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The Cable’s The Thing  [ Edit ] 

As I gear up to record a bunch of stuff next month, I’ve been testing out my three microphones and preamp with drums, voice, and guitar.

Tonight I discovered that certain cables make certain microphones sound terrible. Fortunately, or perhaps coincidentally, the cable that I got with my SM57 sounds fine with it. If I use the cables I got with the Marshalls with the 57, it sounds really noisy.

Likewise, the 57’s cable sounds terrible on the MXLs.

I have no idea why this is. There must be a reason. I’m also trying to find out how much difference (in my distinctly not audiophile setup) better cables might make. Sometimes the noise level is really irritating, but the cables really seem to make a difference.