The Rack seemed like the logical place to post this

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seeker of Rock
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Seeker of Rock

Seeker of Rock

Let us be unburdened by that which has been ?
I have a DM Pro drum module that I'm running each of the six outputs through Joemeek pres and a compressor (MQ3, VC3, and MC2). Four inputs, two of the DM Pro outs are going straight into the Mackie 8 bus pres. I have about 20' of cable run, angles included, to get to the board. My preamp rack is halfway between the DM Pro and the board, so obviously I am running four of the six DM Pro outs about 10' into the Joemeek units, then another 10', realistically probably 7', into the board. My question is this...assuming that the DM Pro outputs are unbalanced as are the Joemeek units I've mentioned, will I still experience signal noise from running the entire 20' give or take unbalanced, or does running 10' into the Joemeek units, especially the preamps or two of the units, rejuvenate the signal integrity midway?
Just in the process of plugging everything up in the new chamber and wondering if anyone has some input. :) :)
 
You won't know until you plug it in. And going back to balanced won't fix any noise that gets into the unbalanced cables. :(

I would say it's a fair bet you won't have any problems in any case.
 
Seeker of Rock said:
I have a DM Pro drum module that I'm running each of the six outputs through Joemeek pres and a compressor (MQ3, VC3, and MC2). Four inputs, two of the DM Pro outs are going straight into the Mackie 8 bus pres. I have about 20' of cable run, angles included, to get to the board. My preamp rack is halfway between the DM Pro and the board, so obviously I am running four of the six DM Pro outs about 10' into the Joemeek units, then another 10', realistically probably 7', into the board. My question is this...assuming that the DM Pro outputs are unbalanced as are the Joemeek units I've mentioned, will I still experience signal noise from running the entire 20' give or take unbalanced, or does running 10' into the Joemeek units, especially the preamps or two of the units, rejuvenate the signal integrity midway?
Just in the process of plugging everything up in the new chamber and wondering if anyone has some input. :) :)
Click to expand...
Balanced signal was invented by the phone company in order to accomplish long cable runs without Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) getting into the cable and causing noise (a buzz.) This usually isn't a noticeable problem until you have a cable run over about 75 feet in length. The exception would be if you have something very near the cable that causes a strong RFI. At 10 or 20 feet, I highly doubt that anyone could ever tell the difference between audio coming through a balanced cable and that coming through unbalanced. Well, except for the usual signal level differences they offer.

I'd say in most cases in a studio you are fine no matter which you use.

EDIT: Balanced cabling doesn't make the signal quality any better. It just uses a transformer at the end to filter out the interference, to restore it to the way it was before it entered the cable.

RD
 
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An unbalanced cable run is unbalanced for the entire length and there's no benefit in splitting the run with an unbalanced device... But... as noted above... a twenty foot run shouldn't require a balanced signal... you should be fine
 
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