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Cables Revisited  [ Edit ] 

I’ve written about cables previously. At the time, I thought there was an interaction between cables and microphones, where certain XLR cables in my setup would work sound good with certain mics.

I’ve since learned better. Cables are vital, but if you have a cable that sounds bad with a microphone, and you know the microphone is fine (mine are), you have a bad cable. Or in my case, two out of three bad cables.

Today’s lesson is free cables are pretty much worthless. I got one cable with each microphone I’ve purchased in the past six or nine months, and only one is any good now. That’s sad.

I just bought two new XLR mic cables from Markertek. I put them to the test after they arrived today, and so far I’m very happy.

Markertek has a house brand of cable which is well-regarded in the online forums I’ve read (rec.audio.pro, homerecording). I know next to nothing about cables, so after looking around a lot, I discovered that “four-conductor” cables sound better (in other words, don’t add noise and hum to your signal) that the more common, less-expensive two-conductor cables. Markertek’s cables were cited repeatedly as excellent cables for the price.

The first thing everyone will say when you ask about cables is “make your own”. When I asked the engineer at Kingsize (the recording studio where I recorded with Antje) where he got his cables, he told me he makes his own. If you’re looking to save money, and you’re okay with a soldering iron, you can indeed make your own cables much cheaper than any you’ll buy. The connectors everyone uses (Neutrik is the brand) cost a few dollars each, and the cable itself is also pretty cheap. It’s supposed to be pretty easy. I’ve made a microphone myself, but I didn’t feel like dealing with the soldering for these cables.

The cables I bought were twenty-five feet long, and were on sale for $26 each. Contrast this with Mogami cables, which is the brand name everyone loves. For a Mogami cable of the same length, you can expect to pay $50. Both are four-conductor cables, both have lifetime guarantees. I’m sure Mogami is great, but I’ll stick with Markertek. One word of caution: they managed to spell both my name and my street wrong when I phoned in my order. I recommend ordering online. I wanted to talk about these cables since I didn’t know anything about them, but I can tell you they’re great. Order online so the UPS truck will know where to drop your goodies.

After all that, is the sound improved? Yes. Just like everyone said. Good cables are better than crappy ones. I think phantom power on a condenser microphone diminishes the noise in a crappy cable slightly, but the Markertek cables have no noise at all. They’re quiet.

Hear what I mean. These are samples of nothing, just the microphone set up in my room with the gain on the MobilePre turned way up. Ideally, you should hear nothing.

• The crappy cable has a pronounced buzz. If that wasn’t pronounced enough for you, I boosted the volume in this sample. As you can hear, it’s ugly. At first I wasn’t sure if this noise was the cables, the mics, or what.
• The Markertek cable sounds silent. All you hear is room noise. If you boost the volume comparably to the other sample (800%, a rather outrageous amount), you can hear some hiss. I’m not sure what that’s coming from, but it’s negligible at normal volume. The buzz wasn’t.

Cables are important. When you’re setting up a studio, even a small one, set aside money in your budget for decent cables. It seems easy to spend all your money on computers, software, and mics, but if your cables suck, you’re still in trouble.

If I had a nickel for every time I saw that in my reading, I’d be rich. Or I’d have enough to buy a lottery ticket, and then maybe I’d get rich.

Update

When you get your nice cables, you should learn how to wrap them correctly. The over-under method (which I first learned as counter-coiling in college) will keep your cables from getting all tied in knots, which helps them last longer. Do not just wrap them around your hand and elbow.

Posted by Joe | TrackBack