You’ll hear regularly in the pro audio world that your studio is only as good as your weakest link. And the weakest link is? Cables.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t use cheap cables in your studio. Every single piece of equipment that you will use for making music in your studio will be connected using a cable, so focusing on good cables is important.
I’m not advocating going out and buying the latest gold-plated, oxygen-free, organically-fed, free-range, thousand-dollar cable out there, but don’t spend $4.95 on a cable either.
As I’ve mentioned several times in this series already, you get what you pay for.
Using a good cable as opposed to a cheap one will help you in a number of ways.
- They will help reduce the amount of noise and interference that gets picked up by your audio signal as it passes through the cable. Home studios are noisy as-is; so the less noise your cables add to your system the better off you’ll be.
- They will preserve the frequency response of your system. Cheap cables can really affect the audio that passes through them, especially in the lows and highs. I’ve heard lots of stories of people upgrading their cabling and raving about how much better their equipment sounds afterwards.
- They will last a lifetime. If you use cheap cables, you’ll need to re-buy them in a year or two. Good cables will last forever, or at least they’ll have a lifetime warranty, so if they do wear out you can have them replaced.
What I Use
In my home studio I have mainly Pro Co cables with some Monster cables and some Blue cables. In a future article I plan to do an audio shootout between good and bad cables, so you can hear for yourself what the differences are.
In the meantime, be sure to give some serious consideration to what cables you’re adding to your shopping cart. Good cables, while not all that expensive, can make a huge difference in the sound of your studio.
* This article is part 11 of a 13-article series - 12 Home Studio Necessities
