To tin a lead or ground, first apply a small amount of solder to the iron. Place the end of the cable you want to work on in your helping hands tool. Your iron makes a really satisfying tsssssst sound when you do this. You will use it to wipe off the end of your iron if it gets dirty or has too much solder on it. This means it is also hot enough to burn you. IT IS GOING TO BE HOT ENOUGH TO MELT SOLDER. Turn on your iron (which is, of course, resting safely in the iron holder) and let it heat for a few minutes. Working this way, the solder will be in place and ready to use when you are connecting wire to contact. Tinning a contact means applying some solder to your lead/ground/etc ahead of time. Use your wire stripper and carefully strip about 1/4' of each lead.Ħ) Twist the shield/ground and the ends of each lead so they stay together. Trim leads and shielding to no more than an inch (1') past the new end of the rubber casing.ĥ) Strip the ends of the leads. Only the leads and shielding/ground should remain. Cut the rubber away and trim any cotton or plastic material out of the way. The shielding will be the ground (the 'X' in XLR) and needs to be preserved as you work.Ĥ) Trim casing and any non-shielding or lead material.

Some cables (notably Canare quad) will have braided shielding that will take some work to unwind, but you have to do so and do so carefully. You want to leave the metallic grounding shield intact.ģ) Pull back the casing and unbraid the shielding if necessary. Cut deep enough to cut through the casing, but no deeper. Reveal the cable's innards by putting a shallow cut in the rubber casing at each end about 1.5' long. 20' is a good length if you're not sure.Ģ) Make shallow lengthwise cuts at each end. Realistically, anything over 50' might be unwieldy or invite noise. The smoke may be hazardous with long-term exposure and can be irritating without much exposure.īefore you even turn your iron on, you need to cut the cable and organize its ends.ġ) Cut to cable length. Soldering should be done in a well-ventilated space. XLRM connectors have pin contacts where XLRF connectors have holes. These are the normal form-factor connectors on standard microphone cables. One each XLRM (male) and XLRF (female) connector. Balanced cable is sold by the foot or in rolls, typically for about $1 per foot.Ģ. The steps are essentially the same for standard balanced and quad. Some cable (like the cable used for this demo) is quad cable, which has marginally better durability and noise perforance. Balanced audio cable has at least two leads and a metallic shield or ground. (not strictly necessary for assembly, but helpful for testing your new cable)ġ. A few simple tools are needed to make cables:

Xlr connector pinout