Silly Cable Question

GenJerDan

GenJerDan

Veteran
So, I'm looking around to buy some mic cables and I stop to wonder: How long should I get?

25 feet? 50 feet? A bunch of shorter ones and string 'em together as necessary?

What does everyobody else have? I don't want to look silly. If I'm gonna get laughed at because of length, better in the locker room, not on the set.
 
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the longer i do location sound the more i seem to find longer cables more useful.

the longest cable i had used to be 25ft. i had at least 3 or 4 25 footers but that was it.

then i got a 50 footer for a feature i was doing where there were a lot of exterior night shots and i thought it would be handy to have a 50 foot black cable.

it turned out to be super handy and then i ordered a 100 foot black cable.

then that one turned out to be handy.

its like tools, if all you have is a hammer and a screwdriver you make do with those...

when i only had 25 footers and 15 and 20 footers i would join them together when need be but its hard to go wrong with a 50 footer even if you don't use it often because when you have it at least you know that option is there.

the bigger the setup, meaning the more crew, the more lights etc. the more handy your going to find it to have longer cables as you can run your stuff out of the way of other departments.

matthew
 
Right now I've got some longies and some shorties, and I've hooking them together as needed. But every connection is an opportunity for noise to sneak in, gold contacts or not, so...

I was just wondering if 50' was ridiculously long or not. Guess it isn't. :) And I'd better get two, since I'm ordering the paired Oktavas, too. Just in case.
 
its not too long. even mic level signals can travel pretty long distances...

on the connections, yeah, i guess it is an opportunity for noise to sneak in, but with good cables that risk is probably very close to 0.
 
I think you'll like the 50's. It gives you the freedom to experiment more. In fact, in the future you could easily go to 100' if necessary without worry of signal loss. Just remember to use the cable that's closest to the distance you're shooting from to minimize the possibility of interference pick up.

You've got the right idea on putting cables together - avoid it whenever possible, connections are just another problem waiting to happen.

Have fun!

Ken :)
 
if you find yourself placing two mics 25 or 50 ft. from your cart or soundbag etc. you can have cables custom made that have two xlr connectors at each end but then go into one cable and then at the other end come back out into two xlr connectors.

i'm going to be having a cable made like this for those occasions where i need to place two mics a good distance away so instead of running two cables i can run just one cable and then use shorter cables at the end to place the mics where they are going.

i wouldn't need this cable very often but when i do need it, it would come in very handy.

i have a schoeps cmc6/mk41 with the cut1 filter but i still occasionally use my oktava mk-012's when i have a scene with people walking around or two people stationery but where it can't be boomed, and i will sometimes find a way to mount the mics directly above the two locations.

as i am finally getting into higher end wireless i will be moving more and more towards micing the key actors even if we will be booming a scene so the boom operator doesn't have to worry if it isn't doable to always get back and forth between the primary speaker and other actors.

most people can explain why they have certain things in their kit, usually it is because they had an occasion where they made do with what they had but they wanted to be better prepared next time...

matthew
 
I think we all have different opinions on this. I prefer to have a ton of shorter 20' to 30' cables and only four 50' and two 100' (which I sometimes forget I even have). Video village has never been more then 50' from set so I never had an issue.

Personally I hate all that extra cable management. Short and neat is my credo.

If I am working into camera, a 25' foot breakaway with an extention and a 15' to 20' boom cable is all I have ever needed. Of course my boom cable is now the infamous MattinSTL Cables.

Cheers
 
Or, for the opposite approach, if you care - for a lot of theatrical/opera work I run a 150' snake, with mics connected to that by cables anywhere from 15' to 50'. Not a problem for anything but ribbon mics - though it's a royal pain to set up. And tear down.

I find that in general 50' cables seem the best compromise between bulk and flexibility. You can keep the excess coiled, or wander a long way from your mics...
 
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