I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary basis for some
live mixing applications in a small room. It doesn't have any balanced
outs, and the stereo and monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to
send the signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

I think I could send the RCA to a male quarter-inch, stick that into a
DI box and then run an XLR to the powered speaker's (Peavey PR 12P) mic
input. Stop me if I'm wrong on that. But is there a better way?

And the tangential question is this: I've rented passive DI boxes
before and used them for guitars and keyboards. I've had no
complaints. Would a couple passive boxes work okay for driving my
speakers or do active boxes make more sense here?

Thanks.

--
John L Rice
www.DeliriumFix.com

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary basis for some
live mixing applications in a small room. It doesn't have any balanced
outs, and the stereo and monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to
send the signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

I think I could send the RCA to a male quarter-inch, stick that into a
DI box and then run an XLR to the powered speaker's (Peavey PR 12P) mic
input. Stop me if I'm wrong on that. But is there a better way?

And the tangential question is this: I've rented passive DI boxes
before and used them for guitars and keyboards. I've had no
complaints. Would a couple passive boxes work okay for driving my
speakers or do active boxes make more sense here?

Thanks.


Try an ART Clean Box :
http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/CleanBox

They are under $50 street and work pretty well. You can usually find them on
Ebay too.

John L Rice

wrote:
I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary basis for some
live mixing applications in a small room. It doesn't have any balanced
outs, and the stereo and monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to
send the signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

Send them unbalanced, and keep the cables away from obvious sources of
interference - don't bundle them with an AC power cable and don't work
in a room that's next to a broadcast transmitter. You'll probably be
OK. I've run unbalanced outputs down a 100 foot snake many times
without serious problems. Sure, you can do bette, but for "temporary
basis . . . in small rooms" you can probably live with the small
amount of hum that the cables pick up.

Using a backwards DI box on one end will give you a balanced output,
but it may reduce the level to the point where you'll need to boost the
gain at the powered speaker end to the point where you start hearing
hum again. Putting a second DI at the other end would be a better
approach, but still you may not need to do this.

Would a couple passive boxes work okay for driving my
speakers or do active boxes make more sense here?

If you're going to use one on each end of the cable, you can't use an
active DI on the speaker end because the signal only flows one way
through the box - from the 1/4" jack to the XLR connector You could use
one on the mixer end, but you really should try a direct unbalanced
connection first.

Remember, you CAN try this at home to see how much hum you're likely to
get, unless you have to rent everything. And if you have to rent, you
might as well rent the right stuff.

wrote in message
oups.com

I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary
basis for some live mixing applications in a small room.
It doesn't have any balanced outs, and the stereo and
monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to send the
signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

A 50 foot cable with RCA's at both ends.

Usually off-the-shelf cables are only 20 or 25 feet long, but standard cable
joiners work, tape 'em up if they tend to pull apart.

As Mike suggests, you might have to pay attention to how you route the cable
to avoid picking up hum.

If you can get away with plain wire in an application like this, it will
probably sound better than transformers unless you drop big bucks on the
transformers.

wrote:
I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary basis for some
live mixing applications in a small room. It doesn't have any balanced
outs, and the stereo and monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to
send the signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

A box with a pair of 600:600 transformers in it.

I think I could send the RCA to a male quarter-inch, stick that into a
DI box and then run an XLR to the powered speaker's (Peavey PR 12P) mic
input. Stop me if I'm wrong on that. But is there a better way?

DI transformers are high-ratio. This means they tend to have poorer
high end and are more expensive for the same performance than a 1:1
transformer.

And the tangential question is this: I've rented passive DI boxes
before and used them for guitars and keyboards. I've had no
complaints. Would a couple passive boxes work okay for driving my
speakers or do active boxes make more sense here?

It's really not the right tool for the job. Try the Ebtech Hum
Eliminator on the cheap end, or the Jensen isolation boxes on the
expensive end.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:

I have an old Fostex that I want to use on a temporary basis for some
live mixing applications in a small room. It doesn't have any balanced
outs, and the stereo and monitor outs are just RCAs. So if I want to
send the signal 40 or 50 feet, what's the easiest way to do that?

I think I could send the RCA to a male quarter-inch, stick that into a
DI box and then run an XLR to the powered speaker's (Peavey PR 12P) mic
input. Stop me if I'm wrong on that. But is there a better way?

It's often considered a good idea to protect your speakers with
compressors/limiters between your mixer an your power amplifiers.
These often provide both balanced and unbalanced I/O that can be
handy to solve the problem you here present.

And the tangential question is this: I've rented passive DI boxes
before and used them for guitars and keyboards. I've had no
complaints. Would a couple passive boxes work okay for driving my
speakers or do active boxes make more sense here?

I wouldn't use DIs for this application, passive or active.

Thanks.


--
================================================== ======================
Michael Kesti | "And like, one and one don't make
| two, one and one make one."
mrkesti at comcast dot net | - The Who, Bargain

John L Rice wrote:

Try an ART Clean Box :
http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/CleanBox

Hey, thanks. That looks pretty cool, and your link is from my main
music dealer, too!

Mike Rivers wrote:

Send them unbalanced, and keep the cables away from obvious sources of
interference - don't bundle them with an AC power cable and don't work
in a room that's next to a broadcast transmitter. You'll probably be
OK. I've run unbalanced outputs down a 100 foot snake many times
without serious problems. Sure, you can do bette, but for "temporary
basis . . . in small rooms" you can probably live with the small
amount of hum that the cables pick up.

I'll try that. It's for a home-church type setup, so people are not
expecting much. When we do coffeehouses, I've got a Mackie Onyx, but
it would be nice to donate my Fostex to the church to leave setup on a
more permanent basis.

Using a backwards DI box on one end will give you a balanced output,
but it may reduce the level to the point where you'll need to boost the
gain at the powered speaker end to the point where you start hearing
hum again. Putting a second DI at the other end would be a better
approach, but still you may not need to do this.

Okay.

If you're going to use one on each end of the cable, you can't use an
active DI on the speaker end because the signal only flows one way
through the box - from the 1/4" jack to the XLR connector You could use
one on the mixer end, but you really should try a direct unbalanced
connection first.

I did not know that.

Remember, you CAN try this at home to see how much hum you're likely to
get, unless you have to rent everything. And if you have to rent, you
might as well rent the right stuff.

I'm going to try to chain together my RCA cables and see how it goes.

Thanks!

Arny Krueger wrote:

A 50 foot cable with RCA's at both ends.

Usually off-the-shelf cables are only 20 or 25 feet long, but standard cable
joiners work, tape 'em up if they tend to pull apart.

As Mike suggests, you might have to pay attention to how you route the cable
to avoid picking up hum.

If you can get away with plain wire in an application like this, it will
probably sound better than transformers unless you drop big bucks on the
transformers.

Thanks, Arny. If it ends up being much of a problem, I'll just use my
Mackie (which means more hauling stuff around). But it will be cool if
the RCA does the job adequately.

Scott Dorsey wrote:

DI transformers are high-ratio. This means they tend to have poorer
high end and are more expensive for the same performance than a 1:1
transformer.

Thanks... that's probaby something I will learn in the Sound
Reinforcement Handbook, no?

It's really not the right tool for the job. Try the Ebtech Hum
Eliminator on the cheap end, or the Jensen isolation boxes on the
expensive end.
--scott

The hum eliminator seems like a good thing to have around generally,
even if I don't use it for this.

Thanks again for your help, Scott.

These often provide both balanced and unbalanced I/O that can be
handy to solve the problem you here present.

I had not thought of thought, thanks. Though since I sold my RNC a few
months ago, I'm hoping a long RCA cable gets the job done.

wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

DI transformers are high-ratio. This means they tend to have poorer
high end and are more expensive for the same performance than a 1:1
transformer.

Thanks... that's probaby something I will learn in the Sound
Reinforcement Handbook, no?

Maybe not. Hardly anyone uses actual transformers any more, so knowing
about transformers isn't as common and expected as it used to be.

It's really not the right tool for the job. Try the Ebtech Hum
Eliminator on the cheap end, or the Jensen isolation boxes on the
expensive end.

The hum eliminator seems like a good thing to have around generally,
even if I don't use it for this.

I always carry a couple 1:1 transformer boxes around because you never
know when you'll need to deal with an unbalanced source going into a
long balanced run, or to break a ground loop.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

I always carry a couple 1:1 transformer boxes around because you never
know when you'll need to deal with an unbalanced source going into a
long balanced run, or to break a ground loop.
--scott

Good to know, thx.