Bout to give up on this cable making shit

[popvulture]

I've posted several things about finding good cables for my RJM switcher, and after even more toil with continually shitty results, I'm about to lose it.

To recap:

-Tried EBS flat cables and they're fine, but there's not a size between the longest and second to longest, so I had to buy a bunch of the former and my board was a total spaghetti mess because of it. Plus the cables going into the switcher really need to be straight plugs, and RA on the pedal end.
-Tried solderless Lavas and wanted to murder people. Returned the packs I didn't use, had to eat shit and lose money on the pack I opened and cut.

The latest:

Bought Mogami cable, GLS pancakes and Switchcraft 380s for the switcher end. After boning a couple of cables I finally started getting the hang of the soldering, but then plugged the board in and noticed that there were a few cables that had SIGNIFICANTLY lost high end. I verified this by comparing them to a couple of Divine Noise patches I had lying around. Instantly better with the nice cables.

I don't have time or money for any more of this and I'm about to just sell the switcher on Reverb. I'll lose a little money and go back to tap dancing, but right now it's looking like that'd totally be worth it for the peace of mind. I wanna play music, not spend a bunch of time hunched over at my dining room table, soldering cables that sound like ass. I tested them all with a cable tester, but didn't know that you could still get some that lost some fidelity due to a most likely sub-par soldering job.

Obviously I can't get Divine Noise to make me 20 custom ST-RA patches—that'd be like $500, absolutely outrageous. I guess my last question before I bail—are there any companies out there that will make a batch of custom cables that are reliable, sound good and won't break the bank? I think that'd really be ideal, or I could just spend more time and money becoming a better solderer.

Alright, gonna go have an aneurysm. Any thoughts would be appreciated. If anyone's got a much simple switching setup they'd recommend just so I could have a couple of nice presets at hand without having to figure out how to fuck with 20 patch cables, that'd be rad.

[sylnau]

I hated solderless until I tried those:
http://www.evidenceaudio.com/product/sis

Never broke one.

[Gone Fission]

Is it some but not all of the DIY that lose highs? Is it just longer ones? IME Mogami is pretty much a low-pass filter and not to be used anywhere before a good buffer in the signal chain, at least if you're talking longer than a six inch patch.

[goroth]

I dunno.. Being able to make and repair your own cables is an awesome skill. I just made a cable with amphenol connectors, Mogami cable, hear shrink and tech flex. An equivalent cable would cost over 100 bucks in Sweden, but I made it for next to nothing. Had some left over cable that I bought bulk, connectors were pretty cheap... And I know the construction is fucking awesome. Because I built it.

When I started making patch cables I had a few with high end loss due to half shitty solder joints, but after making 30 of the little bastards I got pretty good and only had to throw away a few.

Take a break and come back to it and push through. Take your time, get a decent soldering station and keep the iron hot as fuck.

I love my switcher. I literally can't play our sets without it. So my totally biased opinion is DON'T SELL IT!

I think there is a company called like sinusoid cables that make reasonably priced stuff if your cable-making hate grows too strong.

[goroth]

Yeah - I got buffers. But I really like the shielding in Mogami. Those cables are super quiet.

[popvulture]

I never heard that about Mogamis losing highs—I've also been using them in my studio for years and have loved everything about their stuff. Plus that particular cable came directly recommended from the owner of RJM (who's a super nice, helpful guy who answers emails, by the way).

I don't know what I'll do. I'll look into the Sunusoid place and see what they're about—thanks for that rec. Re: those Evidence plugs, those things are 8 bucks a piece. I'm assuming there are places that sell them for less than retail, but just thinking about spending near $160 on PLUGS just doesn't work for me, pretty much out of principle. I have no idea why all of those solderless plugs are so fucking expensive, but logic tells me it's because they're proprietary and they can. I'm sure that cost reflects R&D as well, but I followed Lava's instructions pretty damn methodically and none of the fuckers would connect properly. It was even more infuriating than soldering.

The thing is—when I have gotten the switcher up and running, it's a dream to think of what I could do with it. Being able to switch from one drastic setting to the other with one step? Amazing. The thing is I've had it since January and still haven't gotten the setup in a giggable state.

I'll wait til I stop stewing and then decide. Maybe just need to switch to a slightly simpler switching setup.

[rustywire]

All wire is not created equal. Just because it bears the name "Mogami" doesn't mean it's the right stuff for your application.
I stand by Mogami microphone wire for low level signals. Unbalanced or balanced. It's very low capacitance but more importantly it is the most flexible, well-shielded stuff on the market & satiny to the touch...behaving like wet noodles. No kinks. Not cheap. Worth it. No idea what GonFis was working with, but something sounds fishy.

Watch some vids on ideal soldering technique and practice. You want to use *just enough* soldier and no more than necessary.

[D-Rainger]

All wire is not created equal. Just because it bears the name "Mogami" doesn't mean it's the right stuff for your application.
I stand by Mogami microphone wire for low level signals. Unbalanced or balanced. It's very low capacitance but more importantly it is the most flexible, well-shielded stuff on the market & satiny to the touch...behaving like wet noodles. No kinks. Not cheap. Worth it. No idea what GonFis was working with, but something sounds fishy.

Watch some vids on ideal soldering technique and practice. You want to use *just enough* soldier and no more than necessary.

I think I detected some signal/top loss when I used 'instrument cable'.... Took me a load of butchering circuit boards to find the problem - as I was assuming the cable would be good. Then I switched to mic cable, problem solved. These were all just Maplin cables (read 'Radio Shack').

It's hard enough making the circuit boards without the bloody cable messing it up too!

[odontophobia]

Like Gorith said... The high end loss is like due to bad solder joints. You can desolder all the tips and reuse them or just cut that jacks off and put new jacks on.

[crochambeau]

Unsolicited advice:

Heat your iron, then clean & wet the tip with some solder. I use a brass brillo pad looking material to clean the iron, and just a little solder to wet the tip (which is going to shield from oxidization and, more importantly, provide a "flexible" thermal coupling to heat the parts involved).

Then it's a matter of simply bringing both points up to temperature and THEN feeding the solder into the joint (not onto the iron). With cable making, I tend to pre-tin the wire which makes the process much easier (so long as you haven't tinned the wire into a shape that is difficult to mate to the connector).