sam.spoons Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 I'm a fan of Red5 drum mics (we have a set at work) but I'm gradually (pretty much finished in fact) replacing all my budget leads with decent quality Neutrik ones, I've found the female connectors on the cheap stuff let you down (cheap male XLRs seem ok but I think the contacts on the female's loose their springiness/grip and as soon as you try to use a capacitor mic or active DI you get all sorts of problems). Good XLR cables for my rig have probably cost me around £400 but I've had some of them 20 years with very few (and repairable) failures. Back in the day I used to make all my own with Switchcraft XLRs and I've replaced the XLRFs on a lot of cheap cables with Neutrik but it's hardly worth making these days with a good 6 metre cable costing £8.80 http://www.thomann.de/gb/cordial_cam6bk.htm I'll buy a few more for backups in the new year and they'll probably see me out....http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilflet Posted December 9, 2013 Share Posted December 9, 2013 Wiflet - the 2 pair you refer to was your own soldering concoction I assume? I do like the idea of a 30m 2 pair XLR ended - may be time to get the soldering iron out. No, I think I got mine from someone moving on some ex-hire stock, cant remember who. Now iv been upstairs and looked at it the cable itself is canford audio fsm2. Which if your ok with soldering ends on you can get from canfords website in lengths anything up to 500m (makes 30 seem a little insignificant, I imagine there arnt too many people stick anything in 500m lengths for hire stock) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&L Posted December 9, 2013 Author Share Posted December 9, 2013 Wiflet - the 2 pair you refer to was your own soldering concoction I assume? I do like the idea of a 30m 2 pair XLR ended - may be time to get the soldering iron out. No, I think I got mine from someone moving on some ex-hire stock, cant remember who. Now iv been upstairs and looked at it the cable itself is canford audio fsm2. Which if your ok with soldering ends on you can get from canfords website in lengths anything up to 500m (makes 30 seem a little insignificant, I imagine there arnt too many people stick anything in 500m lengths for hire stock) not a bad price either at a quid a metre - makes it tempting to get the soldering iron out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I've had a length of the Canford 4 Pair attached to a 24 way multi for years and it's proven quite tough enough - sleeved in braid and a bit of heat shrink at both ends where it splits out. It's pretty soft and flexible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 A mate passed on about 30m of 4 pair multi to me, which I've used to make a couple of 4 way XLR looms to help speed/tidy runs round the stage. One's with right angled jacks and is perfect round a kit. I really like the 4 way format on stage - much lighter and easier than 8 way, and a great problem solver. Works well with a kit, typically covering kick, snare & 2 rack toms with relatively short tails. And then I'm quite happy using individual cables for the rest of the kit which is usually a bit more random & spread out. Something like this from CPC, plus a bit of soldering, should see you right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianW Posted December 14, 2013 Share Posted December 14, 2013 Somewhere Iv got a 20m length of a 2 pair cable. its not much worse than normal mic string to coil and has 2 XLRs on each end. Iv seen the same cable used on orchestra shows (where you have 2 violinists etc sharing a music stand you run 2 pair to each desk then plug the dpa cable into each one) having the number of XLR cables on stage (atleast around the violin, cello and bass sections). Are you sure this isn't StarQuad? This isn't really how this cable was intended to be used ...... it isn't two pairs within a screen, its actual two twisted pairs with different twist pitches & you're supposed to connect one core from each of the pairs together & then connect these to the XLR pins. StarQuad, when used correctly, has a very high immunity to picking up interference along the run and was for many years the defacto mic cable used by the broadcasters. Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilflet Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Are you sure this isn't StarQuad? Adrian yes. http://www.canford.co.uk/FSM-SERIES-FOIL-SCREENED-STRANDED-CONDUCTOR-MULTIPAIR-CABLE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFella Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I'm so naughty; I often run returns unbalanced, and so I get twice as many returns as I should... Of course, this only works if the rig is electrically quiet to start with, otherwise one enters ground loop territory. This terrible practice started when I discovered that a 16/4 multicore hired from a (very reputable) local supplier had 3.5 working returns, and to make that faulty return work I had to go unbalanced on pin 3 hot(!), and much to my surprise, it worked without the rig descending into a cesspit of noise and hummmmm.... (I also have a 10m two balanced line multi, but that is another story; FFD closed their doors many years ago) That is a shockingly bad practice and one I use myself pretty regularly. I have several pairs of ts(x2)»XLRm c/w XLRf»ts(x2) just for this purpose with an ART DTI line transformer (x2) at the stage end for balancing and isolation duty. Usually works a treat. Small system - low stakes, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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