Cables & Keyboards

[Maximus]

Well, when you start playing nobody tells you you're going to need cables, so you start buying and buying cables, My point is that there all kind of cables from very cheap to very expensive.

Are expensive cables worth it for keyboards?

that's the question?

Sure if we could rig our setups with mogami we would, but to me, expensive cables are not worth it for keyboards, for guitars YES, usually keyboards are very forgiving in that aspect so with good to high quality you're Ok, from esoteric to Uber High quality will not give you a diference in tone like it would with a Guitar or Bass

but then again thats my opinion from my experience, what do you guys think?

[Thiago]

my 2 cents….
I know that for home practice and using medium power monitors (70W ) the common and “cheap” cables shouldn’t hold you back concerning the sound quality.
In other hand, for live gigs and shows where your volume is louder and especially in the band mix a very good cable is certainly worth buying.
Personally I use top notch cables only for my JV-1080 which goes out in a external FX units (stomp box and chorus).

[Maximus]

What do you use?

[Thiago]

There is a brazilian brand called “hayonik”. They made very good cables.
I also have some Monster cables and one Mogami.

[Maximus]

i use bulk proel, (italians and other europeans probably know the brand) noiseless shielded cable with Neutrik plugs only, these plugs are imho absolutely the best money can buy, they never fail and there reusable, i wired all of my cables this way and im happy to say that i had never had a cable fail on me.

when i started i wanted to use Monster but i had no money then so i use radio Shack type ones, later i upgraded and upgraded, by that time i could affort monster so i A/B with the proel, heard nothing, plus i didn't liked the monster plugs they looked like they woud fail after a couple of years.

[Sparky93]

I use ibanez, not very expensive with good quality.

[Bigs]

I notice that the basic 1/4" audio cables I buy at the music store are much thicker and sturdier than the RCA-plug Hi-Fi cables of the same price in regular electronics stores.

So those 'cheap' music store cables (e.g. € 3.95 for a thick double schielded 3mtr microphone cable) are already much better than everything in my house. I would not invest in more expensive cables, unless I would be unplugging them very often. In that case a cable with better connectors would probably be worth the money.

[klavijaturista]

I make my own cables! :)
I buy the cable and jacks separately and weld them together, of course i chose quality connectors and cable, if it brakes, new connector, shorten the cable if necessary, weld, and it's like new.

[St0rMl0rD]

I make my own cables! :)
I buy the cable and jacks separately and weld them together, of course i chose quality connectors and cable, if it brakes, new connector, shorten the cable if necessary, weld, and it's like new.

Klotz + Neutrik?

-J

[klavijaturista]

I do have one klotz cable, very good, but in country you cant rely on distributers to always have the same cables and connectors, they sell what they can find, bunch of idiots, and if they are representing a bigger foreign company, it costs an arm and a leg. So i have proel cables, klotz cables, stagg cables, with all sorts of connectors, bu recently i started buying, they look like this one http://www.movingimageeducation.org/files/images%20new%20from%201.4.7/jack.jpg (random google photo of the lookalike jack i'm using), don't even know ho makes them, but they are cheap, very cheap, like 1/10 of the money you give for a regular neutrik, last shorter, and the quality is much lower, but they do the job, and i'm happy...

[St0rMl0rD]

I'm not using anything else except Neutrik, and I am very pleased for it. My next rig is gonna have a multicore cabling (something like JR's) going from keyboard to rack, containing only Klotz cables with Neutrik connectors on top.

-J

[klavijaturista]

It's a god way to connect instruments, but also very expensive, L, R, damper, switch, expression, possible 1, 2, 3, 4 outputs, if a neutrik connector is 4 euros (the good ones, like np2c), times 10 + meter of klotz 1 euro or 1.5, and you've spent 60 to who-knows-how-much euros on cables. When i put it that way it really ain't that much. Go for it! I'll be right behind you as soon as i get some money...

[Gustavo]

I used to have some cheap cables from some music store her ein Monterrey. But they generetad a (low) noise, plus the heads seemed quite fragile and are quite loose, I have to tighten them almost every time I use them.

Now that I went to the US, I bought some (short) monster cables. the plugs seem to be of a much superior quality and they dont generate noise (at least not audible). I think they were kind of expensive, but in the long run they may be cheaper, since the plugs on the other cables I owned would have broke or stopped working eventually. Plus, they are cheap when bought short, since I do not need long ones. 2M is more than enough for me!

But yea, whenever you start playing any kind of electrical instrument, no one ever tells you that cables DO matter. one would assume only the instrument does. And almost no one ever told me (outside of forums) that a mixer is needed. Even vendors in music stores seldom mention mixers outside of the big studio desk mixer environment. At least in my case.

So to answer your question, I think cables DO play a part in one´s sound, since they are the things that are supposed to carry the signal. I do not think that truly high-end cables would make a difference, but from low end to mid-high end there IS a difference. Mainly in build. In the live setting they also matter much, since buying weaker cables could prove troublesome.

Gus

[Yuperdo]

I'm using the cheap homebrand cables of Musicstore.de. They seem sturdy enough and I don't notice any hissing.

What surprises me the most, is that after all these years, everybody uses 2 mono cables to get stereo. Why didn't the entire music industry go for the stereo cable?

[Grey Loki]

I'm using the cheap homebrand cables of Musicstore.de. They seem sturdy enough and I don't notice any hissing.

What surprises me the most, is that after all these years, everybody uses 2 mono cables to get stereo. Why didn't the entire music industry go for the stereo cable?

Because stereo cables aren't balanced, whilst (decent) mono ones are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio

[Drusillus]

Whatever you choose, I would recommend you NEVER use PlanetWaves cables, they have these little springy parts on the end to help keep the cable snug and secure in the jack... well they completely ruined the output jacks on my JP8000 (couldn't even pull the cable out) and it cost me $150 in repair bills :{

I now use Digiflex cables and they work great.