Wiring XLR connectors from RCAs

  • Thread starter Thread starter RideTheCrash
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RideTheCrash

RideTheCrash

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Started from this thread:
http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=185197

Alright, so I want to take my snake which is 1/4" to male RCA and chop off the RCA to replace it with a XLR (only two cables from the snake though). I have done some searching online and am not totally sure on some things, so if someone could clear this up, it'd be cool:

In another forum someone said:
Pin 2 > RCA tip
Pin 3> RCA shield (ground)
Pin 1> not connected

But, on other sites I have seen pins 1 and 3 get wired to the ground, not just pin 3.
 
Okay this page:
http://www.vandenhul.com/artpap/wiring17.htm

Is pin one not connected to anything? I can't tell if that brown line is supposed to be a cable or something. And this page: http://www.vandenhul.com/artpap/wiring18.htm, says there is two kinds of cables (single and twin). I'm not sure what my cabling is, but is my idea still doable? It's just confusing because I figure "okay, this was *originally* male 1/4" to male RCA...so what wires would be in the cable when I cut it off so that I could make it 1/4" to XLR. Excellent site though.

I'm trying to get my head around this, my apologies.
 
Why don't you save the snake from the choping up part, and just buy rca to XLR adaptors.
 
Because I can never find any around here. But I guess the better reason is, because the snake is cheap and somehow the second cable I want to chop, had it's connector broken off. The whole metal piece came out of the plastic molding and I have no idea how it was even connected in the first place. So instead of chopping that off and putting on a new RCA jack, I might as well chop them off and connect XLRs.
 
If you have an RCA-RCA cable right now, it's very highly likely that it is single conductor + shield. You are never going to be able to wire this for balanced use . The site linked, the first diagram the signal goes to pin 2 and the shield to pin 1. That gives you an unbalanced connector, it will work OK for connecting line level gear (albeit unbalanced). If you get too much hum, well then you'll need to get a balanced (2 conductor) cable.
 
The cable is currently 1/4" to RCA. My gear is all pretty much unbalanced, so I"m not too concerned about whether it is balanced or not, though the XLR inputs on the Delta *are* balanced. I'm not sure whether it being 1/4" to RCA would mean it has two conductor cables or not though. The cable is just running from a mixer to a soundcard, so it's all line level.
 
Tell me what you are hooking up going into the snake and whats coming out and I'll give you a hookup pinout.....
 
Well for this particular snake, it is used as direct outs for each channel on my mixer (well, the first 8 channels on my mixer). So the 1/4" end is plugged halfway into the insert out (as to create the direct out effect) and the other end is hooked up the Delta 1010lt soundcard. The first two inputs on the Delta are XLR, the rest are female RCA. The first two XLR inputs are what I'm looking at, so I want two of the snake cables to be female XLR (instead of RCA) so it'll connect the male XLR inputs on the Delta.
 
Pin 2 of the XLR should be hot, so that should be tied to the center of the RCA cable. Then pin 1 and 3 should be tied together and that of course would go to the shield of the cable, IMVHO.
 
RideTheCrash said:
Well for this particular snake, it is used as direct outs for each channel on my mixer (well, the first 8 channels on my mixer). So the 1/4" end is plugged halfway into the insert out (as to create the direct out effect) and the other end is hooked up the Delta 1010lt soundcard. The first two inputs on the Delta are XLR, the rest are female RCA. The first two XLR inputs are what I'm looking at, so I want two of the snake cables to be female XLR (instead of RCA) so it'll connect the male XLR inputs on the Delta.
Click to expand...

Okay. One problem here.

I believe that on the Delta 1010LT, those two XLR inputs go to a mic preamps. I don't think they can be line level inputs at all.

So, you don't WANT the insert outs (which are LINE LEVEL outputs) from your console to go to those XLRs (which are mic preamp inputs) at all! Trust me, it would be a hassle and most likely will not sound so good.

You have 8 line inputs on the 1010LT. Do you think you really NEED two more inputs? If so, just use the mic preamps built into the 1010LT and call it good.
 
Hehehe, ford those XLR inputs CAN be switched to line level. On the card itself there are jumpers for each of the XLR ins, you can change them seperately.
 
Yes, SRR is correct. There is two mic level and two line level setting that can be set with the jumpers, which I have done. Also, the first two are XLRs, are the other 6 are line level RCAs connections. So without the first two, I'd only have 6 line level inputs. The extra 2 inputs/outputs are if you want to use the optical/MIDI stuff I think, which I have no use for.
 
Simple then. RCA tip to Pin 2. RCA sleeve to Pin 1. Don't run anything to pin 3.
 
Okay. Is there any reason everyone says a different way as to how to wire it? Or does it matter?
 
The extra 2 I/O is via the S/PDIF connections.

Sorry for the confusion. I should have read the specs completely before I spoke up! :o
 
Okay, I've attached some pictures of the RCA ends of the snake. The gray one is the busted one and the black one is the other one I want to solder an XLR connecter to. I apologize for the washout in some of the pics, we have a new camera which has crazy flash, hence the red tint in the one picture (me trying to diffuse it).

So I posted this because I'm a bit confused. The RCA bit that came out looks like it has one solder connection on the end (broken off of course) and the cable it came from is just plastic casing, I don't see anything. I haven't cut the ends off yet of course, but it makes me wonder what will be there judging from what I see now. I'm assuming there has be two wires for a tip and sleeve in there though. Just wondering...
 

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You'll probably find a center conducter with a braid shield around it...
 
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