What Am I Doing Wrong?

F

Foo-bu

New member
So today I purchased a new TRS snake to clean up a bunch of cables at the back of my rack and it inspired me to do a checkup to see how good signal is flowing through my patchbay. I was surprised to find out that when I sent tone at -20db from my Digi002 to my preamps/compressors (set to unity gain), it was coming back into pro tools at a significantly lower level. Any suggestions?

My setup is as follows:

Digi002

Preamps:
- Joe Meek VC3
- Joe Meek VC6
- DBX586
- Behringer ADA8000 A/D and D/A Converter (connected via lightpipe)

Compressors:
- DBX 163X
- Behringer Composer (x2)

All the gear EXCEPT for the inputs and outputs of the Digi002 are connected via TS Cables into a Behringer Ultrapatch Pro (PX2000) Unbalanced Patchbay. The Digi002 ins/outs are connected with my new TRS snake into the patchbay.

I'm assuming that my problem lies in the fact that I'm using a mix of TRS and TS cables and the fact that the patchbay is unbalanced.

I'm also wondering if part of the reason is because I'm not running the preamps through any A/D converter.

Any insight would be awesome. Thanks!!!
 
Would I be better off with patching all of my digi002 in/outs with an unbalanced snake then? or would it make no difference since the input and outputs are supposed to be balanced?
 
Foo-bu said:
Would I be better off with patching all of my digi002 in/outs with an unbalanced snake then? or would it make no difference since the input and outputs are supposed to be balanced?
Click to expand...

Once the connection is unbalanced at one point it's unbalanced all the way through. The patchbay is unbalanced so anything that gets connected there becomes unbalanced no matter what cable you use or what the equipment has for connectors. This would be a good time for you to check out Rane Note 110.
 
Analog signals that read 0 on analog meters read -18 on most digital meters after A/D conversion. It's just like how 0 degrees C is equal to 32 degrees F. The digital meters inside of Protools don't use the same "units" as the analog meters along your patchbay cables.

Is that what happened? Are your Protools meters reading 18 db less than your patchbay meters? If so, your signal did not actually weaken.
 
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