, for me it is better to have a $100 dollar cable that a $300 box to remove the noise from a $20 cable, shrug.

Also, as far as a patch bay goes, the cables that short are not $75, they are only about $10-15.

A good mic, into a good pre, into some good converters, maybe a little compression, that would be my preference for tracking vocals and really most other things, as opposed to spending focused more on tons of outboard.
 
ooops - i just realized looking back at my earlier post that most of the signal path in my studio is carrying line level, not mic level. Now I feel a little better!

But when I am getting signals from my drum room or my 3rd floor vocal loft, my preamps are all in the control room, so there might be as much as 50-100' of mic level signal path. I never noticed it sounding particularly crappy compared to vocals recorded "close by" the preamps - especially since the vaulted ceilings in the 3rd floor vocal room give a much nicer ambience than recording with short cables right in the control room. I guess it can't be helped - I'm too lazy to unrack my preamps every time I want to do a vocal.
 
Line level is just as important.
Mogami is as good or better than the Monster and is only $28 for a 25 foot quad. For $75, a 10 foot Zoella silver core cable would be a complete no-brainer if the only other option was Monster.

OFC- copper oxidizes, it wont oxidize without oxygen. Oxidization screws with signal flow, specifically your high end detail. Just trust us and go with it. Mogami, Canare, or Zoella silver core.
 
Well for the distance strapped, I've got a wicked deal. This SM-82 I bought at a flea market claims to send its line level signal just fine through 1.5 km of cable! Yours for $20 plus shipping. No problem, Littledog, this'll clean up your patch bay issues in a jiffy!- Richie
 
Yes, copper oxidizes. There's a readily available way to observe how quickly. Pre-1982 US pennies were 95% copper and 5% zinc. They even have a nifty little date stamped on them, so you can tell how long they've been around. Here, in my pocket is a 25-year-old penny that's ... well, I guess it's a little bit oxidized.
 
The problem is, 25 years from now I'll probably be pretty well oxydized myself! (Would being a "Silver Member" help?) I guess I better plan on getting that hit record sometime before then...
 
Personally, I never use expensive cables, except for some decent trs cables in my patchbay...but they are coming on about 20 years old now, I would suppose. I use those cheap shit cables at Musician's Friends for my guitars(the $4.99 specials), and my mic cables I made with some Beldon, about 20 years ago too. But, except for the crackling, and the outside induced noise you can get (but not always now...) I find there is no major difference to warrent getting those $100 15' cables.


https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65115 <---- this current thread in the clinic gives me the feeling that if I went out and blew a bunch of $$$ on Monster cables, or whatever...I might just be wasting my money, and rather should just spend my money on guitar lessons. All cheap shit cables used on this tune too... and dang, I roll over my cables with my chair...all that good stuff...

I think there is money better spent than blowing 75 beans on a guitar cord....really...
 
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