Mr Scott Stanley said:
> Thanks to everyone for the GREAT info! I ended up
> getting an almost new Behringer UB1622FX for around
> $130 on eBay. Now I just need my cables, and I'll be
> set to drive the wife bonkers ;) Speaking of cables, I
> keep seeing them labled as either 'Balanced' or
> 'Unbalanced'. Which is necessary for the AN1x, and
> what is the difference in them?
Short answer: the AN1x's outputs are unbalanced and that's all you'll need to
use.
Long answer: Balancing is a technique that's used on cable runs to remove
certain kinds of external noise. A balanced cable uses three strands rather
than two. In addition to the hot signal and the ground, there is a third
strand, sometimes called the "cold" signal, which is the inverse of the hot
signal.
Why do this? Because devices that handle balanced signals are capable of
removing noise that appears on both lines, hot and cold, with the same
polarity. This includes external radio frequency interference, throb from AC
lines and wall warts, etc. If the signal's common to both hot and cold (i.e.
common-mode noise) it will be removed from the audio, making the signal much
cleaner.
All XLR mic cables are balanced; it's also possible to balance a 1/4" cable if
you use 3-conductor TRS plugs and jacks. It should be noted that two signals
sharing a common ground is a frequent thing in audio, and a 1/4" TRS plug or
jack could be wired to handle a mono balanced signal, a stereo unbalanced
signal, or even two mono unbalanced signals, one in each direction!
Even if you don't have balanced connectors on all your gear (and few studios
do), wiring up what you can in balanced mode will help noise a lot. You can
make your own cables that interface unbalanced to balanced gear with a little
bit of soldering; they're not as good as a fully balanced connection but
better than a fully unbalanced connection, in terms of shielding.
Your Behringer has balanced inputs but all your synths have unbalanced outs
(for some reason, balanced outs on synths are very rare). My advice is to use
unbalanced cables, ordinary 1/4" TS cables, for your instrument hookups, and
not to try to do fancy adapters unless you have bad hum or buzz problems.
mike
--
Mirai: "I predict in the future all music will be made and heard with
organic living technology..."
Rothwell: "You mean musicians?"
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