Become a Site Supporter and Never see Ads again!
« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: attenuating cables/inline box?  (Read 5718 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline paulrennix

  • Site Supporter
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Regular
  • *
  • Posts: 86
  • Gender: Male
  • nobody in 04!
    • www.tapers.org
attenuating cables/inline box?
« on: April 20, 2005, 10:23:43 PM »
I want to use some attenuating cables or a box that I can "dial down" a hot soundboard (analog) feed (RCA).

Suggestions?
Logged
www.tapers.org
wierd *nix configs > music centric. Will work for AC or bacon!

Offline dklein

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1184
  • Gender: Male
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2005, 01:34:15 AM »
I've been mulling over the same.  Tired of bringing along a UA-5 & battery just so I can use the damn thing as a volume pot.

I'm just trying to decide on connectors, pad levels and # of settings.  Were you thinking single/multiple fixed pads or variable?
Logged
KM 184 > V2 > R4
older recording gear: UA-5  / emagic A62 / laptop / JB3 / CSB / AD20 / Sharp MT-90 / Sony MDS-JE510
Playback: Pioneer DV-578 > Lucid DA 9624 >many funny little british boxes > Linn Isobarik PMS

Offline paulrennix

  • Site Supporter
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Regular
  • *
  • Posts: 86
  • Gender: Male
  • nobody in 04!
    • www.tapers.org
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2005, 09:48:58 AM »
I'm just looking at the options right now.

For connectors, I think RCA would work as if I'm coming out of the board XLR I bring it down to RCA anyway.  Variable would be best (ie a knob) but if cables would do the job in 3-6dB incriments I could just get a couple of them...

Logged
www.tapers.org
wierd *nix configs > music centric. Will work for AC or bacon!

Offline Lil Kim Jong-Il

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6498
  • large Marge sent me
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #3 on: April 21, 2005, 11:01:39 AM »
There are quite a few options for selectable XLR inline attenuators.  I would recommend those.  Put them straight into the board and run your XLR>RCA behind them to your deck.  The benefit of the XLR attenuators is that you can also use them with mics ahead of your preamp.   

These will work well http://www.micsupply.com/shureatten.htm.

The ones I use I can't find anymore but they are selectable in increments from 2db to 32db.

Logged
The first rule of amateur neurosurgery club is .... I forget.

Offline dklein

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1184
  • Gender: Male
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2005, 01:46:27 PM »
hmmm....several of the boards I patch out of use 1/4" unbalanced.  It sounds like those pads require a balanced signal to work properly.  I want an all-in-one solution (and you get a 6dB reduction just by unbalancing)...so I think I'm gonna go RCA in and out.  Not too worried about going unbalanced as it's short runs of line-level signal.
Logged
KM 184 > V2 > R4
older recording gear: UA-5  / emagic A62 / laptop / JB3 / CSB / AD20 / Sharp MT-90 / Sony MDS-JE510
Playback: Pioneer DV-578 > Lucid DA 9624 >many funny little british boxes > Linn Isobarik PMS

Offline Lil Kim Jong-Il

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6498
  • large Marge sent me
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2005, 04:39:38 PM »
It's easy enough to make a fixed attenuator if you can solder.  If you don't solder, you should ask leegeddy to make you a pair of cables with attenuators built in.
Logged
The first rule of amateur neurosurgery club is .... I forget.

Offline paulrennix

  • Site Supporter
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Regular
  • *
  • Posts: 86
  • Gender: Male
  • nobody in 04!
    • www.tapers.org
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2005, 04:43:44 PM »
are there plans somewhere for making these?
Logged
www.tapers.org
wierd *nix configs > music centric. Will work for AC or bacon!

Offline Lil Kim Jong-Il

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6498
  • large Marge sent me
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2005, 05:42:54 PM »
Google is your friend:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22fixed+attenuator+circuit%22&btnG=Google+Search

What you need is on the first two pages of the design tutorial.

Logged
The first rule of amateur neurosurgery club is .... I forget.

Offline paulrennix

  • Site Supporter
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection Regular
  • *
  • Posts: 86
  • Gender: Male
  • nobody in 04!
    • www.tapers.org
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2005, 06:14:00 PM »
ohhh no.

I need instructions for a moron.

I'm not an engineer, but I can solder ; )

Logged
www.tapers.org
wierd *nix configs > music centric. Will work for AC or bacon!

Offline Lil Kim Jong-Il

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6498
  • large Marge sent me
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #9 on: April 21, 2005, 07:07:04 PM »
again, google is your friend: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mic+attenuator+resistors&btnG=Google+Search

more verbose explanation and examples of values: http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/

more verbose explanation and program to calculate values: http://www.ethanwiner.com/gadgets.html
Logged
The first rule of amateur neurosurgery club is .... I forget.

Offline dklein

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1184
  • Gender: Male
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2005, 09:06:47 AM »
Looks like there are impedance considerations that are different for a soundboard vs. microphone source.
Logged
KM 184 > V2 > R4
older recording gear: UA-5  / emagic A62 / laptop / JB3 / CSB / AD20 / Sharp MT-90 / Sony MDS-JE510
Playback: Pioneer DV-578 > Lucid DA 9624 >many funny little british boxes > Linn Isobarik PMS

Offline dklein

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Taperssection All-Star
  • ****
  • Posts: 1184
  • Gender: Male
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2005, 12:48:05 PM »
So I built this thing last week and have used it a few times - seems to work well and doesn't do anything funky to the sound at different attenuation levels.  If there are any ee's on the board please let me know if you see anything odd.  Even though it's a dead simple circuit I couldn't seem to find anything on the web that did what I wanted - just cover a limited range of attenuation.

http://ca.geocities.com/dkleined@rogers.com/audio

Let me know what you think!
Logged
KM 184 > V2 > R4
older recording gear: UA-5  / emagic A62 / laptop / JB3 / CSB / AD20 / Sharp MT-90 / Sony MDS-JE510
Playback: Pioneer DV-578 > Lucid DA 9624 >many funny little british boxes > Linn Isobarik PMS

Offline Lil Kim Jong-Il

  • Trade Count: (6)
  • Needs to get out more...
  • *****
  • Posts: 6498
  • large Marge sent me
Re: attenuating cables/inline box?
« Reply #12 on: May 06, 2005, 03:40:16 PM »
+T for building that.  The circuit you used is fine for what you are doing.  Nice job.
Logged
The first rule of amateur neurosurgery club is .... I forget.
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »
 

RSS | Mobile
Page created in 0.1 seconds with 41 queries.
© 2002-2024 Taperssection.com
Powered by SMF