XLR Cable Noise

[JD01]

Any know how liable XLR cables are to picking up extraneous electrical noise?
Just noticed I'm getting a lot of buzz off my main mic cable from my cab.

The cable runs from the cab, right around the outside of the room alongside my speaker cable, then it ends up in a bundle with various other things as it approaches the interface - piano power, pedal power etc.

I just noticed when I armed to record a track it was set for the cab mic, and even with the cab off I was getting a signal coming in on that channel at about -55db. I tried a different cable and it went down to zero. Although this cable was crossing the middle of the room.

I don't mind buying another cable, but I'll need to move furniture to put another cable in its place and test if its damaged. It is my oldest cable.
If you guys think its very unusual for an XLR to pick up interference I'll just buy another cable.

[Greg_L]

XLR cables are shielded and balanced, so it's faulty if it's picking up noise. Their entire purpose for existence is to reject noise. Fix it or replace it.

[JD01]

Cheers, I'll order another one.

[Tadpui]

Do you have another XLR you can swap in to make sure it's the cable and not the mic or interface? Cables do "go bad" sometimes, but generally not when they live a sedentary life plugged in and not being moved, coiled, uncoiled, plugged, unplugged a lot. Usually the connector is the point of failure. Either that, or the family cat decides that it likes the taste of rubber and eats a hole through the cable

[Armistice]

or the family cat decides that it likes the taste of rubber and eats a hole through the cable

When I was much younger I had a rabbit living with me, inside my apartment, in a hutch. Young Mixie the rabbit would chew through the chicken wire of the hutch while I wasn't there and go on a rampage against my cables, including power ones, although she never actually shorted anything, or herself, out with those, but she exposed 240v wiring. You name it, she chewed it.

Eventually I found her a better home and one by one replaced all my cables...

[Tadpui]

When I was much younger I had a rabbit living with me, inside my apartment, in a hutch. Young Mixie the rabbit would chew through the chicken wire of the hutch while I wasn't there and go on a rampage against my cables, including power ones, although she never actually shorted anything, or herself, out with those, but she exposed 240v wiring. You name it, she chewed it.

Eventually I found her a better home and one by one replaced all my cables...

LOL that sounds like the kind of nightmare that keeps me up at night. The fire hazard alone makes me squirm! Much less a rodent escaping its enclosure at night in my house.

[Lt. Bob]

also the cable that had no noise was running across the room while the noisy one is bundled with other wires?

Pull the noisy one out ( you should be able to do that without moving furniture unless it's fastened in there ) and hook it up but run it across the room to make sure it's not where it's running alongside power cables that's causing the noise.

[rayc]

Young Mixie the rabbit ...

Nicely done David.

[JD01]

Sorted.
Does appear that my old XLR cable had become faulty.
Just replaced the cable running around the outside of the room and despite it being bundled in with my speaker cable, pedal power cable, amp input, send/return from my pedal board, XLR from my bass emulator pedal, keyboard power, keyboard USB and keyboard stereo out... its silent!