Cable Choices - Audio Kit - Help

J

jcool

Active member
Hi All,
I bought the following stuff:
Oktava MK012A with Hyper Cordioid Capsule
Rycote BBG and windshield
Rode NTG3
Rode Blimp
Ktek 12' coiled boompole
Sound Devices MixPre
Zoom H4N

Oktava for indoors and NTG3 for outdoors.

Mostly I would record to both Zoom H4N (as backup recorder) and also plug directly to camera from MixPre.

Now with the above equipment,what all cables (good in quality and ease of use) would I need in following scenarios:
1) When I am using only Oktava or only NTG3 at any given point of time.
2)When I want to use both microphones at the same time.
3)Would these be 3Pin or 5 Pin?What's the difference?
4)Whats the best way to make use of the equipment I have.

As I would be going to India I won't be able to buy XLR cables there so,I want to buy what all I need asap.

From my previous posts all I know I have to buy :
1)A 10' cable that runs from Boom pole end to MixPre
2)30' cable from MixPre to camera.

Kindly help /correct.
Thanks
Jay
 
Audio Rule #1) Never roll without headphones in your audio kit. There are none listed above, so please make sure that you have good headphones, such as Sony MDR-7506.

Audio Rule #2) Never have just one cable for any given connection. Cables go bad. They get stepped on, tripped over, stretched out, driven across, jammed in doors, etc. Connections will fail, and even if you are handy with a soldering iron you won't have time to fix it between takes. Always have a spare. Or two. Or three.

You will not need any 5-pin cables. Look at your connections on both mics and mixer. See any XLR ports with 5 pins? I didn't think so.

You'll need at least two cables for each mic. If you are only using one mic, you only need one cable. Actually, two... you'll want a shorty to decouple your mic from the boom pole. To get what you need, and have some spares, I'd get at a bare minimum:

2x: 10' XLR cables (male to female)
2x: 25' XLR cables (male to female)
3x: 6" shorty XLR cables (male to female)
2x: 1/8" stereo TRS to dual 1/4" TS (male to male) Y cable
2x: "Betacam" snakes with quick-disconnect (2 XLR sends, one 1/8" headphone return)

The assortment of XLR cables will give you plenty to work with no matter which mic you use, or if you have both running. You might even add one or two 50' XLR cables in there.
- The short cables connect the mic to the pole's internal cable, and helps to isolate handling noise from the pole.
- The Betacam snake connects the MixPre to the camera, and gives you a headphone return from the camera for proper monitoring. The quick disconnect allows you to release from the camera with only one, simple connection for fast changes. Otherwise, you'll have six connections (3 on each end) with which to deal.
- The 1/8"TRS>dual 1/4"TS connects the MixPre's tape out to the H4n's 1/4" line inputs.
 
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Wow,C2V thank you very much.BTW I forgot to mention but I already bought 7506 Headphones :).
I would search for all these and see where I can get or do you have any recommendations/links to where I can get them?

Thanks again for the help.

I Pmed you with a question regarding Oktava ?If you get time can you please let me know what you think.
 
Audio rule #3) Learn how to wrap cables properly. There's a real technique to this (there are plenty of videos online about it), and it will greatly increase the life of your cables.
 
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