Audience Conductor, by Jim Merod

One of the least examined parts of the musical sound chain is the perpetual presence of guitar cables, and bass pick-up cables, that wire your favorite plectorist or arco player to his or her amp/speaker set up. How often do you think of the sonic quality at stake with wire that gets Les Paul or Joe Pass, or any number of high-profile as well as local guitarists, hooked into the sound mix that you listen to at a concert or hear on record?

Lately, some studio recording engineers have become aware that all guitar cables are not equal. In part that recent development follows developments in cables themselves. No less than five or six major cable designers have brought forth high-end guitar/bass cables that dramatically enhance the quality of sound available to bassists and guitarists.

I began looking at this slice of the musical spectrum two years ago or so when it was clear to me, after a quick experiment with a three-meter run of Audience "Conductor" wire, terminated appropriately with 1/4" connectors, that its inclusion on stage during a live recording made a significant difference on several levels of performance.

First, substituting the "Conductor" cable for the guitarist's standard wire surprised the musician more than it startled me. I expected greater resolution. He had no clue. When the levels on his amp rig had to be turned down immediately—way down, in fact (an order of ten or twelve dB!)—our stunned guitarist knew he had something by the tail... or that he was the one grabbed from the rear. I remember quite well his instantaneous reaction: "what the f***'s goin' on here?" It was the primal shout of flustered uncertainty.

After I calmed his consternation, he lowered his output and began to listen to himself through his personal speaker monitor. There was, he heard, more clarity in his own musical presentation. More thickness. His instrument sounded fuller, more "real." A smile of amazement lit his face. "Yo, ho! What've we got here," he asked... this time more sweetly rendered. Satisfied the experiment was justified, he was ready to make small adjustments to dial in his sound once he had his own output level down to the point he wanted. You could see education occurring, in rehearsal, at a sound check, right before your eyes.

That initial guitar cable experiment was highly successful and confirmed what I'd suspected. Good wire beats ordinary wire every time. But the rest of the sonic improvement, beyond a hoped for enhancement at one stage position, was a truly treat to behold since it worked its way across the whole bandstand and touched each aspect of the ensemble's playing and live recording.

Immediately after the guitarist got his sound where he wanted it, the club owner's adjustments to onstage monitors lowered outputs from the guitarist's feed. With less volume booming out over everything, the room and the stage had more delicate sound, tonally better sound, and a more engagingly relaxed sound than ever before. Better yet, the other musicians found themselves able to play at lower levels since the guitarist HEARD HIMSELF more truly and, therefore, played more quietly! His restraint influenced his band mates. The sum total of the change from substituting one cable for a much better one was immense. The musicians heard one another more clearly, the audience enjoyed the greater sense of interpersonal involvement and over all musical drama in a way seldom heard on that stage. Not only these more relaxed results occurred, but a heightened (more nuanced) presentation of dynamic range—the heart of music's ability to create drama—followed each player's improved hearing during the performance. And, also, the recording received a cleaner set of mic feeds since sonic bleed from onstage monitors was less acoustically deformed.

Who would've projected, right out of the chute, that such a chain of improvements, one after another, would result from the substitution of a single "Conductor" cable in the midst of so much gear?

The next stage of my experimentation was to ask John McDonald at Audience if he had a "Conductor" cable that jazz guitar veteran JAIME VALLE might live with for awhile. John agreed and I asked Jaime if he was willing to use the Audience wire long enough to give me his full impressions of its usefulness in his musical life. I think it's accurate to say that Jaime, after a short time, was not just pleased by the experiment—which he counted altogether in his own favor—but quite interested that such a subtle, simple change in his set up could produce such a radical, and affirmative, alteration in his sound.

Several months later, I used a "Conductor" guitar cable on the great Mundell Lowe's amp/speaker set up. Lowe, who has been everywhere and done everything that an octogenarian all star guitarist could ever do—including recordings with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, and a "who's who" of jazz royalty—proclaimed his delight with clarity achieved by the "Conductor" wire. One might note that Mundell Lowe's guitar sound carries one of the most beautiful tonal resonances one will ever hear. To see the look of delight on his handsome, untroubled face, in itself, constitutes a triumph.

I have yet to ransack the spectrum of guitar/bass cable options available. My sense is that there is a growing market for this once overlooked, apparently marginal, sonic enhancement. Improvements that can be wrought with cable upgrades at the point of music's innate "production," before sound (or "as" sound) travels toward awaiting microphones, are not to be underestimated, however.

I can report my own delight with the Audience "Conductor" cables... a delight that matches the great Mundell Lowe's... appreciation that does not threaten to abate anytime soon. And why should it? How could one not be pleased to hear stringed instruments with much greater resolution? How could one not be happy to see musicians one admires become pleased with immediately evident enhancements to their work? The increase in clarity and tonal complexity found in guitar applications is no less stunning when the "Conductor" is placed between an acoustic bass and its amp/speaker output by way of connection to a bass pick up. That is another story altogether, perhaps one that's more dramatic sonically than the outcome garnered from guitar usage.

I'll explore that further at some point down the road. In the meantime, let me point to the fact that Audience has signaled its willingness to work with musicians and other interested parties who need customized termination and/or cable lengths. Not every high-end cable manufacturer has such a customer-friendly outlook. I recommend anyone interested in pursuing their generous flexibility to contact them via their website or by phone.