? re: phone to XLR adaptor

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

I've been running a mono 1/4" cable from my GP100 send to the hiZ 1/4" in on the mixing board with no problems.

Due to issues with cabling when we use a snake for long runs where a sound person is in use, I wanted to use an adapter from the 1/4" to the XLR snake connection.

I bought this Hosa adapter. It's supposed to adapt a mono phone plug to the XLR cable.

I connected it like I would normally and plugged the 3 pin end into a mic cable and sent over to the board. All I get is a low level noise that follows the volume of the fader....not a hum, just static and noise. Nothing from the GP100.

The mic cable is good...works fine with a mic. Both Hi and Lo Z inputs work fine on the mixer.

The diagram looks right on the pkg., but I'm wondering if the #1 or #2 pin is connected wrong. A continuity check confirms good connections from the phone end to the xlr end.

According to my research, the instructions and the guy at the music store I bought it from, it should work for my applications. Any ideas?

Tim Marcus · From: San Francisco, CA

if you are driving the signal over a large distance, you want to send a balanced signal not a mono signal. That will reject the noise picked up over the long run of wire.

An unbalanced XLR cable should have pin 3 shunted to ground with the tip going to pin 2

If you leave pin 3 open you will get noise - and grounding it out does not harm the input circuitry on most mixers

maybe you want to invest in something like this so that you can get a properly balanced signal:

http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/j4.php
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Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Well, I think we have direct boxes in the trailer and mics of course, but the Roland send with speaker sims etc. sounds so nice I really want to use it instead.

It might very well be I have the wrong tool for the job, but that GP100 works very well with a simple 1/4" 20 foot mono cable into my mixer here in my music room where I'm testing stuff before I take it out to the job.

I'm only using about a 15' mic cable here with that adapter. I would have expected some sort of signal, even a weak, poor or degraded one from the Roland unit into the loZ mixer input.

Thanks.

David Nugent · From: Gum Spring, Va.

Jerry...'Live Wire' manufactures a cable that sends a balanced signal from a 1/4" jack to an XLR connection, around $12.00 from MF.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Thanks David. The problem lies in that we are starting with an unbalanced signal at the source, so it appears I need a device to convert that over to a balanced signal before going to the board/snake etc.

I think we have it covered though.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I think the direct box will do the trick.
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Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

Yes I'm sure a direct box will work. I just didn't want to use it as the GP100 has it's own programmable line out which seems to work fine with the 1/4" cable and I really liked the sound of it into the house system when I did it some time ago.

Been a while since I've used it that way though and I was doing some testing with the adapter into my mixer and gear in my music room before I take it out to another big venue.

I was able to achieve some success with the adpater cable I mentioned above with some internal S/R routing changes in the GP100 using the Send port and my Ebtech box for a balanced signal to the Board.

It actually works fairly well now, except it really knocks down the volume output to my normal steel amp system and seems to mess with the tone some.

More fiddling with it today will determine if I can use it that way or just mic the speakers at really large and outdoor events.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Jerry, the advice given here is to connect the direct box to the line out in order to convert it to a balanced signal which your Lo-Z input can handle. Don't try connecting it to the instrument itself, that will only frustrate your efforts further...

The Hosa drawing shows Pin 2 (the modern "hot" pin) connected to the 1/4" tip and Pin 3 shunted to ground with Pin 1. If your mixer is an old one and is looking for signal on Pin 3 (the last century's "hot" pin) it will not happen.

All your current configuration is doing is adapting your Hi-Z unbalanced output to patch via an XLR connection, but not actually converting it to the Lo-Z balanced signal that the mixer's XLR jacks are designed to receive. The DI run from your amp's line out will do both, just be aware that the amp can overdrive the transformer in a cheap DI if the line out is run too hot.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

This is what I used for a few years with my Nashville 400. I tried running a regular 25 foot 1/4" guitar cable from my preamp out to the PA, but got a lot of noise. So I got the DI box and went from the preamp out to the box and used the XLR (low-z) output on the box with a mic cable to the PA. Worked great. But, I now use a Sennheiser e609 mic to mic my amp. Better sound from the PA that way.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/pro-co-db-1-direct-box
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open E slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

The unit is designed for the outputs to go directly to a mixer's Hi Z port using standard 1/4" mono cables. There are several pairs of output jacks and you can use them all the same way.

The Roland manual shows a diagram. I'd post it, but you need Roland's permission.

It works fine this way. Strong signal, no noise, no degradation. I was just hoping I could use that output into a snake without having to go thru a direct box, but apparently not.

So, I'll use the 1/4" connection for situations where we have the mixing desk on stage and probably just mics for remote board use with snakes. Thanks.

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