OK guys & girls, I'm going out on a limb here but well, what the hell:

Although I have personally only been involved in the design, building and commissioning of a few small studios here in the UK I have worked in a fair number of top studios including those of major names

Not one of these fine establishments has to my knowledge ever used any of these 'esoteric' cables in the construction of their 'world class' facilities!

No indeed, in fact they tend to use just regular high quality production cable from reliable manufacturers

Some of the TV studios I'm talking about contain several miles of cabling to interconnect their various studio components

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the odd 'big name' guitar lead or two but really it's all just a big hype trick

If 'Dire Straits' can record and master such superb sounding albums as 'Brothers In Arms' in studios wired with regular star quad mic cables then it's good enough for me - end of story

My advice is to teach yourself to solder, buy a reel or two of good quality cable and a box or two of good quality connectors such a 'Neutrik' and get stuck in - you won't look back once you've done it

Cheers
ping

This name trademarking thing has been out of hand for quite some time now. Someone managed to trademark the name "Mark Twain" a few years ago. All of his books are of course in public domain; however, if you're a small publisher and you want to reprint any of those books you'll have to get permission to actually put Twain's name on the book. They've even gone after people using Twain's name at fan sites. Absolutely silly.

Well unless they change the law, there's nothing you or I can do about it - just one of those lovely side-effects of capitalism/corporate greed on the rampage. But as long as they play it by the rules...

BTW Joe, wonder what your avatar will look like with a tortilla painting... I'm thinking on starting a snitch-bureau, to inform people of the fact their copyrights/trademark might be infringed, and set up the initial paperwork even. Kinda like those lawyers that follow ambulances, but more pro-active.

http://www.joebravo.net/

ORIGINAL: rumleymusic ~ Speaking of boycotting cable manufacturers. Has anyone here tried making their own cable? I have been thinking of seeing how well that would work out.

Recently did just that with about 4 billion miles of studio cable. Purchased Canare cable and G&H Connectors. Also used some Neutrik connectors.

It was actually quite therapeutic. Saved a good chunk-o-$$$ and got custom cable lengths, as needed, which turned out much cleaner.

My one tip or trick is to get really good solder. Makes a diff.

Best info I've found is this Chart from Rane to show you any hookup you'll encounter.

ORIGINAL: rumleymusic

Speaking of boycotting cable manufacturers. Has anyone here tried making their own cable? I have been thinking of seeing how well that would work out. Buying bulk Mogami or Canare Starquad at $0.40 a foot and a few Neutrik connectors.

Anyony with any experience with this? It seems reasonable, expecially with the prices of some longer XLR cable runs (100-200ft)

Go for it. It takes a little bit of practice to get clean solder joints but once you get the hang of it, you'll breeze through all the cables you need in an afternoon.

Cheers.

ORIGINAL: rumleymusic

Speaking of boycotting cable manufacturers. Has anyone here tried making their own cable? I have been thinking of seeing how well that would work out. Buying bulk Mogami or Canare Starquad at $0.40 a foot and a few Neutrik connectors.

Anyony with any experience with this? It seems reasonable, expecially with the prices of some longer XLR cable runs (100-200ft)

Yep. I've been making my own cables for about 25 yrs.
Now I use Star Quad and usually switchcraft.

So have any of these Moster lawsuits seen court yet? Seems like any sensible judge would throw them out and set precedence.

Everybody's got a favorite Guitar Center anecdote, here's my most recent one.

My last visit to that entertaining establishment was back in January after I'd just bought some new monitors and didn't realize until I got home that they required XLR cables. Quick trip to GC. As I am perusing the generic cable rack, a sales associate asks if he can help. How thoughtful. I explain that I need XLR cables for my monitors.

He asks, "what type of monitors?". Irrelevant question but he catches me off guard and I respond that they are ADAM P11s. "Oh, he says, then you'll definitely want these cables over here...", takes me to the Monster Cable display. Figures if I'm willing to spend a couple grand on monitors I won't flinch at a couple hundred bucks for cables. I can't resist jerking around GC salesmen, so I ask "why do I need THESE particular cables?". You can fill in the rest, I'm sure...

ORIGINAL: rumleymusic

Speaking of boycotting cable manufacturers. Has anyone here tried making their own cable? I have been thinking of seeing how well that would work out. Buying bulk Mogami or Canare Starquad at $0.40 a foot and a few Neutrik connectors.

Anyony with any experience with this? It seems reasonable, expecially with the prices of some longer XLR cable runs (100-200ft)

I make all of my cables now, I don't need anything over 50ft so I don't use starquad, I use Mogami 2549 and Newtrik connectors with gold pins.

ORIGINAL: marcos69

So have any of these Moster lawsuits seen court yet? Seems like any sensible judge would throw them out and set precedence.

These are clearly "shakedown" lawsuits, never intended to stand up in court. Their purpose is to harrass other companies to extract a settlement because paying off the plaintiff is cheaper than fighting it in court. If you look at the details of the suits they all show Monster cable filing for extensions on their own lawsuits-- IOW, they sue you and then apply for extensions to drag it out rather than trying to wrap it up quickly.

For good or for ill, the US courts system is set up in a way that is designed to strongly protect public access to the courts for legal remedy. A consequence of this is that it can be easy for crooked people with the means to exploit the system by filing frivolous lawsuits.