First Bar Gig - inputs, outputs, and cable questions

[renton_marx]

Hi everyone

I'm actually playing my second bar gig as a vinyl DJ, but last time my sound was highly compromised. I'm used to using RCAs (red and whites) for my home rig, but the bar I'm playing has a Fender SRM 6302 with six 1/4" inputs. The only cable I had to connect to it was an RCA to 1/4" mono Y adapter, so I had to double up the right speaker as the cue for the left to get sound out the right, which caused havoc if a track I was mixing started to pan.
Getting on to my question, my mixer also has a balanced 1/4" master output, which I'm told has better sound quality than the RCA output I used before anyway. At the risk of sounding stupid, a) are the two balanced master jacks still left and right, hence the name; b) if so, does that mean I need a 2-mono 1/4" to a single stereo 1/4" adapter and I just jack into line 1 on the Fender, or do I run two mono lines from each master on the mixer to lines 1 and 2 on the Fender power mixer; and c) does the balanced master output really have better sound quality than the RCA?

Thank you in advance for any help I may recieve
rm

 

[daav]

Hi everyone

I'm actually playing my second bar gig as a vinyl DJ, but last time my sound was highly compromised. I'm used to using RCAs (red and whites) for my home rig, but the bar I'm playing has a Fender SRM 6302 with six 1/4" inputs. The only cable I had to connect to it was an RCA to 1/4" mono Y adapter, so I had to double up the right speaker as the cue for the left to get sound out the right, which caused havoc if a track I was mixing started to pan.
Getting on to my question, my mixer also has a balanced 1/4" master output, which I'm told has better sound quality than the RCA output I used before anyway. At the risk of sounding stupid, a) are the two balanced master jacks still left and right, hence the name; b) if so, does that mean I need a 2-mono 1/4" to a single stereo 1/4" adapter and I just jack into line 1 on the Fender, or do I run two mono lines from each master on the mixer to lines 1 and 2 on the Fender power mixer; and c) does the balanced master output really have better sound quality than the RCA?

Thank you in advance for any help I may recieve
rm

I think your biggest issue is that youare trying to put a mixer into a powered mixer, and it is confusing things. Assuming you are comfortable with your mixer (which I am also assuming is a turntable-oriented DJ mixer, rather than a mixer that a full band would be using with multiple inputs, effects loops, etc) then your best option is probabaly to bypass the mixer capability of the fender and go from your stereo 1/4" out from your mixer directly to a line in on the fender mixer. I googled the fender ands it looks like it has RCA in and out (probabaly labelled tape in/out). Done most simple you can probabaly jsut plug your RCA into the Tape in.
OTherwise there is most likely line in options for and effects send you could use, or even just use the 1/4" stereo to split L and R mono cable you mention to go to input 1 and 2 of the fender mixer, and pan each track accordinly.

That should work,
Daav.

 

[renton_marx]

I sort of agree; I'm not interested in any of the EQs on the Fender power amp, I'm merely concerned with maintaining a quality stereo singnal from start to finish. My mixer has two 1/4" jacks for the balanced master output, which I'm assuming is for left and right. My biggest issue is if the 1/4" lines in on the power mixer are stereo jacks - if so wouldn't it be the simplest to use a Y-adapter to connect my two lines out to their line 1 in? Or are they likely to be mono jacks, in which case CAN I just run two mono lines to line 1 and 2, or would this just result in a mixed mono sound comprised of L and R being blended by the power mixer (as I would suspect)?
Setting all the 1/4" questions aside, I saw the RCA Tape In and Out when I first set up, but it has lines in and out using them for God-knows-what (I'm guessing a karaoke machine) that were being held apart by a book of matches, so I didn't really want to tamper with or place my trust in those RCAs. The bar owner is less than informative in the matter.
Another point of confusion is the connection between the power mixer and the speakers. The speakers have four 1/4" input jacks, two labeled "balanced" and the other two labeled something else. The Fender (power mixer) has four 1/4" outputs on the back, two labeled "PA1" and two labeled "PA2". Are the four outputs on the fender for running 4 speakers at 4 ohms (i.e. each speaker needs one output) or does each speaker need both jacks as like a send and return, limiting me to 2 speakers at 8 ohms? Either way, which input on the speakers do I want to use? Is it the "balanced" one if I'm using the balanaced output on my dj mixer? If so, why are there two jacks (left and right doesn't make much sense?!?)
Sorry if these concerns seem innane or confusing, I just want proper stereo sound this time around, so I'm trying to figure out what/which cables I need to buy before the show. Normally I would just start plugging things in and figure all this out myself, but I'd rather avoid dragging two grand in delicate equipment to and from a seedy bar needlessly.

Thanks again for any replies.

 

[daav]

I sort of agree; I'm not interested in any of the EQs on the Fender power amp, I'm merely concerned with maintaining a quality stereo singnal from start to finish. My mixer has two 1/4" jacks for the balanced master output, which I'm assuming is for left and right. My biggest issue is if the 1/4" lines in on the power mixer are stereo jacks - if so wouldn't it be the simplest to use a Y-adapter to connect my two lines out to their line 1 in? Or are they likely to be mono jacks, in which case CAN I just run two mono lines to line 1 and 2, or would this just result in a mixed mono sound comprised of L and R being blended by the power mixer (as I would suspect)?
Setting all the 1/4" questions aside, I saw the RCA Tape In and Out when I first set up, but it has lines in and out using them for God-knows-what (I'm guessing a karaoke machine) that were being held apart by a book of matches, so I didn't really want to tamper with or place my trust in those RCAs. The bar owner is less than informative in the matter.
Another point of confusion is the connection between the power mixer and the speakers. The speakers have four 1/4" input jacks, two labeled "balanced" and the other two labeled something else. The Fender (power mixer) has four 1/4" outputs on the back, two labeled "PA1" and two labeled "PA2". Are the four outputs on the fender for running 4 speakers at 4 ohms (i.e. each speaker needs one output) or does each speaker need both jacks as like a send and return, limiting me to 2 speakers at 8 ohms? Either way, which input on the speakers do I want to use? Is it the "balanced" one if I'm using the balanaced output on my dj mixer? If so, why are there two jacks (left and right doesn't make much sense?!?)
Sorry if these concerns seem innane or confusing, I just want proper stereo sound this time around, so I'm trying to figure out what/which cables I need to buy before the show. Normally I would just start plugging things in and figure all this out myself, but I'd rather avoid dragging two grand in delicate equipment to and from a seedy bar needlessly.

Thanks again for any replies.

Others can correct me, but it ought to work like this:
Take a mono 1/4 inch cable from the left out of your mixer and put it into the 1st input of the powered mixer (should be mono). Pan this all the way left.

Take a mono 1/4 inch cable from the right out of your mixer and put it into the 2nd input of the powered mixer, pan this all the way right.

THat should handle your stereo image just fine. I doubt if any line ins on that mixer would accept a stereo jack unless they were labeled as such, and doing it as above should be pretty foolproof. I think messing around with a Y cable is likely to do exactly what you don;t want-- to combine your stero image into one mono one.

As for the speaker hook up, I am not sure about the speaker resistance expectations of that mixer, but if if the bar uses them with the mixer and uses just two speakers, then jsut plug the left PA1 out into the unbalanced input on the left speaker and the right PA1 out into the unbalanced right input. That should do the trick.

Good luck,
Daav .

 

[renton_marx]

That's a very very good idea. Assuming each line has a balance/pan, which I don't remember, but probably. Do you really think the lines in on the Fender power amp woundn't be stereo?

 

[daav]

That's a very very good idea. Assuming each line has a balance/pan, which I don't remember, but probably. Do you really think the lines in on the Fender power amp woundn't be stereo?

It really depends on what kinds of line-in they are (there may be mono ins that are part of a effects loop for a single channel and stereo ins for sub-mixes, etc), the descriptions i gave should bypass any questions one way or another. I'd be really surprosed if there was a mixer where each channel did not have the ability to pan.

Daav