Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (
More info?)
Excellent. As usual, Mike has gone out of his way to put together a
beautiful explanation. Though, with this poster's attitude, I'm not so
sure he deserved it.
Mike Rivers wrote:
> In article <997eda1f.0409191949.76697b0c@posting.google.com> MCDrumman@excite.com writes:
>
>
>>>But if I have the right concept, please answer which cable to use:
>>>
>>>1)From mixing board to power amp - instrument(sheilded) or
>>>speaker(unsheilded)?
>
>
> Shielded
>
>
>>>2)From mixing board to effects processor - instrument or speaker?
>
>
> Shielded
>
>
>>>3)From monitor amp to mixing board - instrument or speaker?
>
>
> Shielded
>
>
>>>4)From guitar amp line out to mixing board - instrument or speaker?
>
>
> Shielded
>
>
>>>5)From bass amp line out to mixing board - instrument or speaker?
>
>
> Shielded
>
>
>>Comon' people.....I know the answer's out there somewhere whithin you
>>all. I'm not a pro, I just jam in a bar band. Perhaps I should have
>>posted to different group. But I haven't gotten ANY concrete answers
>>from this group!!!! Are you guys pros?
>
>
> Concrete enough?
>
> The thing is that once you get out the door of the music store, there
> aren't "instrument" and "speaker" cables, there are cables (which is
> just the wire) and cable assemblies which has connectors attached to
> the wires. It's the "assembly" that makes a piece of single conductor
> shielded cable with 1/4" phone plugs on each end an "instrument cable"
> and a piece of two-conductor shielded cable with a male XLR connector
> on one end and a female XLR connector on the other end a "mic cable."
> But, it's true, that we tend to shorten "cable assembly" to "cable"
> when we know what we're talking about, and tend to explain to someone
> who wants to know about a "cable assembly" but asks about "cable" what
> the difference is, often never getting around to the application.
>
> There are many different designs for cables (Belden has a catalog
> that's half an inch thick) - different gages of wire, different types
> and sizes of insulation, different types of shielding, different
> methods of laying the wires together inside the cable - each is better
> for some particular manufacturer. If you don't want to learn about all
> of this and build your own cable assemblies (having a very good stock
> of bulk cable and connectors on hand) you trust the companies that
> sell cable assemblies to have chosen a reasonable cable type for the
> intended application. An "instrument cable" will have particularly
> good shielding, perhaps low capacitance, low handling noise (the cable
> can act as a microphone) and will be very robust since guitarists tend
> to abuse their cables.
>
> These things tend to make a good instrument cable expensive, and you
> may not need all of those characteristics to connect the output of a
> mixer to the input of a power amplifier (since this is generally a
> higher signal level with a low impedance source and less sensitive to
> hum pickup, the loading effect of cable capacitance, and doesn't get
> swung around by its connectors as much as an instrument cable. But an
> instrument cable will certainly work in that application.
>
> Is that more than you wanted to know?
>
>
> --
> I'm really Mike Rivers (mrivers@d-and-d.com)
> However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
> lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
> you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
> and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo
Facebook
Twitter