TRS, TS, inserts, patchbays and sound card

[mathieujohnson]

Hi,
I was wondering what was the difference between TRS and TS, while I know TRS is balanced and TS unbalanced, I was wondering wich was best, or if both will give the same result.

I have a soundcraft mixer, not that is actually important with my question though i thought i would add this info.
Anyway, so from a mic, the sound is mono, unless its one of those stereo mics like rhode makes, anyway. In the XLR cable, wich is balanced, there is one pin that is for the phantom power, one for the signal, and the other one is what? actually, I read that a balanced would be cold, hot and signal ground. This is the same thing for TRS cables. I understand how you'd want a TRS cable for your inserts, or if you got like a headphone cable wich you'd want it to be stereo. (the insert having the send+return)
So what is the advantage of having balanced cables?
and i'm probably wrong in what i just said so if someone can explain every aspect of the cables and what each connectors from the cable do, in as many situations as possible.
Thanx

oh yeah, i also have a patchbay, its a furman, with 1/4" front and RCA back, rca making it unbalanced since it only has signal+signal ground. anyway, correct me if i'm wrong.
I'd like to know all about the differences.
Thanx a bunch
Mathieu

 

[producerkid]

Okay, first to explain the balanced/unbalanced part. A balanced cable contains both a positive and negative signal, as well as grounding. Yes, an XLR cable is a balanced medium. The pins are indeed cold, hot, and ground (or -/+/G). The purpose of this is to provide a good, clean connection as well as RFI (radio frequency interference) protection, noise cancellation, and so forth. Whereas, an unbalanced connection only offers a signal ground and a hot connection. So, really, the the redundancy of the extra cold pin is kind of like a humbucker pickup in a guitar. Not so much phase cancellation, but the principal is the same. Balanced cabling is the only way you want to go for microphones, and prefferably your monitoring connections as well.

Now, for TRS and TS cables..... a TRS cable can be used for multiple things. One purpose allows for stereo connection, like in the case of a headphone cable. The tip is L+, the ring being R+, and the sleeve being the common ground. Yes, insert points on most mixers, and side chains on most preamps and compressors use TRS connections. With these setups, the tip is send, the ring is return, and again the sleeve is common. Most times, insert cables have a TRS plug on one end, and two TS plugs on the other end for connection of the in/outs on the outbaord gear.

So for example, if your using a compressor with a mixing board or an interface with insert points, you will need a TRS-to TS cable to take advantage of the inserts. Hope this helps you out.

the kid

 

[mathieujohnson]

it did help, i'm just still wondering if its a big deal to have part of my cabling unbalanced and part of it balanced.
Like i have my balanced microphone cables goes into my mixer wich accepts balanced cables (obviously) then i take the insert point bam, i have unbalanced signal? then into my patchbay, still unbalanced my patchbay is front 1/4" and back RCA plugs, then i take rca to unbalanced 1/4" into my soundcard, 1/4" unbalanced to my patchbay and back into my mixer to my monitors and everything else.
So, well, only my mic cables are balanced, is this a big deal, like am I missing a lot of sound quality with a setup like mine or is this actually totally normal?
If its not, what part of my setup should I change to balanced?

would plugging a TRS cable into a guitar change the sound instead of a TS??!?

Thanx again
Mathieu