Help! I'm looking for short lengths of XLR microphone cables (3 or 4 feet in length) at a decent price. Alternatively, I need a to find a resource where I can learn how to make these short cables myself. I need to buy or make about one dozen of these short cables in order to daisy chain a bunch of lights in close proximity. I've looked at various music stores and the short lengths are about $15 per cable! Please, any help or direction you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Kent

Try here:

http://tinyurl.com/4tgnzm


Lyndel

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/M......u=361707

Great prices, this is just one page. 6' cables $8.99.

Not exactly what you are looking for, but this is a great resource.

These guys sell raw parts, but also have a wonderful adapter they just released at NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters) in April.

First, the wicked cool (me Boston dialect is comin' out!) adapter they have is featured in this show:

http://pixelcorps.cachefly.net/macbreak-135-540p-h264a.mov

Their website is http://www.neutrik.com/

Scott

(4) three footers for Twenty Dollers on Ebay. This price includes shipping.

Be sure to check if they're 3 pin or 4 pin (or even five pin).

Microphone cable is always 3 pin......but lighting cable can be pretty much anything depending on the manufacturer.

Thanks everyone! The link provided really did the trick. Where I live, I couldn't even get the PARTS for the cables at that price! And yes, I did check to ensure they were 3 pin cables as I needed. Thanks again.

Kent

Hello.

Mic cable is usually used also to carry DMX (the protocol used to control light fixtures) data BUT (a big but) it shouldn't be used to. DMX data is more sensible to cable quality and regular microphone cable does not meet DMX specifications.

Anyway I do use it and it works but for long runs you shouldn't do that. There are people who send DMX data by the audio snake (30mt, 50mt, ...) with success.

So...

Use it.

And...

Don't use it and buy DMX cable.

What would I do:

Make my own cables at home buying connectors and regular cable.


Have a good day.

Gusi

http://www.magogusi.com


PS: It's like a joke. If you Google about "mic cable for DMX" or some like this you will be confronted with a discussion like this one.

Actually three pin XLR cable for lighting is frowned on in many places for reasons other than folks tend to use mic cable when they run out of proper lighting cable.

The reason it's frowned on is because both Clear-Com and audio signal mic/cable could accidentally get plugged into a lighting fixture control circuit.

What's the problem with that you might ask?

Well, if somebody activates the "call" button on a Clear-Com, and it's been accidentally plugged into a lighting fixture, the voltage that activates the light/buzzer/flasher will fry the input of whatever lighting instrument you've got it plugged into......you'll be lucky if it's only one as lighting fixtures are often daisy chained.
If it happens to hit the input of your console.....well, you might want to hope it's still on warranty.

If it's an audio cable that's plugged in accidentally, when the sound guy turns on phantom power to that channel you're once again potentially fried.

Lots of folks use three pin XLR for lighting control, but if given a choice it's usually a better idea to split audio from lighting, with audio using three pin XLR, and lighting using anything BUT three pin XLR.