Wednesday, July 28, 2010

All About Audio Cables

AmazonBasics Toslink Digital Audio Optical Cable (6 Feet/1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]By Anthonio Simmons

Taking care of your audio equipment when setting it up and using it on stage cannot only help to prevent damage to your equipment, but will also ensure that you sound as good as you can.

Cables on stage can easily get in the way of anyone who is moving around, whether they are setting up, checking or packing away the equipment, or they are up on stage to perform. Your equipment should be set up with the cable laid out as neatly as possible. If you have a lot of equipment then a snake cable, which contains multiple wires within the same cable, can be useful.

The cables should lie as flat as possible on the stage in order to keep them out of the way. The flatness of your cables will depend partly upon the materials from which they are made, and partly on how neatly they have been stored. Carefully coiling up your cables, using the over under or flip coiling method will prevent them from developing curves.

In order to prevent your on stage cables from being damaged it is important to treat them carefully. Never let them form any sharp bends or kinks, and avoid treading upon them or placing heavy objects on top of them. Make sure that your cables don't get wet and don't lay them too near to nay sources of heat.

You will need to take extra care with any cables that are likely to be moving around during the performance, such as guitar leads and microphone cables. These need to be long enough to allow the people using them to move about on the stage, although it is best to keep the cables as short as possible. Longer cables tend to suffer from more distortion of the audio signal. Any long unbalanced cables that you are using will be particularly affected. Unnecessarily long cables can also be a hazard on stage, as people will be more likely to trip over them. They will also take more effort to transport and store.

Cables that are attached to moving pieces of equipment should always be securely connected to the equipment at either end, otherwise they are liable to be pulled out accidentally in the middle of the performance. An XLR cable will usually be more reliable than a phono or jack plug cable, because the connectors are held in place with a catch that must be released in order to free them from their sockets.

The audio quality will also be affected by the impedance of the cables that are being used. High impedance cables can suffer from signal distortion when the cables are being handled or moved. Most high impedance cables will be insulated in order to reduce this effect, but there is still likely to be some distortion. A low impedance cable will not suffer from the same problem.

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