Mixdown decks & RCA cables

[studiodrum]

Hey Gents, . . I have a Pioneer stand alone CD burner, and cassette deck to use as mix down decks, . .and the inputs are of course RCA. I was just curious about what type of RCA cables you guys are using to connect your mixing board to your mix down decks?

Any reason to run out and buy expensive high quality cables, or will a decent pair of generic Hosa, or Radio Shack RCA cables do the job fine?

 

[Beck]

Radio Shack or Hosa are fine. Keep the length as short as possible without putting strain on the wire -- there should be some slack.

Something like this:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049658

But if you can find high-grade nickel-plated I would go with that because some of the gold-plated RCAs have a ridiculously tight grip – you can hardly get them on and off.

I used to make all of my cables with Canare cable and high-quality nickel-plated connectors, but I’ve bought a few pre-assembled as well. I wouldn’t worry too much about a 3 to 6 ft RCA interconnect for mixdown as long as it’s not a skinny $3.99 special from Big Lots or something.

~Tim

 

[studiodrum]

Thanks Tim! I figured regular ole RCA cables would be fine, . . But, I just wanted to get someone else's opinion. Especially, cause, ya put all this money into really nice or at least decent mic cables, . . I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't being penny wise, and pound foolish by throwing in some Hosa or Radio Snatch cables into the mix. . .

But, yes I agree, . .I will stay away from the $1.99 Odd Lot Specials, . .!

 

[SteveMac]

I picked up a handy doodad the other day. behringer cable tester It's by behringer but it seems to work ok. It's even got a test tone generator in it.Which I haven't tried out yet. But, the first thing that happened when I got it home was the screw for the battery pack stripped. So I actually had to drill it out. It was like they screwed it in with a power drill. Cheap screws, ridiculous. Theres a better model with the same design out there that I think Behringer stole it from.