Premier Rock Forum

Bubber wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 12:34 pm

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2023 6:49 am

VaticanShotglass wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2023 4:12 pm So what’s the process like buying from an online music retailer, like Thomann, from the US? Fees? Hassles?

There’s some hardware and stuff I just have a hard time finding in the states, like one of those Les Trem II things.

Oh man, do it. I was looking for a Beyerdynamic M160 for forever and they were always $799 or something, unless I wanted to buy used at not that big of a discount, like $500 +. I checked google shopping comparisons all the time and never found any great deals, until one day I found them shipped new from Thomann at $589.00.

Hey, I realize I am going on a side quest here responding about your M160 hunt, but someone on this forum recently mentioned that some store in NY State (maybe Alto?) apparently is a source of B-stock M160s at a good price, and I got my own (more than a decade ago) B-stock from Full Compass in Madison, an excellent deal, working great. Go find some B-stock!

For sure, but I think I got a brand new one for the 2023 price of an Alto b-stock or used model. I think they just can’t be found for as cheaply as they used to be

LBx wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:54 am I wasn't crazy about how separate the wet and dry sounded with a prior MXR box. Maybe a Radial A/B/Y going into two amplifier channels at once is a better sounding option? One clean and the other with the Rat or something dirty blended to taste?

LBx wrote: Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:55 am [ /hobby shit related ]

Live and spend and learn:

Doing the ABY wet/dry thang into a two input, one channel amp doesn't work!

So, in place of a blending at the amp inputs... a LS-2 in A+B will achieve the identical result ya?

LBx wrote: So, in place of a blending at the amp inputs... a LS-2 in A+B will achieve the identical result ya?

Yep! You could use the LS-2 in a number of ways here;
to split your signal and send to two amps
to take your signal and add an effects loop using A or B volume as a wet/dry blend with a single output
to split your signal into two signal chains using both effects loops and mix both output volumes in the pedal

I'm sure there are more ways it could be routed too. The LS-2 can solve so many problems, the only thing it can't do from that video is reverse polarity. My wife is currently using an LS-2 to run two lapsteels (Maj and Min) to one output with the ability to mute the least used one by footswitch.

My home studio is in a little apartment area upstairs at one end of the house. Our downstairs area in the other end has more space and sounds better, which I think would be great to use when nobody is home… just push the couch back and voila.

What do I need to connect my microphone to in order to bring the signal from downstairs to my preamps upstairs? A long snake? Can a mic cable carry a signal that far?

It’s not like I live in a castle at all, but it seems kind of far for a single cable. It’d be much shorter if I was interested in running cables through the walls, but that’s too much trouble for what I need here.

I have a similar deal at my house and would use a 100’ snake(sking) with no issue. Although now I’d probably just track on my Zoom H-4n in the nicer room and transfer the files. The difference in my room acoustics is a lot bigger than the difference in preamps.

Yes a long decent-quality mic cable or snake can handle this without issue. Measure what you need and get the shortest possible length but w/ some spare slack obv.

No idea what length you're dealing with but if it makes you feel more reassured, 100' snakes are quite common (and those have the THINNEST possible wires).

Garth wrote: Tue Oct 03, 2023 4:22 pm Yes a long decent-quality mic cable or snake can handle this without issue. Measure what you need and get the shortest possible length but w/ some spare slack obv.

No idea what length you're dealing with but if it makes you feel more reassured, 100' snakes are quite common (and those have the THINNEST possible wires).

I'm using those Amazon cheap XLR to Cat5 boxes and going through about 200' of shielded Cat6 through the walls every day and haven't had an issue at all. Good Quality XLR mic cable is rated for around 300' I think. Rumor is in Cat5 you can go farther , but I haven't fully tested it. So far, the Mics/Lines signals over Cat5 has been a pretty great solution.

I had initially thought about suggesting the cat5 solutions in answer to the original question I but haven't had any actual experience w/ them. Considering how cheap and ubiquitous network cable is, it's been an intriguing solution for sure. At my day job, I have made probably over a thousand network cables by hand over the years so the idea of having one that goes to your exact desired length is another plus for these, just need a crimper tool and that shouldn't cost more than 20 bucks at this point for a decent one.

Unfortunately, what ISN'T cheap right now are the actual converter boxes to go from cat5 to XLR or TRS. You could certainly purchase bigger snakes with a lot more channels on the used market for a lot less scratch than the amount of 4-channel converter boxes you'd need on both ends. I haven't opened one up but I am curious if this is something that folks in our group could DIY or if Monoprice or Donner/Mooer etc would be getting into this.

Garth wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2023 7:53 am Unfortunately, what ISN'T cheap right now are the actual converter boxes to go from cat5 to XLR or TRS.

There's nothing special about these. They're totally passive (or at least should be). Just RJ45 to XLR:

Garth wrote: Wed Oct 04, 2023 7:53 am
Unfortunately, what ISN'T cheap right now are the actual converter boxes to go from cat5 to XLR or TRS. You could certainly purchase bigger snakes with a lot more channels on the used market for a lot less scratch than the amount of 4-channel converter boxes you'd need on both ends. I haven't opened one up but I am curious if this is something that folks in our group could DIY or if Monoprice or Donner/Mooer etc would be getting into this.

We have a bunch of the rack mount version of these and a few of these little sub snake breakouts. The rack was $45 on Amazon but I cant find it now. There is nothing but wire inside so as long as the shielding is connected well it is good to go. Haven't had an issue in almost 2 years with the cheap stuff. Like Nate said, You could build them easily. When it is time to re-do my basement, I'm putting Shielded Cat5E everywhere and will just drop these little boxes where I need audio/video to land.