1/4" cable confusion

N

noground

New member
Everything in my studio here used to have balanced ins and outs until I sprung for this RNC. I see that it will only accept unbalanced signals on the inout. So I need a cord for this.

I have one of those top of the line Monster instrument cables (TS to TS). Will this be optimal for this connection or is there some reason to get something TS to TS that is specifically designed to be a "patch" or "interconnect" cable? (maybe it has something to do with wire guage or impedence or something).

If this "instrument" cable is fine for this application, then why is it called this?

Thanks for any help!!

-Matt
 
You should be fine using a normal instrument (TS) cable for this application. You are just connecting a line level output to your line level RNC. This explanation may help.

Why is the RNC unbalanced instead of balanced?
You'd think the answer to this one would be a simple "to keep costs down". Although that's one of the reasons, there's another reason that's less obvious and the primary one: we designed the RNC to be used in home studios (like ours) made up primarily of unbalanced pieces. So, we designed it to easily interface to equipment usually found in the intended environment. For example, many home studios use mixing boards that have single Tip-Ring-Sleeve insert points on their input channels. We thought that it'd be neat, convenient and show unambiguous support for this studio type by allowing the RNC to be hooked directly to these inserts with single TRS cables. If the I/Os were balanced, we wouldn't be able to do that.
Click to expand...

This makes it easy to use channel inserts on a mixer since it is mono with the tip being the send and ring being the return to back into the channel strip and out of the main or aux bus.
 
Thanks for the info. I figured that cable would be ok.

Just wondering, does anyone know what the difference is between an "instrument" and a "patch" cable when they are both 1/4" TS?

The only thing I've seen is that the "instrument" cables are more expensive.
 
I seem to forget all the really technical stuff but I believe Instrument cables are designed to carry a signal with different impedance and they have some shielding.

If it sounds good your are probably okay but I would just spend $20 on some decent patch cables.
 
Unfortunately I'm not sure how you define patch and instrument cables - sorry that's what being European does for you!

If you are just talking about the length of the cable, a foot or so, as opposed to thirty feet, then the main difference is a thing called "capacitive reactance" - sorry for the terminology. All forms of co-axial cable (a cable where one, or more conductor(s) is surrounded by a another conductor, in this case the shielding) behave to some extent like a capacitor. The longer the cable, the more capacitive characteristics it displays.

Because a cable also has resistance, it behaves like a low pass filter - removing the high end frequencies of the signal. The longer the cable, the more top end you loose. Good cable has a low "capacitance per foot" (or per metre, if you are European) as it uses more expensive materials, tighter twisting of the central conductor, thicker and better isolation between the conductors - hence it costs more.

If you are using XLR connectors:

Converting a balanced output to an unbalanced input is no problem.
For XLR to TR plugs, connect the wire from pin 2 (the hot, or in-phase signal) to the Tip, connect the wire from pin 1 (the ground return) to the Ring.

The wire on pin 3 (the cold, or out of phase signal) of the XLR is slightly trickier as it depends on how the balanced output circuit is designed and how input jacks are grounded. I would say first try connecting pin 3 of the XLR to the Ring (as this should give the best hum protection). If you notice any buzzing or signal degredation, then cut the wire at the XLR plug end or use a cable with a single central conductor.

Sorry if this is long-winded, but I hope it has been of some help.

Regards,

John
 
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