Adapter Kit?

[Charc]

Hello, to the other side of CB. (The sound side, that is.) Anyways, anything that I, or my school set's up, audiowise is always macgyvered. I always find myself in a sitatuon going "Wow I wish I had an X to Y adapter". X and y most often being xlr, 1/4", 3.5mm, RCA. I think it's about time to consider an audio adapter kit. I'm not sure if this is common item or not, but it seems like it'd be extremely useful. I'm currently considering this kit: http://cgi.ebay.com/Audio-Adapter-Ki...ayphotohosting . Does anyone have any idea of what the quality is on this things, or if it's worth getting?

[Grog12]

Not bad...but I would suggest getting a list together of what you need and going to radioshack/frys and putting together a kit for your school as opposed to buying what someone else thinks you need on eBay

[Peter]

It really just looks like a pile of Radio shack parts... which isnt necessaraly a bad thing. I would go through and price each of the pieces at radio shack or the equivalent and see how the price lines up.

I have a kit that I cary in my backback and it's basicly never let me down. Its:

3: 1/8" stereo male -> RCA male (6' cables)
~3: 1/4" female stereo -> 1/8" male stereo
~3: 1/8" female stereo -> 1/4" male stereo
~4: Mono RCA Female -> 1/4" male mono
3: Stereo female RCA -> Mono male RCA (can be used to flip genders around when used with the above adapters)
2: 1/4" stereo male -> 1/4" stereo male

You'll notice that there's no XLR stuff there, but that's mostly b/c if your going from XLR to 1/4" or 1/8" your *probably* going from MIC level to line level so you need a DI box or some other more active device in the mix.

[Grog12]

Honestly I like Peter's list a lot as a good general list and agree with his comment about the XLR adapters.

Does your school have its own console/sound system? If so whats it comprised of? Are other people bringing in theirs?

If you have a lot of guest speakers and performers coming in what issues do you see repeatedly cropping up?

As for the kit on eBay...it feels like overkill to me. But I don't know it may not be in your situation.

[Schniapereli]

Mic level is the direct output level from the mic. This is the amount of electricity created by the microphone diaphragm, and is a fairly weak signal.

The gain on the mixer is a pre-amplifier which makes the signal stronger so it can be dealt with by the mixer. Once it has been pre-amplified by the gain, it is at line level. This is the level that is sent to all the compressors, and any processors, and that is eventually sent to your speaker amplifiers.

Other inputs like CD's are already at line level, and these usually have RCA or 1/4" jacks. So, it is kinda the standard that XLR is pretty much only used for microphones, which always need to be boosted from mic level to line level.

[Footer]

Take a look at MCM electronics for all adapter purchases. Radioshack is the biggest rip off on all parts that there can be. The fact they charge a few dollars for a 30c off brand XLR plug is insane. Don't go to radioshack, order from MCM. MCM has great stuff at killer prices. Basicly, for what I have XLR to 1/4, both ways, RCA to 1/4" both ways, Gender benders for all products, blanks connectors of all products, 3 to 5 and 5 to 3's, terminiators, XLR spiltters, CATV splitters, RCA splitters, BNC to RCA, SVID to RCA, and a few other random ones.

[Hughesie]

like the others said, make a list first of all the problems your having and the parts that are needed, if guest speakers are coming in im imagining a laptop being involved all laptops (that i know of) have a 3.5 or head phone jack depending on your setup you want to get that to 6.5 dual rca if need be

[AaronS102]

Originally Posted by Schniapereli

Mic level is the direct output level from the mic. This is the amount of electricity created by the microphone diaphragm, and is a fairly weak signal.
The gain on the mixer is a pre-amplifier which makes the signal stronger so it can be dealt with by the mixer. Once it has been pre-amplified by the gain, it is at line level. This is the level that is sent to all the compressors, and any processors, and that is eventually sent to your speaker amplifiers.
Other inputs like CD's are already at line level, and these usually have RCA or 1/4" jacks. So, it is kinda the standard that XLR is pretty much only used for microphones, which always need to be boosted from mic level to line level.

XLR is use for line level all the time. In most set ups, the XLRs going to the amps are line level. On linking powered speakers with XLRs, its line level coming out of the previous speaker.

[Schniapereli]

Originally Posted by AaronS102

XLR is use for line level all the time. In most set ups, the XLRs going to the amps are line level. On linking powered speakers with XLRs, its line level coming out of the previous speaker.

Right. But, you probably aren't going to need any adapters for that at your school, since everything is already hooked up to the amps, and your problem seems only to be hooking miscellaneous things up to the mixer. Some schools re-patch their amps a lot, some don't touch it once it's set up. If you like to change your mixer sends a lot, then you might want to get some XLR adapters depending on your situation, and what you want to accomplish.

(and XLR is also used for DMX between intelligent light fixtures, and other equipment which is another example when it is not just used for mic level. There also might be other uses for XLR that I don't know of, but I think that's it.)

[Peter]

I dont have much time right now, but I think [wiki]Mic Level[/wiki] and [wiki]Line Level[/wiki] wiki pages need to be made. Basicly, there are three different levels of signal: Mic Level, Profesional Line Level, and Consumer Line level. They are all slightly different, but *sometimes* you can overlap them and make up the signal difference with gain on your board. This is especially true with Profesional vs Consumer Line Levels.