I have always been a strong proponent of the benefits of Digital Audio.

The benefits offered to recording, editing, and mixing are phenomenal.

Many people don't realize that much of what we take for granted today was never possible on a tape based system. I could ramble on and on about this.

There is, however, something that is often times taken for granted. We still feed analog signal into all of these magical computer boxes. In one way or another, we record analog signal from sources such as microphones and synthesizers. We are converting this analog signal into digital information. Logically, one of the best ways to achieve a good recording is to have a good analog source signal.

Analog signal, unlike digital, can be influenced by many, many things. The quality of the microphone, for instance. Also, the quality of the cables used in the studio. I've seen this more times than I can shake a stick at. Awesome room, awesome equipment, yet not so awesome sound. Upon closer inspection all the cabling turns out to be of lesser quality. There can be quite a significant difference in the quality and consistency of the audio signal just by doing something as simple as choosing good quality cables. It's easy to get wrapped up in the flashy side of equipment and forget that we still need to connect that equipment somehow.

This mentality has to be followed on the output end of our recording. One way or another, you are going to have to hear what you have recorded. This means, speakers, headphones, etc... You have to connect the outputs of the mixer (Pro Tools) to your speakers. Guess what, once again, the quality of the cables can haunt your studio.

Just as with everything else in the studio, do your research. There is probably a reason professional studios use high quality cables.