XLR stereo question

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XLR stereo question

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Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

XLR stereo question

So, I have a steady this summer, and they have a pretty good in-house system. Bunch of little JBL speakers up in the rafters, and one XLR input on the wall. I played there last week using a mixer, one-half of the mains going to the XLR. Does it matter that I am only using one half? Or should I get some kind of adapter (I imagine a cord with two XLR female going into one XLR male). I am using a guitar going into a normal instrument line, it's not a stereo channel. On the other hand, for break music, I do use an mp3 player, which presumably is playing stereo tracks.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 16:06:53

Ricardo

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From: Washington DC

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Anything panned in stereo will suffer...but you can alter you mixer board output to "mono" in which case, everything goes left...there will be no paning picture through the house but at least you won't lose "right side" sounds from the entire sound.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 16:55:00

Miguel de Maria

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Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Ricardo)

Not seeing any obvious way to make the output mono. I use an Allen and Heath zed60 10fx.

http://www.allen-heath.com/media/AP8765_2+ZEDSixty_UserGuide_A5.pdf

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 17:11:24

Sr. Martins

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Joined: Apr. 4 2011

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

The input on the wall might be an unbalanced stereo XLR and you might be feeding it with a balanced mono signal... or maybe it has nothing to do with this.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 17:23:03

MikeC

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Joined: Mar. 19 2015
From: Panama (living in South Florida)

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

You can either pan everything to 0 (center) and use either L and R main outs since both will have the same audio information or pan everything left or right and use the corresponding L or right main out. Most of the time XLR inputs are just balanced mono inputs in rare case they are stereo.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 17:28:11

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to MikeC)

I can see how that would work for the mono inputs like guitars or mics. What about the mp3 player output? If the pan was at 0, would it still send identical information to either side? I am imagining something like Led Zeppelin which has these crazy pan effects in the recordings and what would happen in that situation.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:20:36

Sr. Martins

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RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

If your input is mono there's no way you would maintain stereo separation.

I might be missing something but... there's only one XLR input and it only sends sounds to one side? Either it's a stereo input or there's something that's not correctly setup in there.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:32:25

MikeC

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From: Panama (living in South Florida)

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

If you connect your mp3 to the L/R stereo input channel your left and right signals will be different (in stereo). However, if you want everything mono you can use a Y cable from your mp3 to 2 different mono channels in the mixer, let's say channels 3 and 4 both panned center. Then everything will be mono. You need a cable like this (mini stereo to 2 1/4" mono):
http://www.amazon.com/GLS-Audio-Y-Cable-Splitter-Cord/dp/B0062QPERU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431541685&sr=8-1&keywords=stereo+mini+to+1+4

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:38:08

Miguel de Maria

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From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Thanks, MikeC, I got it now.

SrMartin, my mp3 player outputs in stereo and I usually plug it into a stereo input (1/8" to RCA)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:43:12

Sr. Martins

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RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

my mp3 player outputs in stereo and I usually plug it into a stereo input (1/8" to RCA)

What I meant is that you won't maintain the stereo separation out of your mixer into that wall input. It will be a mono sum so you have to be careful and mono check your mixes in the mp3 player if you haven't already.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:46:16

Miguel de Maria

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From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Sr. Martins)

That's kind of the point of this thread, how to get the music out of the mixer into that single XLR without dropping content.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 18:52:30

Sr. Martins

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RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

That's kind of the point of this thread, how to get the music out of the mixer into that single XLR without dropping content.

That's what I thought but it got confusing along the way and there's still a few questions that remain unanswered so I can't fully understand what's that input on the wall.

Either way, if it really is a mono in you have to check your stuff in your mp3 or you'll risk having things sounding weird or instruments disappearing completely. Then again, if it is a mono in, why does it only plays on one side?

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 19:35:51

MikeC

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From: Panama (living in South Florida)

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Sr. Martins)

I don't think he said that it plays on one side. He said: "I played there last week using a mixer, one-half of the mains going to the XLR" meaning that he just plugged either the L or R main out to the XLR input. At least that is what I understand. But maybe I'm wrong.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 19:44:04

Sr. Martins

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RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to MikeC)

Yeah, you're right.

Then it will depend on your panning/balancing available on your mixer but if your using an aux input for the mp3, then it's either left or right and you'll have to get it in mono before you output to that wall. Anyway, check the available panning options on your mixer, if it has dual panning or something similiar it's easy to get mono.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 19:49:21

Miguel de Maria

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From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Sr. Martins)

Yeah, my mixer has a L and R out channel, and I just used one XLR out to the plug in the wall. I don't really know anything about the plug in the wall.

I only played one set, and the manager said there was a good sound. Myself, I couldn't hear anything from those house speakers, but I had brought my K10 and used it for a monitor. By the way, that just about got me hooked on monitors! So much more fun than sitting next to my amp and listening to a bunch of bass mush or straining to hear anything at all from house speakers in the rafters!

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 20:33:20

Sr. Martins

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RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

If that input on the wall is stereo, then you can look for a solution to grab L & R from your mixer independently. If it's just a mono in, you have to sum the signals. I don't know the pan law of your mixer but the idea is that if your mp3 player is the only stereo signal, then you could turn it into mono before it goes into your mixer. This way you could just choose one output from your mixer and be done with it.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2015 21:05:08

Ricardo

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From: Washington DC

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Miguel de Maria

Not seeing any obvious way to make the output mono. I use an Allen and Heath zed60 10fx.

http://www.allen-heath.com/media/AP8765_2+ZEDSixty_UserGuide_A5.pdf

got it. Other mixers have a bridge mono switch to channel everything through left side main out...your's doesn't. MikeC had best idea to split the output of mp3 to two MONO channels, using that splitter. But that would use up two channels you might need. One option is to use your own speaker (I thought you were already) on right side main out, and the other side, left, out to the house, so the stereo split ends up being half house, half your own monitor. The other option is to say WHO CARES ABOUT MP3 music anyway, it's just background so go ahead and lose the right side or whatever.

Finally, ideally you can just use this cable...remember to plug it LEFT if you are going left to the house:
http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-Stereo-Female-Y-Cable/dp/B0002J1LE8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431623484&sr=8-1&keywords=stereo+to+mono+rca

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2015 17:16:39

Escribano

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Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Ricardo)

quote:

The other option is to say WHO CARES ABOUT MP3 music anyway, it's just background so go ahead and lose the right side or whatever.

Or bounce the MP3s down to one mono track.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2015 18:21:31

Sr. Martins

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Joined: Apr. 4 2011

RE: XLR stereo question (in reply to Escribano)

quote:

Or bounce the MP3s down to one mono track.

He should still mono check the end result or use some appropriate software (or plugins) to make sure that the mono mixdown doesn't lose important frequencies or whole instruments.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2015 18:42:54