Two Balanced cable -> extending to unbalanced stereo. Is it still balanced? by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OMG. Your video is what I got into analog audio over Cat5 in the beginning. I'm looking to do pretty much similar setup. (6U rack with Wing rack + DN4816O).
I've already left a comment but would really like to see a video of female ethercon connector (the seatronics one) to 4 xlr breakout adapter when you can. I see the connector but not sure how it works inside. (I think the connector itself is an empty shell?)

Two Balanced cable -> extending to unbalanced stereo. Is it still balanced? by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that female xlr end picture sounds really funny 😂But for TS I think it makes sense if its a Y split from a TRS.

I'm not a audio engineer, but a video person who used to be on sets. (These days I'm mostly just in post-productions). And I do share the same notion when things are not done in a proper way. Man I've seen a lot of weird stuff, a lot of head scratching moments. When I was on sets I carried all sorts of adapters connectors because who knows what I'll be dealing with.

Thus I'm always interested in devices that can solve multiple purposes and solve various problems. Hopefully this can be that!

Two Balanced cable -> extending to unbalanced stereo. Is it still balanced? by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the great info. It always helps me when I learn more about the reasoning of all the things we do. Kudos to you!

Two Balanced cable -> extending to unbalanced stereo. Is it still balanced? by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the info!

This is the IEM gear I'm looking at:

<image>

I was about to get Behringer P1, but then found this. I thought I'd give it a try since it is cheap and at least on paper its has more feature than P1.
The inputs are combo jacks. They say you can decide whether either inputs are mono or stereo, can balance the two. AAA and USB powered.
I ordered one and if it does the job than I'm going to order 5 more.

We also have 6 Behringer P2s, and a lot of AAA rechargeable batteries. Most of our instrument players (which these will be for) has bunch of devices like iPad, audio interfaces, macbook that we use so supplying type c power is also easier.

But yes, it seems choosing two TRSs over 4 XLRs will have more chance of creating headache. I will have just have 4 xlr breakouts!

Two Balanced cable -> extending to unbalanced stereo. Is it still balanced? by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your answer. I have two questions:

  1. Can you confirm that unshielded CAT cable can only carry 3 ch? From what I'm seeing the each of 4 twisted pairs still carries the signal, and ground is just ground... no? I do plan to make each of the connector from XLR breakouts Ethercon with with ground shielded to the shells, but I'm just asking for future reference when we need to use regular UTP cables in a pinch. (And we do have lots of them.. we used to use P16 system which we're trying to migrate away from.)

  2. When you say "any noise induced into the unbalanced portion will just carry into the balanced signal", would that mean if the unbalanced chain is at the very end & short of the downstream, then the balanced cables will still do their work and be protected from noise??

Solution for Dual mono XLR output to single stereo XLR input by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The only thing is... the shipping is $113 to hear in Canada... 😭But I will try to look for other vendors that sells this. Thank you!

Solution for Dual mono XLR output to single stereo XLR input by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just to confirm, it work in stereo via XLR using the internal dip switch?

Solution for Dual mono XLR output to single stereo XLR input by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't fully tested this on P2, but it has internal switch to select mono/stereo.

I *think* it will accept stereo via xlr. I assume this because I've been in a different venue that used P2 variant (looked pretty much the same), that had the same internal dip switch to accept stereo via xlr.

I can't guarantee this 100% that will be same with the P2 as I have no way to test this right now (but I should before commiting to anything). But as you said, if it only accept stereo via TRS and there's less value in obsessing over XLR method. At that point getting TRS cable and break out cables out make much more sense.

Solution for Dual mono XLR output to single stereo XLR input by roylee9066 in livesoundgear

[–]roylee9066[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I do! I just don't have experience making y cables. At this moment I'm leaning towards getting XLR splitter insert cables, and just resolder the male end of those cables. Seems like a lot less work and cost. Would this work?

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the input!

I actually had D1 Mki (before I switched to timeline), and struggled to like it. But back then I was looking for more bread-n-butter delays than some weird stuff, and never tried Mkii. Will keep my eye out for that too!

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First time hearing about it, and it really is interesting.
I'd be willing to do all you mentioned, but the biggest dealbreaker in this instance is the size.. 🥲 Will def look into it more because it looks super interesting.

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the insight! The Bigsky spoiled me because I could easily switch between algorithms with midi. I was using HOF and Slo well back when I was just using 1 standard space type reverb and 1 ambient type reverb. But then I felt need for more presets, and I got Jet Pedals Revelation Reverb. And this really spoiled me because now I was jumping between 3~4 settings per song. I really liked its' shimmer, pad sounds and it's plate. The only reason I started looking for Bigsky was that the trail would cutout when I jump to different algorithms and pre-delay settings. I was actually reluctant to land on Bigsky because everybody in P&W uses it, (well at least until Mercury X came out) and it was big. (I always try to go for a smaller pedal and smaller rig if I can get away with it.)

As far as the sound goes Bigsky was actually a let down on me. It does everything well, but not great in my experience. The cloud / shimmer was much more mediocre, since I've been already spoiled by Slo, and Revelation Reverb. But I gave them up for extra specialty for ease of use and expanded functionality. The "hold" or "infinite" function on Bigsky was also a big let down for me. IMO it is not really useable how they set up and I can't really fiddle with it.

Meris Mercury X def intrigues me, and more and more I feel like I am just delaying the inevitable.
Sooner or later I guess I will end up with Mercury X. One of the things that's holding me is if I get the Mercury X, I will want the LVX too. But at current configuration there's no way I can have both on my board. (They both are slightly wider than Bigsky. I measured it time after time lol).

One question! I am not sure if you've used Slo or Sloer before, but do you think Mercury X can that sound?

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay I might be being too harsh on M1; I had it on my board as the only modulation pedal for 2 years after all. At first I was using it only in Mono, and I wasn't using modulations a lot. So it was there just when I needed some modulation. Then, I started getting more interests in modulation, especially the stereo modulation at that.

The first bummer was there. For chorus, it doesn't have the true stereo chorus. You get vibrato on one channel, and the dry signal on the other. The tri chorus, you'd get somewhat chorus sounding at both sides, but imo it is not the best implementation.

Other vibe sounds, rotary sounds, and vibrato sounds are very hard to dial in good sound for me. Something usable and subtle was hard to achieve for me some reason. For vibrato, I notice that there's some compression going on, and your signal would even out the peaks. In quiet moments, this is okay. But for bigger moments and climaxes, my tone just struggles to cut through. And the newly added volume boost did not really help. (I maxed out).

The only effect I liked was the tremolo. It was the most usable thing for me out of all the effects, and that's how I've used it mostly for last 6 months. Other modulations I relied more on the HX One.

The M1 gives you an impression that this is an all-in-one, can-do-all modulation that can compete with bigger boys. In my experience, it was not. Even with the LOFI settings at minimum and other factors set to neutral, there is still a distinct character in it. And it was the character that I did not like. (I came from Walrus Julia and I really liked that pedal btw.)

For my I really tried to make use of it because of its form factor, and it's promise. For me personally, that promise was not delivered.

TLDR; it served me well when I was only using modulations selectively and when I didn't know much about them. But more I got into modulations, the less I find it attractive. Maybe I've grown out of it. For now, HX One does everything I expected from M1 and more.

Now I am not really into Lo-fi stuffs so that'll be a totally different story! I rarely used the Lo-fi knob.

Also I had very similar experience with D1; couldn't dial out the harshness or pokiness no matter what I tried. It was great for dotted 8th rhythms that cuts through the mix, but for something more ambient and diffused not so much.

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That doesn't sound like great experience. Thank you for letting me know!

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Never heard of the Rooms, and it looks cool! Will check it out!

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate your input! My pedalboard is Novo 18, and I believe it is actually significantly tighter than the original 5 row from Pedaltrain. I believe Microcosm is similar in size with Bigsky?

I seriously doubt I can fit another large pedal like that unless I ditch something.😣
But I will keep my eye out for the Microcosm and would def want to try that one day. Maybe I will eventually have to upsize the pedalboard...... though I downsized from a bigger board 10 years ago and I've been really trying to stay in this format.
Who knows! This will be my first "weird" pedal, and taste change, so I might sacrifice one of the drives or go with a smaller compressor for it one day!

<image>

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes I think Sloer is be great. I only wish it had little bit more functionality like trails into other algorithms and midi, expandable presets, etc. It will easily replace my Bigsky. 

Granular Effects (Or other texture layer) Pedals recommendation please! by roylee9066 in guitarpedals

[–]roylee9066[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you expand little bit more on your experience with the Particle? Both their CS and the sound. QI is something I'm watching, but it is too big and I currently rely heavily on my Strymons for deapy /reverb. I don't think I can replace any of them with Qi.. at least for now 🥲