Unbalenced Outputs into unbalenced-balenced Input
Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:54 am
Hello everyone, was wondering whether I could pick some of your beautiful brains.
I have gotten hold a of a really smart late 70ies MIDAS mixer which I want to use for some recordings.
Now, the Desk is a 12/4 and also has 2 Foldback sends, which gives me 6 balanced outputs. In order to use some of the other Mic Preamps I thought I'd take the signal from the insert points (unbalenced). Theses will be interfaced with either the Line Ins on a Digi 001/002 or a Focusrite ISA428.
I was wondering which of the following wiring solutions would be preferable from a technical point of view:
A) take the unbalanced lines into the inputs (the 001/002 provides gain options to get decent levels. the ISA428 is a streight balanced line input) and put up with extra interference due to unbalenced lines (not that I expect that to be much of a problem since most stuff is louder Rock/Indie stuff.
B) Use a 4/6/8-way DI BOX to balance the signal and connect the units balanced. Though this seems like the better Idea and was my intitial idea I was now wondering whether the cheap Active DI-Box (mains powered) I could afford at the moment would actually harm the signal more than do it any good. Would the relatively high output from a Mic Preamp be alright inside a DI-Box designed for Instrument inputs?
Any thoughts other ideas how to go about this on a budget and without a decent workshop to make my own custom balancing unit (or is this quite streight forward? I was going to have a go at re-capping the desk myself so I am not sure if I want to plan more adventures in Electronics for now).
Hope all is well
Robert
I have gotten hold a of a really smart late 70ies MIDAS mixer which I want to use for some recordings.
Now, the Desk is a 12/4 and also has 2 Foldback sends, which gives me 6 balanced outputs. In order to use some of the other Mic Preamps I thought I'd take the signal from the insert points (unbalenced). Theses will be interfaced with either the Line Ins on a Digi 001/002 or a Focusrite ISA428.
I was wondering which of the following wiring solutions would be preferable from a technical point of view:
A) take the unbalanced lines into the inputs (the 001/002 provides gain options to get decent levels. the ISA428 is a streight balanced line input) and put up with extra interference due to unbalenced lines (not that I expect that to be much of a problem since most stuff is louder Rock/Indie stuff.
B) Use a 4/6/8-way DI BOX to balance the signal and connect the units balanced. Though this seems like the better Idea and was my intitial idea I was now wondering whether the cheap Active DI-Box (mains powered) I could afford at the moment would actually harm the signal more than do it any good. Would the relatively high output from a Mic Preamp be alright inside a DI-Box designed for Instrument inputs?
Any thoughts other ideas how to go about this on a budget and without a decent workshop to make my own custom balancing unit (or is this quite streight forward? I was going to have a go at re-capping the desk myself so I am not sure if I want to plan more adventures in Electronics for now).
Hope all is well
Robert