Connecting mic cable to mic cable (xlr)

sharky

sharky

Active member
I have a stereo mic (AT835ST) that came with an xlr cable with a 5 pin female xlr that plugs into the mic. The cord is a little short for some of the things I want to do. What I would like to know is if I plug this cable into a 3 foot snake (2 xlr's) I had made, which will then go into the camera or mixer, will this in any way affect the quality of the audio I'm recording. (or do I need to get a longer custom made cable for this mic?)

thanks...
 
XLR5 cable, to adapter cable (XLR5 to 2x XLR3), to twin XLR3 cables will be just fine. Try to keep the two XLR3 cables the same lenght, or you could eventually, theoretically, see some measurable phase drift.

Eventually you'll want to get a few different lengths of XLR5 cable, though. I use them all the time for my stereo kit, but when I'm not recording stereo I often use them as a second stereo snake for two-camera shoots. They don't give me a headphone return, but they work fine as a safety (I'm monitoring headphones from the primary camera).
 
Half wave signal at 20 kHz in a typical cable is about 6500 meters long. To get noticable phase problems at highest frequences the cable lengths would have to differ hundreds of meters. Hardly something that happens normally...
 
can I do that too but then from 1 mono mic to 2 XLR lines... like to do a interview with a mic in the hand & it will be filmed from two sides... a kind of multi-angle thing... I know I can dub the sound from one camera over to the other... but need this solution also for a second backup recording device... when I film I love to make a spare recording on a SD card for in case something happened with my audio track... how to do that?

thx
 
The best way to record a backup copy of your audio onto a second camera is to use a field mixer with two or more outputs.

For example, the PSC M4 mkII mixer I use has two ballanced stereo outputs: one via the ENG snake (with headphone return), and the other via a set of XLR's. If I'm feeding more than two camera's, I'll just use Y-adapters to split the XLR outs for the various cameras.
 
SMuir said:
The best way to record a backup copy of your audio onto a second camera is to use a field mixer with two or more outputs.
Click to expand...
Thanks, already looking around for a nice reasonible priced mixer who can do the job for me...

If I'm feeding more than two camera's, I'll just use Y-adapters to split the XLR outs for the various cameras.
Click to expand...
Is that not dangerous for the phantom powers? If I feed a mic on two cables I get a disturbance on the sound.... is that in this case too or you just don't use any phantom power?
 
StayNuts said:
Is that not dangerous for the phantom powers? If I feed a mic on two cables I get a disturbance on the sound.... is that in this case too or you just don't use any phantom power?
Click to expand...
Phantom power is generally only needed for powering condensor and electret microphones. Line level inputs shouldn't be providing phantom power. The phantom power for my mics is being provided by the individual mic channels on my mixer.

When you split a line level signal, the only significant effect is to halve the signal level on both new feeds (which can be compensated for when you're setting your input levels). Of course, if you have to provide feeds for more than three cameras, you should use a distribution amplifier of some kind (or perhaps a press bridge).
 
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