Thread: regular cables or snakes cables...?

good quality, fully shielded, snake cables are fine for line level stuff
and
most people would say they are also fine for mic levels

but
sometimes
when I want to feel that I'm really serious about a track
I do use individual mic cables straight from Mic to Mic-pre ... with no additional connections

Snake or regular (single mic) cables are fine for either mic or line level. I understand Kev's desire to run single cables for each lead, but I'm sure you'd agree Kev, that this is more of a personal choice than anything concrete.

Personally I prefer the Mogami. We make snakes using both Canare and Mogami (and Belden too), but I like the shielding on the Mogamis the best. Canare's is actually probably the best as they use a tightly woven braided shield for each set of conductors but this is a REAL pain in the a$$ to undo and make ready for termination.

Belden uses foil with a drain wire which I'm not a big fan of and in the case of your question, I wouldn't use it for more than a 50' run or so (although I know folks who order it in 500' lengths and have never complained!).

The Mogami uses a twisted/stranded shield which is quite effective at shielding and is very easy to terminate.

Bear in mind, most studios (pro/large) are internally wired with snake cables. Aerosmith, U2, the Beatles - all went through snakes.

Just my $.02

J.

yep

I guess the only way to try to split between the three you mentioned
could come down to how and where ... some of the physical reasons rather than sound reasons
as I think you would have a tough time splitting on sound reasons alone.

when the cable is in the wall or in a safe place where it isn't rolled up every day or stepped on constantly ... it probably doesn't matter.

but it a tough environment the double woven Canare could be a good thing

I have used long runs of Belden 8 and 16 ... with the foil ... and sometimes for Mic levels.
These were terminated to both soldered patch panels and Krone blocks
The drain wire makes things easy to handle.

thanx!!! as usual you guys are very wise and informative...another doubt about the snakes cable is that i cant find a snake cable made of Mogami W2893 the miniature version of the famous W2534 Quad Mic Cable
at least at redco...but i see a miniature quad version from CANARE...i prefer MOGAMI too....but id rather to have a snake 12pr cable...but i dont know how much the quad's cables improve the sound beside the noise rejection,,,can u tell me about it?

Originally Posted by elcubo

thanx!!! as usual you guys are very wise and informative...another doubt about the snakes cable is that i cant find a snake cable made of Mogami W2893 the miniature version of the famous W2534 Quad Mic Cable
at least at redco...but i see a miniature quad version from CANARE...i prefer MOGAMI too....but id rather to have a snake 12pr cable...but i dont know how much the quad's cables improve the sound beside the noise rejection,,,can u tell me about it?

Trust me - you don't want a snake made from quad cable!

Starquad or quad cable has significantly higher capacitance which results in a high frequency rolloff over long distances. The noise rejection benefits are very minimal or not noticable seeing as how balanced cables do a pretty good job of noise rejection on their own.

I typically won't build a star quad cable over 50' and usually I stop at 25 feet.

J.

Originally Posted by Cucco

Originally Posted by elcubo

thanx!!! as usual you guys are very wise and informative...another doubt about the snakes cable is that i cant find a snake cable made of Mogami W2893 the miniature version of the famous W2534 Quad Mic Cable
at least at redco...but i see a miniature quad version from CANARE...i prefer MOGAMI too....but id rather to have a snake 12pr cable...but i dont know how much the quad's cables improve the sound beside the noise rejection,,,can u tell me about it?

Trust me - you don't want a snake made from quad cable!

Starquad or quad cable has significantly higher capacitance which results in a high frequency rolloff over long distances. The noise rejection benefits are very minimal or not noticable seeing as how balanced cables do a pretty good job of noise rejection on their own.

I typically won't build a star quad cable over 50' and usually I stop at 25 feet.

J.

hmmm... :roll: ....good tip...i need a 33 feet long xlr/xlr snake...so you think i should go with the regular snake MOGAMI cable??? can you give me some model/brand? i dont live in the USA...so i must be sure of what im buying...thanx again guys...RO rules!!!! :twisted:

For 33' you can go with just about anything, but I would still go with something with a lower capacitance. AES snakes are the best, but they are anywhere between 2 and 5 times the cost of the comparable mic cable snake.

I don't have specific model numbers off the top of my head but a quick visit to any of the manufacturers' sites will provide you with that. My recommendations starting from "least good" to best would be as follows -

1 - Belden Brilliance snake cable (I use a 35' Belden Brilliance snake myself in my home studio and inside the walls at the house.)

2 - Canare multi-channel audio cable

3 - Mogami multi-channel audio cable

4 - Mogami multi-channel AES cable

Surprisingly, options 1-3 above are relatively affordable if you plan on rolling your own. That 35' Belden snake I made, including Neutrik X series XLRs cost me a whopping $55 for 8x8 XLR.

Good luck!

J.

Thanx Cucco...you ve been very helpfull...i dont think im gonna "roll my own cable" ( :lol: ) dont have the time...but ive been rollin my snake in REDCO and its about 300$ is that too much???