Recording - August 2015 - 63

Figure 3. Male (left) and female (right) XLR plugs. Note the numbering on the plugs themselves to assure the proper pins are
connected to the proper conductors.
[Editor's Note: I use over-under coiling on all my cables, mic and
otherwise, and haven't had to throw a cable away in 15 years,
except when some "helpful" doofus ignores my request to leave my
cables alone after a session and elbow-wraps one for me. Overunder coiling puts even less stress on cables than a sailor's coil, but
you have to be very careful when undoing a coil, or it will come out
with a neat little knot in it every two feet or so! Paul's method is easy
to learn and much less prone to such mistakes. Practice it.-MM]
To undo a cable that's been wrapped with a sailor's coil, don't just
drop it on the floor. Hold it out in front of you, with the coil at right
angles to your body and with the cable tie undone, then turn the coil
to pay out the wire as if you're letting a garden hose off a spool.
Walk with it, so you don't make one big tangled mess on the floor-
and hold it a little off to the side of your body, so a swinging XLR plug
doesn't whack you one in a tender spot.
A few more cable-related hints
Some manufacturers sell cable in multiple colors; some engineers
code their cables with the old rainbow code of ROY G. BIV that's
used to label resistors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo,
Violet, for Inputs 1-7. What to do for inputs 8 and 9 isn't defined,
and I'm not aware of someone selling indigo cables, but what the
hey. Another hallowed mnemonic (there's one that's better known by
old pros, but it's unprintable) is:
Word
Bad
Beer
Rots
Our
Young
Guts
But
Vodka
Goes
Well

Color
Black
Brown
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Violet
Grey
White

Number
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

I code my cables by length, and since all of mine are
black, I color-code the cable ties-grey for 16', blue for
25', and red for 50'. Each cable has a number written on
both XLR connectors using a Sharpie; a 16' cable might be
called "S-4". It's not as obvious as color coding, but it
works, and is less obtrusive on a stage than colors, when
the cables get used for a live performance or recording
gig. One of these days I'll rent an engraver and make the
labels permanent.
It's useful to have a way of testing cables when you suspect that one has gone belly-up. Behringer and others sell
audio cable-testing boxes for about $30 street. (I mention
the Behringer because I've actually used that one.) You can
also test cables manually using a Volt-Ohm-Milliammeter
(VOM) or Digital Multi-Meter (DMM) from an electronics
supply house or online catalog.
It's customary to provide strain relief for mic stands by
wrapping the cable around the stand's upright a couple of
times, and around the boom if one's in use. If you can get
plastic clips that slip over the cable and secure it to the
upright or boom, these are preferable; wrapping trains the
cable wrong, and stresses the thin strands inside.
You don't ever, ever want to use duct tape on a cable; it
will leave residual goo that's really hard to remove.
Gaffer's tape (sold by pro audio and stage supply stores) is
much better, but it will still leave goo eventually. Avoid
sticky tape like the plague; Velcro ties are your friends.

If you wonder why cables last
only six months in regular use,
elbow-wrapping is the
Number One answer.
That's a wrap!
When a session is over, wrap your cables and put them
away. Some people hang cables on wall-mounted pegs or
hooks; others (like me) keep them in suitcases. Whatever
you do, don't leave them out for a mouse or housecat to
chew on, or a person to trip over.
So after all that, what did I use at the Ottoman
Underground session? I was recording at the studio of
Webster University, and their cables are all Star-Quad,
made from Canare cable and Switchcraft XLR connectors.
It's near an "antenna farm" that includes the broadcast
tower for our local public radio station, so radio-frequency
interference is an issue, and using Star-Quad isn't overkill.
We've talked about cables at length (pardon the expression), and their care and feeding for good sound and long
life. In the process I've mentioned that it's a good idea to
have noise, if it's unavoidable, induced identically into both
signal wires of a mic cable. In next month's episode we'll find
out why, and many other things, as we dive into the next link
in the signal chain-the mic preamp. Stay tuned.
Paul J. Stamler (stamler@recordingmag.com) is a recording
musician, engineer, educator, and collector of bizarre vintage
recordings, living in St. Louis. Figure 2 courtesy Belden
(belden.com). Figure 3 courtesy Neutrik (neutrik.com).
RECORDING August 2015

63


http://www.belden.com http://www.neutrik.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2015

Contents
Recording - August 2015 - Intro
Recording - August 2015 - Cover1
Recording - August 2015 - Cover2
Recording - August 2015 - 1
Recording - August 2015 - 2
Recording - August 2015 - 3
Recording - August 2015 - 4
Recording - August 2015 - 5
Recording - August 2015 - Contents
Recording - August 2015 - 7
Recording - August 2015 - 8
Recording - August 2015 - 9
Recording - August 2015 - 10
Recording - August 2015 - 11
Recording - August 2015 - 12
Recording - August 2015 - 13
Recording - August 2015 - 14
Recording - August 2015 - 15
Recording - August 2015 - 16
Recording - August 2015 - 17
Recording - August 2015 - 18
Recording - August 2015 - 19
Recording - August 2015 - 20
Recording - August 2015 - 21
Recording - August 2015 - 22
Recording - August 2015 - 23
Recording - August 2015 - 24
Recording - August 2015 - 25
Recording - August 2015 - 26
Recording - August 2015 - 27
Recording - August 2015 - 28
Recording - August 2015 - 29
Recording - August 2015 - 30
Recording - August 2015 - 31
Recording - August 2015 - 32
Recording - August 2015 - 33
Recording - August 2015 - 34
Recording - August 2015 - 35
Recording - August 2015 - 36
Recording - August 2015 - 37
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Recording - August 2015 - Cover3
Recording - August 2015 - Cover4
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