crappy cables

[miktunes25]

OK I was helping a buddy record today and ran into something that made me curious. I've been recording for a few years and have always recorded with quality cables. That is just what I was taught is never to try and save bucks when it comes to cables. Over at my buddies house I was helping him with mic placement and things like that. Everything I tried just sounded really squashed and didn't have any sparkle to it. Then I noticed he was running cheap radioshack cables into his soundcard. Could they be causing that terrible "dead" sound? I'm not an expert so I didn't want to tell him that was his problem. Is it possible for cables to make things sound that bad?

[Zeppelin4Life]

bad cables can make things sound horrible, but not a very obvious way(usually). Phase, noise, harmonics..that kindof stuff.. I would be willing to bet the soundcard is the main issue, though. But never cheap out on bad cables, especially when your using good stuff.

[jamoo]

cheap is cheap. if it sounds good, you're lucky.

[dictaphone]

I used to use store bought cables, but then I heard some made with Canare Quad. Ever since, I've been building them with that and Switchcraft connectors. The quality is way better, and the sound is so clear.

[Scodiddly]

Cheap cables, especially on short runs, don't tend to "squash" the sound. Instead, you get intermittent connections, excessive hum pickup, and similar "obviously something's busted" problems.

More likely you've got a cheapo soundcard, or (most likely) a basic mismatch between the mic and a soundcard as far as impedance and power goes. Best approach is to have a mic preap or small mixer between the mic(s) and the soundcard, and use only the line inputs on the soundcard. Soundcard mic inputs are designed for those crappy little computer mics, not pro audio.

[miktunes25]

well i think he had a delta 1010 and he was running a set of 8 preamps into it. I have no idea what they were. Maybe older peaveys or something. I am just trying to figure out what the heck is making everything sound so dead. its just so wierd because i can take all the mics i use and set them up the same way that i can get great sounds but they just sound terrible in his studio. any other ideas of what could be going on? i'm not an expert at this stuff.