Simple question that I should know. I was just informed I have a small event that the
presenter wants to use either an Iphone or Ipod for music. I don't use anything with an I in it so I don't
stock cables for it. Does the same cable work for both an Iphone and an Ipod? I looked at Best Buy's site and they listed one cable and it said Iphones and selected Ipods, so I'm unsure what I need. The problem is I just found out and it is tomorrow morning. I suppose I need to go from whatever the device uses to an 1/8 or 1/4 to get it into my sound board.
You can just use a 1/8"
TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) Stereo cable coming out of the headphone
jack. Don't buy something proprietary to adapt out of the dock
connector.
I use a 1/8" stereo to dual
RCA mono cable, then use two
RCA>1/4" TS (tip/sleeve)
Mono adapters. If you have something like a
Mackie with dedicated 1/4"
Line inputs, that's all you need.
If you need to get to
XLR to get into the
mixer, a couple DI boxes will do in addition to the above cable and adapters.
Most theatres and sound guys have at least a handful of these kinds of adapters and cables, and if you don't already have what you need, you can find everything for maybe $10 at Radioshack.
Two Notes:
1) If you use an iPhone, have the user put it in Airplane Mode first. This disables incoming/outgoing phone calls, text messages,
etc. It means if somebody calls while the phone is playing music, the ringtone doesn't
play through the sound
system (and no, Silent mode via the
switch on the side of the phone is not good enough for this -- you need Airplane mode)
2) If you have to get to
XLR, you must use DI boxes. I know a TD who blew up an old iPod of his by using an 1/8" to
XLR adapter cable, and forgot to turn off
phantom power, inadvertently sending +48v to the headphone
jack, destroying the iPod. DI boxes make certain you're protected from things like that.