{"id":484,"date":"2006-08-10T01:34:47","date_gmt":"2006-08-10T01:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2006\/08\/2006_08_10_0934.php"},"modified":"2017-02-10T02:27:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T02:27:42","slug":"some-audio-mumbo-jumbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/08\/10\/some-audio-mumbo-jumbo","title":{"rendered":"Some audio mumbo jumbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

After much research on the safety of trying to connect an unbalanced 1\/4″ jack (TS<\/code>) to a balanced, phantom power enabled<\/em> XLR<\/code> input on my mixer using a simple interconnect adaptor<\/a>, I decided that I should just invest in a DI (Direct Injection) box<\/a> – which will solve the problem beyond any reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

Considering mixers have<\/em> 1\/4″ jacks (which support both balanced or unbalanced inputs) anyway, you may be thinking why go through all the trouble of trying to connect a naturally unbalanced instrument cable to a balanced input?[1]: http:\/\/www.taylorguitars.com\/guitars\/t5\/soundcheck\/<\/a> “Visit site”<\/p>\n

Firstly, AFAIK,<\/em> [my guitar (T5)][1] supports both balanced and unbalanced cables – so it’s nice to have a provision in my setup for it. And balanced is always better as a rule (more on this later). Of course in my “home studio” environment, this is probably a moot point since I still have to used a regular mono 1\/4″ jack from the guitar (since my cool “circuit-breaker”<\/em><\/a> instrument cable is mono\/unbalanced) anyways. Also, there’s not much to worry about when dealing with short distances.<\/p>\n

Still, the boost in volume used with a balanced connection is very helpful for recording. As they say, the stronger your input source (as long as it ain’t clipping), the better.<\/p>\n

Hold on… Balanced? Unbalanced? What the hell are you talking about?<\/h2>\n

This attempt to clarify the concept of balanced connections was also triggered by a discussion between Nono<\/a> and I about different audio interconnects<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember when you look at your regular 1\/4″ jack (common for musical instruments) and sometimes you would see two<\/strong> black (or colored) rings, but never knew what the difference was with those jacks with one<\/strong> ring only? Same goes with those earphone jacks – which commonly have two as a standard.<\/p>\n

These “rings” are dividers, and I will start calling them as such. 1 <\/sup><\/a>Because techincally, balanced jack plugs are called TRS (Tip-Ring-Sleeve) jacks – and obviously the word “ring” here pertains to the middle contact point, not the ring divider.<\/span><\/span>