Oxygen Free Mic Cable Question

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nostrovia

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I am currently running my mic (AKG c1000s) through a Pro-Co Mic Cable and an Art Tube Amp and into my portastudio. However, there is a ton of background noise being captured. It's not tape hiss either because I can hear it in the monitor/cue live. So it seems to me like cheap cable is probably the biggest culprit. Before I go and pick up some Monster cables though, I have a few questions I was hoping someone could address:

1) Is there a vast difference in the 3 cable quality levels that Monster makes? The price of the cable doubles for each level. I am not looking to go cheap, I am just kinda curious and would like to do the right thing. I've been planning to get the mid grade.

2) I know the 15 foot mic cable between the mic and the amp has to be high quality, but does the cable between the amp and the portastudio also have to be the same quality even if it is much shorter, say 3 feet? Or is it okay to just use a lower grade patch cable, maybe Hosa?

3) What the heck is Oxygen Free cable and how important is it? I've done some digging on the net and the forum here but there is not too much info. Dragon did mention in one message that he had a source for generic oxygen free cable and I think the implication was that this cable was about as good as the name brand stuff like Monster.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help especially with question 2.

Chris Rizzo
chrisrizzo@hotmail.com
Orlando, FL
 
I was thinking that the noise could also be due to the fact that the cable is unbalanced and the ART MP Tube Amp has balanced ins and outs. Assuming I get a balanced cable for the input, I would then need one for the ouput as well, right? Sorry this post is so long, I am just trying to sort this out a bit so I don't go blow a few hundred bucks on the worng cable.

Chris
 
I would like to know dragons secret source for oxygen free cable... Parts Express perhaps???
 
There IS a difference between the 3 grades of Monster cable.

The biggest difference you are going to hear is if you use one from the mic to the preamp. Once the signal has been converted to line level, the difference in cable quality becomes less noticable. That is not to say that you will not get better signal by using all Monster cable in you signal path, just that the least obvious run will be from the preamp to the input of the recording device.

I am not sure though that you are going to be able to appriciate the full benefits of the Monster Studio Pro 1000 with a little 4-track cassette with unbalanced inputs. You may think about investing in the mid priced cable to start.

Oxygen Free cable means that the wire was produced in a oxygen free environment if I remember correctly. This means that the copper was allowed to bond without any contaniments in it. Signal flow will be much better.

You can input to the ART balanced and output from it unbalanced. Of course a fully balanced signal path is much better, but in your case, without getting a new recorder with balanced in's, this not possible.

Good luck.

Ed
 
Thanks Ed. The portastudio I am using is the Tascam 488mkII, probably I should have mentioned that. I don't have a manual for this unit, so there are a few things on it which I don't understand. My guess is there are no balanced inputs, but I am not sure. There are two input in the front of the machine labeled "INSERT 1" & "INSERT 2", there's also the normal Mic/Line inputs for each channel, and then there's the "2TR Inputs" which are a mystery to me. I thought maybe the Inserts could be balanced, not sure. But, let me see if I have this straight... It's okay to use unbalanced cables because the siginal is at line level after the mic pre-amp and the cable is short. BUT, it's true I could expect slightly better sound quality using a balanced cable between the pre-amp and the portastudio if I really did have balanced inputs. But a cassette system is not not able to capture the higher resolution of a fully balanced/highend mic cable setup. So no need for the highend balanced stuff.

So, to wrap it up, for me it's gotta be balanced/midquality cable between the mic and pre-amp, unbalanced cable between the pre-amp and the portastudio. Phew, hopefully I got that right. Please let me know if that makes sense.

Chris
 
It's at your...err. I lived here a year before I realized the connotation. I would have noticed it immediately when I was back in college :) Seriously, it's a city on the outskirts of north eastern Orlando.

Chris
 
Where's "Longwood, FL"??? And dont tell me its at my mom's house...
 
Thanks kristian, you're right the XLRs are balanced. I guess I was thinking I needed to use quarter inch cable after the pre-amp and into the portastudio. But I can use the balanced ins, I'd just have to lower the portastudions mic pre and switch off its phantom power. That's cool. I'm going to give it a try both ways and see how much of a quality difference I have with the second balanced cable. Thanks for your help guys, it's off to Mars Music for me...

Chris
 
Ahhhh...

nostrovia said:
Thanks kristian, you're right the XLRs are balanced. I guess I was thinking I needed to use quarter inch cable after the pre-amp and into the portastudio. But I can use the balanced ins, I'd just have to lower the portastudions mic pre and switch off its phantom power. That's cool. I'm going to give it a try both ways and see how much of a quality difference I have with the second balanced cable. Thanks for your help guys, it's off to Mars Music for me...

Chris
Click to expand...

And one can only assume that after nearly a decade of silence, the noise was still there with the balanced cable...
 
When You ART your signal path...you get alot of extra noise...they're stuff is unuseable...aim higher...alot of us arround here do like the DMP3...I reccomend the Line6 ux2 most of the time to replace that ART.
 
Hey, an old thread with S8-N--one of the original, pre-cave members--and he was being relatively nice. I wonder what that toad fellating MOFO is cooking these days.:D
 
Monster cable is the most overpriced piece of crap on the market

Just get audio grade cables from another company and you'll have the same results for alot less. Especially if we're talking balanced cables.
 
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