Female XLR to 1/4" male cablemaking

[dethride]

I want to hook up my Nady phantom power unit/AKG 220 set-up into my TASCAM 106 or 3440 TEAC. Got female XLR end and have my own 1/4" cable and I want to solder them together. I found an online diagram, but I'm new to some of the terms and like "balanced" and "unbalanced". (link http://www.mediacollege.com/audio/connection/xlr-jack-mono.html) Before I make my cables, is an "unbalanced" cable what I need to hook up my mics to my equipment?

 

[sweetbeats]

No.

Your 220 is a balanced mic. That means there are three conductors needed in the cable. The ground, and two signal carrying conductors.

Is your 1/4" cable three conductor? You can tell by looking at the ends and if you see two rings in each there are three sections, one for each conductor: the Tip, the Ring, and then the biggest part called the Shield. Those parts make up the term "TRS" and that's a balanced or "stereo" 1/4" plug ("stereo" because it's the same plug we use for a set of headphones right?)

If you just see one ring then it is just a "TS" cable (i.e. Tip and Shield). That's an unbalanced cable. Won't work for your mic, or at least it won't sound good at all.

Look at your XLR plug and you'll see numbers by the pins, 1, 2 and 3.

Typically here's what goes to what on a TRS <--> XLR cable:

pin 1 <--> shield
pin 2 <--> tip
pin 3 <--> ring

So the Nady phantom supply has 1/4" jacks on it??

 

[dethride]

Sounds like I don't have the right cable. It's a mono guitar cable I thought I could use. My Nady has XLR outputs only but my TASCAM 106 and 3440 TEAC don't. I need the right connection to hook up my mics and it's sunday!!! Nobody's open! I want to play! I know what I want to accomplish, just don't know the cable/connector to get.

 

[dethride]

Went to SOS and read some good stuff:

"Q What's the best way to connect a balanced source to an unbalanced input?

You'll need to check your equipment manual for this one, as the way you wire the cable depends on the design of the balanced output stage. In some cases you need to link the cold and screen pins at the balanced end (if the output stage is 'fully floating') while in others you must leave the cold pin disconnected. In situations that require the latter approach, you will probably find that the signal level is 6dB lower than when using the equipment balanced. This is because you're only using one half of the signal from the output stage."

I know I'll get it eventually, but right now it's daunting.