Using mic cable as instrument cable????

  • Thread starter Thread starter FZfile
  • Start date Start date
FZfile

FZfile

New member
Star-quad mic cable works (I believe from what I've read) by having 2 wires attached to the hot pin and 2 wires attached to the cold pin with a foil or braided ground sleeve to 3, right??

And the these dual twisting pairs cancel out interference on the hot and cold lines through phase/polarity cancellation, yes??

So would it give the same type of benefit to wire an instrument cable with two conductor mic cable????

would the two conductors wired to the one "pin" on each end give similar phase/polarity cancellation effects as in star-quad 4 conductor mic cable........or is there something else in the star-quad cable that make it work??????


-mike
 
It's not only the cable - its the summing at the connections of the receiving end of the signal that matter.... instruments don't split the signal and send it thru the balanced connectors out-of-phase....

There's no real reason they don't or can't run balanced, except for the added cost of additional electronics, but they just don't... generally!
 
Last edited:
Looks like that issue bugged somebody at Kaman; there's an Ovation you can get with an XLR balanced out as well as a 1/4". That's about the only one I know of, though. I run a very short 1/4" cable to a DI box and then have balanced lines to the board from there.
 
Yeah...I didn't think it could be that easy.

Thought I just might have stumbled onto the best kept audio secret in recent memory.


So.....does that mean that in order for star-quad to work you need a special connector(s) or is there a summing circuit in the pre-amp or board connection????

thanks

-mike:)
 
Many synths and keyboards these days have balanced outputs.
 
FZfile said:
Thought I just might have stumbled onto the best kept audio secret in recent memory.


So.....does that mean that in order for star-quad to work you need a special connector(s) or is there a summing circuit in the pre-amp or board connection????

thanks

-mike:)
Click to expand...
The signal being sent out is split into 3 - ground, the normal polarity signal, and the inverted-polarity signal.....

At the receiving end, you need a summing device to recombine the normal and inverted signals.

ie --- it AIN'T the cable, it's how it's split and re-joined.... the cable matters only in that it must be able to carry all the signal components....
 
littledog said:
Many synths and keyboards these days have balanced outputs.
Click to expand...
Yes... I suppose that's true... being a guitarist myself I immediately thought of guitars/basses when I saw the word "instruments"! ;)
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Yes... I suppose that's true... being a guitarist myself I immediately thought of guitars/basses when I saw the word "instruments"! ;)
Click to expand...

That's understandable. I have the same problem... for instance: I NEVER think of a guitarist when someone mentions the word "musician"! :D :D ;)
 
Ha!

:D

I hear DJs are musicians, but do turntables have balanced connections now? ;) :p
 
I wouldn't exactly call balanced inputs a well-kept secret.

I think there were one or more Les Paul model that had a low-Z output, which might also have been balanced. Some of these also had an XLR input for plugging in a gooseneck mic. An actual Les Paul (the person) bit of design, I think.

The hard part is finding a guitar amp with a balanced, low-Z input.
 
Some basses are balanced (eg. Alembic, but who wants to been seen playing that :D), there's even a brand (EBS) that makes amplifiers with Phantom power on their input jack, so you can run their stomp boxes from it (and they supply a diagram to 'phantomize' your axe).

But, no general rule there.

BTW: balanced DJ's ??? What's next, drummers with timecode ? :D :D

Herwig
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top