Cables. Who cares? Custom Cables?

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

Sound Modulator
I'm wondering if I'm the only one on these boards who likes a good cable? Recently I ordered four custom cables from a place I've bought from for years and I specifically told them to use the best of everything and charge me whatever they needed to. My one request was that the cables be red and white or red and black... I just wanted it to be easy to look in my mixer bag when it's dark and not have to use a flashlight to see the difference. To be fair the salesman said they might have to use whatever color they had... and I said "whatever" and that was it.

Well the cables came and I guess they're fine, but I was surprised that a place which deals with professionals all the time wouldn't be equipped to do things the way I'd do them in my own garage... especially since you're paying a premium to have cables made for you.

I considered this a blessing of sorts, because I've bought over a dozen custom cables through the years and I've always been pretty good with soldering... I guess it's like ordering a drink versus making it for yourself... the one made for you usually tastes better. In this case paying a premium and not being too thrilled with the result has finally broken me of that stupidity. From now on I'm making my own cables. The reason I posted this is because I'll make cables for everybody else too. If there's any interest you can PM me and let me know what you want and I'll make them for my cost plus just enough to cover my time and shipping.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about... I paid $27 EACH for the two top cables you see pictured. The blue and black cables made with thin StarQuad. Okay so $54 plus shipping for cables made with Neutrik's line of Rean RCA connectors and Black/Silver XLR X series? The RCA connectors run about .80 each and the XLR connectors are maybe $2.20... then that leaves $1 worth of thin StarQuad. Okay so paying $54 for $8 worth of cable it would have been cool if they could have at least had red & black if not red & white in stock.

Maybe I care about crap like this too much. I just wanted to gauge interest here and see if anybody else likes to have a super-organized setup... which would cost less then HALF of what you'd pay for lower quality? I'll post pics of my new and improved mixer bag once the resistors get here and I can seal these up.

XLR%20Cable%20Ends.jpg


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RCA%20Cable%20Ends.jpg
 
I'm a big Canare fan...

It's not that I think they improve the audio so much, but that if taken care of they will last you many, many years.
 
Everything pictured above is Canare StarQuad... the thin blue/black cables are L-4E5C and the thick red/white cables are L-4E6S... which are Canare's codes for StarQuad.

I wouldn't consider anything else. Even the thick StarQuad cables are butter-soft to run tight corners in a mixer bag with no problems. Ask the ladies, thicker is better.
 
matt actually the price usially 25 % over the parts cost and about 1.3$ for soldering point about 15$ for cable
i might think that allot of people would love your snakes -170-250 in the same shop:-)
 
Whatever you want George... I'm using Kester solder but I'll do 'em in WBT Silver if people want to pay an extra $1... and I'll have 'em with soft nylon jackets too... or TechFlex if people want it.

This is about Candy Cables for DVXuser members. That's it. Paying $122 for $16 worth of cables would have been fine if I got what I had in mind... but I'm reminded of the old saying about doing things right. I'm a weirdo when it comes to stuff like this... this is how the lighting thing got started. Now I'm outfitting my workbench with third-hands and a cool soldering station. Maybe everyone isn't insane like I am... and that's a good thing, but now you know where to go if you want some OCD Cables.:happy:
 
Count me in Matt. I'll buy cables from you. I Can think of a couple right off the bat.

1Ft XLR cable to run from on board mounted mic to camera.
30' Boom Operator cable (XLR with attached mini cable)
10 Ft. XLR M-F

Let me know how much these will cost. I love the idea of having cables made for a reasonable price yet not giving up quality to do so.

If you are really board, want to do a mod on a Tascam DA-P1? Here's one of the mods.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~fjkraan/digaud/dap1/MicrophoneCircuit.html

Actually, I've never experienced the distortion but I haven't been recording loud concerts either, so...

Anyway, sticking to the topic, I'll wait to hear back from you with a price for doing the cables.

Thanks,
Steve
 
Yeah man, my xlr cables I bought with my cam and mic are shorted somehow and I am now looking for a 50ft reel of xlr. What would you charge for such lengths?
 
The total cost will depend on what you need and what I have to do at my end, but it will be cheap.

A basic 50' XLR with XX Neutrik XLR at each end male to female with color coding as you see above would run you about $35 plus shipping. Maybe less. This would get you a cable in your color choice with the new design Neutrik XLR in nickel/silver with color coding on the connectors and soldered with Kester solder... which is the industry standard. Any upgrades in connectors or anything else would only increase the cost by my increase in cost. So if you want black/gold connetors the price goes up $3. Anytime you see the black connectors on a retail cable look in the holes... they are NOT gold... so if you just want the LOOK of black connectors but don't care about the actual gold contacts then the cost would only go up about $1.50 instead of $3. See what I mean? Peanuts. Plus if you want a jacket on the cable I'll offer that. I don't think you'd jacket a 50' cable, but you might jacket a 10' cable that's to run on a boom pole... or you might want soft nylon on a 1' cable. As I get this stuff in I'll post pics and it'll make you want some... I guarantee it.

If you were to buy a plain XLR cable elsewhere, StarQuad with the older style Neutrik connectors, no color coding, and black only this cable would run you $58 plus shipping.

Please realize I wouldn't be doing this for the money... it's not about that. For some reason it really bugged me that I couldn't get what I wanted from a professional outlet... and that I paid a premium for what I think is very mediocre quality. Plus I'd just like the idea of a bunch of DVXuser.com guys running my cables... especially if they're unusual.

I'm gonna' have some real candy looking ones as soon as all my parts get in. There's still some stuff I want that I haven't found... but I'm looking.

When I bought my cables I told the guys what I was doing with them and they never mentioned attenuation... That bugs me pretty much too... because when you call a pro shop you expect a little better service then a discount warehouse... and that means KNOWLEDGE. So anyway, I'm going to make the cables I really wanted in the first place... and I'm going to make 'em for anybody else that wants 'em too.

If you have anything really unusual that you want please don't tell me you need it right away... give me at least a week lead time. I'm going to keep a lot of stuff on hand... but not everything!
 
Matt,

I think you are doing a frikkin awesome thing here! The only down side is I live in South Africa so I wont be able to buy from you!!! Bah! :(

Maybe Ill come through to the States sometime on a cable run... More than the idea of realistically priced, good cables, I like the idea of getting them from someone who actually cares about making quality stuff! You, basically.

Thanks for the service, hopefully I can take you up on it one day!
Tim
 
Oh, and I have a set of Canford Audio cables (from the UK - great cables, they are lasting well) but DAMN they were expensive!
 
Well I've got a good assortment of 1% Vishay thin-film resistors on the way... and for any future posters that's really what I'm going for here. Specific specialty cables... or shorter cables for mixer bags and mic-to-cam connections.

I'll do any cables you want... but sometimes it's worth checking out Markertek. Had I known about them before I placed my cable order with that one place I tell people about all the time (NOT sound room)... I probably would never have started this thread.

The things that bugged me is no color selections and cheap-ass RCA connectors. At the time I didn't even realize I NEED attenuation.

So anyway I'll be making up some specialty cables with the resistors I have on the way anyway... so if you have an me66 and want to tame it I'll have a cable for you... or if you have a pd170 and need to control an input I'll have that also. I'll be happy to make any long runs or long specialty cables but I'm not going to make those up and have 'em sitting around. Anything like that will have to be paid for in advance... and again, I'll be around the same price as Markertek but you can choose your connectors and get them trimmed... plus add a jacket if you like.

The real value here is going to be for mixer cables and output control on an me66 or 4073a running mic-in... that's what I started this for. If there's anything else you want... and you just want ME to do it for some reason I still will... but if you need a totally generic cable I don't know why you'd go to some guy rather then a store.:)
 
make the RCA"s right angles , usually it better for not accurate people , the RCA sockets on equipment usually sucks and heavy weight can brake easily th plate they are connected 2 ( from self experience with 6000$ hhb) , if they are from cheap plastic feel them with glue or hot gun stuff it will never go appart
the same for xlrs - people who choosing short cable for shot gun which sit on the camera will be much safe with right angle xlrs for accidental bumping the connector and braking the camera input ( the connector have 8 different angle settings so it can fit every angle you need)
 
I'll be sure to order right angles as well George. I've already got the first shipment in (as you see from the pics) and the general idea is to give people EXACTLY what they want... including premium attenuation as needed...

I thought RA connectors would be a pain in the ass to connect and disconnect inside the confines of the bag... but you're saying it's better? I realize that there's more room AFTER they're plugged in... but what about getting several connections all right next to each other? I just assumed that straight in with the XLR would be best... also the RA connectors are twice the weight.

Your input has been very valuable with the bag and a lot of other stuff so please tell me the exact recipe for perfect mixer cables and that's what I'll make... if you need some I'll send you a set on me just as a thanks for your contributions to the forum.
 
Matt-

I'll definitely buy some cables. I am sure I could use a nice long cable for a booming in the near future, among other uses. And I'm sure you'll make 'em top notch!

Rick
 
no need for RA for the mixers , just for the camera inputs , if you plan making snakes for people, the right angle to the camera is the better way to go if it side connectors ( dvx , pd,z-1 ) , defiantly for rsa's for returnS, if it xl1,2 make the xlrs straight , the same for big eng cameras .
these who put long shotgun on camera would be happy with RA FEEMALE to make it shorter.
the same for mini pl connectors - never use straight one - never !!
for these who run unbalance from 302 you will need tf-3 ( mini xlr)
for these who want to decrease weight on the boom , no need for the housing of the xlr at all , you can connect the connector only and put epoxy or some other stuff - few grams less.
 
Hey Matt, I really appreciate you doing this. From this day, henceforth, you will be dubbed "The Cable God".

Should we just PM you with specifications of what we'd want? How would you want payment? Paypal?
 
Its funny you started this thread, i logged in specifically to find out if anyone knew where to find a certain cable i need or if there is even a name for it.

all i want is two xlr cables to run from my dvx-100 to my mixer sd-302

i was thinking it would be nice if you had a snake of sorts rather than two xlr cables with zip ties every couple of feet.

so basically two xlr plugs on each end, one end for the dvx and the other end for the 302 outputs, but hopefully using one cable between the two sets of xlr?

i saw something like it but on one end it had a special stereo xlr plug that i'm not familar with.

for length i was thinking 25 feet? depends on price. if the price was right i'd probably get two sets, one 15 feet and another like 35 or 40 feet.

matthew
 
Let me get the rest of the stuff in and get some put together. I hadn't considered doing snakes but I can probably do those too. If you want something very specific then PM me and let me know. I'll figure out how cheap I can do it and PM you back. Then if you want to Paypal that's fine. I'm going to make several mixer cables like the ones I wanted for myself. They will look like the ones I've already pictured. Some may have jacket, some not... but I like the idea of red/white or red/blue in the mixer bag. I get a warm feeling when I look at a camera or sound rig that just looks like it's set up right. I don't want to see my mixer looking like a meatball atop a pile of spaghetti... this way I have just enough length to run between mixer and recorder... and the attenuation is built in so there's no excess crap.

It never dawned on me that people would want so many different types of cables. I imagined that I'd just be making these 8" to 18" long mixer cables... but I have no problem making others. When I do something like this it's important to me that you keep it in perspective. I'm not a store and I'm not making cash on this... so please don't PM me with a cable that you needed yesterday. If you can wait a week for something that's best... and like I said I'll have an assortment of cables that are ready to ship immediately... mainly for on-cam mics and mixer bags.

I probably will have a couple stereo pairs like you asked about matthew... I've been wanting a cable like that for myself anyway... so I'll make an extra at the same time and if you want it you can have it for parts/time/shipping. I'll PM you about it.

Hey DJ I'll hook you up too, but please let me just be a regular guy. When I first started posting to DV.com I called Jay R. the sound god and he edited my post :grin: Just like everyone else on the forum I'd like to be well-regarded as a member, but I don't want any special comment or attention other then a thanks after you get your cables.
 
what do you need its a snake - 2 xlr out from the mixer +1 pl-mini to brake away 7 pin xlr or nutric 8 pin ( don't remember the name ) and short end to the camera with the opposite plug which has 2 xlrs for camera in and rca s for return ( or pmini stereo feemail , then you take rca out or headphones out with short pl mini stereo or rca to plmini stereo )
rca are better - since the mixer would hear better quality return and camera operator can hear headphones )
if you need more cable , you just make extention
usually this cable go form 170-250 depends on the quality and the parts
there is 39 soldering points not include parts - allot of work :-)
 
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