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Speaking of midi cables is there something to this whole "shielding" thing?
Real MIDI cables are not shielded and don't have to be. That said, many cables that work for MIDI are (regardless of whether or not they are sold as MIDI), and many cables sold as MIDI, are shielded. In other words, if you are using it for MIDI it doesn't need to be shielded.
To top it off, true MIDI cables only have three of the five pins wired. It's OK if the others are wired, and some MIDI devices require them to be wired because they use them for other non-standard uses, like power, or sometimes data dumps. They are included on MIDI cables for future use, but the MMA never used them.
Most 5 pin male-male DIN cables work just fine for MIDI. They have all 5 pins wired and are usually shielded.
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I noticed two types of cords, (just straight midi cords no usb) and one says they are "shielded"...
There's a lot more types of chors than that.
What are those two used for? USB is USB and MIDI is MIDI. If a MIDI device goes straight to USB there's something else going on besides standard MIDI.
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since I am upgrading why not go the distance here?
What do you mean specifically? That should mean to use the correct cables for the specific use. There is no all-shielded or all-non-shielded.
Speakers (amp to speakers - headphones - not powered speakers) -- unshielded.
MIDI (true MIDI) -- don't give it a thought.
Unbalanced audio (RCA, 1/8" 1/4" plugs - powered speakers - guitar cords) -- ALWAYS shielded.
Balanced mic -- Ironically, this doesn't REALLY need to be shielded, if everything were perfect, but in the real world we always shield mic cables.
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How about shielded RCA cords? are there such a thing?
ALL "RCA" cables used for consumer audio (stereo cords) are shielded or you'd be hearing a lot of hum all over the place, except for those sold as (really cheap) speaker cables. Can you use those RCA cords for a speaker cable? Sure, but the impedence is high compared to real speaker cords, so there will be some loss, even when the runs are relatively short. Yet, you sure can't use an RCA speaker cable in place of an RCA audio cord. It all depends on the wiring -- not the jacks on the end. All "RCA" really means is the plug type, but when we say RCA we usually mean the shielded kind.
