Back in the early 80′s you could walk into any music store and the guy behind the counter would present the latest fuzz box with the guaranteed statement, “it will make you sound like you’re playing through a Marshall Amp” Now I don’t know where Marshall amps got the reputation of being thin, fuzzy and noisy sounding but every pedal fell far short of the original.

Today however, we can get masterfully sounding tones of almost any amp style for live or recording applications built into a multipurpose amp, through our pedal boards and downloaded into our computers. And we don’t even need an amp & speaker to generate those tones, we can plug directly into a mixer for live or recording applications. But over and over again, customers calling in to ChurchAudioSupply.com to wire their studios or live stages make a big error in applying direct to mixer guitar inputs.

Now, most of my customers rout signal to their mixer through an audio wall plate or floor box from the stage or studio “live room”. On a stage in particular the audio run from that wall plate can be 30 feet to 200′ and many novices think that because a mic cable can easily run that distance that their direct “un-mic’d” guitar signal can as well. Now to be fair, most customers realize that in fact it is not good to run the direct lines 100′ or 200′ but most aren’t aware at the potential signal loss and noise issues that can arise from even running direct at 20′ or 30′. Remember that guitar signal is very “hot” with a high impedence and there is much that can corrupt the signal down it’s path. A run of 30′ from a wall plate to a mixer can seem like a reasonable run but you also have to factor in the signal distance from the guitar cable and then any potential patching  through processors to get to that wall plate- all adding extra noise and extra connection points along the way. Even if an acceptable signal gets to your mixer you may not realize how much punch you’ve actually lost and how much better a sound you could get.

In the same manner in which I’ve bloated this article to get to the point, so will a direct box clean up all the crap between your guitar signal and the mixer for a hot crisp reproduction of guitar sounds generated by amp simulator direct connections. A passive direct box (found on our Audio Devices page) is a must for any guitar/bass signal bypassing a live amp into your mixer that is more than 20′ of cable or  has a wall plate connection between the guitar and mixer. The guitar plugs into the direct box using a standard guitar cable and outputs the box using a standard XLR mic cable. The error of customers that comes into play is that they order wall plates & floor boxes with mono 1/4″ jacks which rout direct to the mixer when they should just stick with XLR jacks and use the direct box to change the guitar signal to low impedance eventually inputing into the XLR input on their mixer- which will allow the guitar signal to travel hundreds of feet with very little noise and more headroom.

Another advantage that comes into play is that no one sells installation rated guitar cable so if you want to put guitar cable in your wall it could be in violation of your building code. You can wire install mic cable to mono and use it as guitar cable but you may have spent money on this thick low gauge braided shielded guitar cable which won’t match up well to the conductors and foil coverage of the mic wire in your wall. By converting guitar signal to mic signal with the direct box you then help preserve that quality guitar cable over long distances and stay within most building codes. And would you want anything less for your synthetically simulated Marshall amp sound?

Passive Direct Box SL-1

Over the past few years the Speak-On connector has gained widespread acceptance as the connector of choice for speaker line connections. It’s common now on the back of power amps, speaker cabinets and wall plates. But to some it’s still as puzzling as a Chinese finger toy. What makes a speak-on connector preferred over the standard 1/4″ connector or bare wire terminals is that it’s mating structure allows it to twist-lock for a connection that can not be accidentally pulled out causing a sudden loss of sound and potentially damage to speakers. It’s larger hard plastic design  gives it a visual sense of security as well. The confusion with the connector starts with the fact that it has numerous configurations but I’m just going to focus on the 2 most common to pro audio. That being the 2 pin and the 4 pin connector sets. But before we explain how each mates with the other it’s important to note that it’s gender verbiage is reversed from most other connectors. The cable mount connector is always female and the panel mount mate is always male.

The 2 pin speak-on is similar to any general speaker connection in that it has a positive and negative contact that coincides with the 2 conductors of a common speaker cable (remember, common speaker cable is not grounded or shielded, it’s simply a 2 conductor run) The 4 pin speak-on has 4 pins labeled 1+/1- & 2+/2-. This acts as a mini multi-pin connector in that you can wire 2 channel speaker cable to one connector set. This simply meant you have  2 speaker cables running in one jacket to one connector. But here’s where the confusion is. Many common 1 channel component inputs house a 4 pin panel mount speak-on connector. In fact, the 4 pin style appears to be the preferred choice for most components. This seems odd in that you only need a one channel speaker cable (2 pins) to connect to these components. But what you need to know is that a 2 pin cable mount connector will mate with both the 2 and 4 pin panel connector and function just fine as a single run speaker cable line. Where consumers get in trouble is that some manufacturers sell a single channel speaker cable with the 4 pin speak-on wired to just 1+/1-. I’ve had customers buy the 2 pin style wall plates at ChurchAudioSupply.com but not realize they’ve bought a 4 pin style speaker cable from a local music store. The 4 pin “cable mount” will not mate with a 2 pin “panel mount”. But because many components are coming standard with the 4 pin panel mount, they’re making single channel speaker cable with the 4 pin cable mount. Yeah, this is beginning to read like Chinese, I know, but re-read this a couple more times and you’ll get it straight. But just remember that you’ll always be safe with a 2 pin cable mount (#NL2FC) and a 4 pin panel mount (#NL4MP) and leave figuring out the rest to tech-heads and linguistics experts.

Speak-On Connector NL2FC is a female cable mount

NL4MP is a panel mount male Speak-On jack for speaker wire connections

Sizzle can be delicious on steak but when it comes to your media components like ipods, ipads & laptops, connecting direct to specific mixer channels can turn these valuable components to charred.

So which specific mixer channels are we in fear of here… any and all that carry phantom power.

And the same goes for any device that carries phantom power. Phantom power is that unseen ghost of +48 volts of jolt in a lot of mixers  that powers many microphones and is essentially harmless when connected to any device that is balanced in it’s signal flow. But even though MP3 devices and laptop outputs are stereo it does not mean their signal is balanced and impervious the the phantom power menance. A jolt of +48 volts can fry the motherboard of your laptop.

Where this danger usually comes into play is when the component storing your music is a long distance away from your mixer. MP3 players and laptops usually have a 1/8″ stereo jack output that is common to headphones. When you want to connect these devices direct to your mixer you often will use a Y cable that inputs into the RCA line level jacks or 1/4″ stereo jacks that are common on many mixers and bypassing the mic XLR inputs. But when you are running these devices long distances say from the stage to the mixer it may seem common practice to get a coupler or cable that can connect the device direct to the XLR inputs of a snake, wall plate, etc. If phantom power is turned on in the mixer you could turn these devices to toast.

Anytime you connect a non-balanced device to an XLR jack it’s important to use a transformered direct box as found on the Audio Devices page of the ChurchAudioSupply.com web site. Phantom power can not pass through a transformered DI box and you can safely transmit the signal long distances. It’s actually necessary to do this at any distance… simply DO NOT plug your MP3 player or laptop into an XLR mic input on a mixer or any input device. Otherwise it may be a long time before you eat steak again because your money will be spent replacing valuable equipment that was  sizzled and grizzled.

LTI-BLOX - $49.00: This device safely connects Laptops & MP3 devices to a mixer via a standard mic cable

I Can’t Hear You First Baptist Church of Scranton!!

Well, maybe church services aren’t rock concerts but what is more inspirational than great sounding music during services and what can be more deflating than poorly audible sermons and presentations.

Pray Louder, this blog for ChurchAudioSupply.com will hopefully cover the basics of making audio in your church an affordable do-it-yourself UPgrade that UPlifts and UPholds the key role music and presentation can play in your services. Much is changing in the audio industry with new digital standards and hi-tech data com style signal transfering but for most churches, it still boils down to good mic cabling decisions and proper placement of plates and recessed boxes to keep audio from cluttering your stage and becoming damaged in the process.

You can do-it yourself and not just for churches but schools, home studios, conference center wiring… any basic audio wiring application just needs good general commentary and help to understand the main issues of good wiring solutions. Because when you “clearly” Pray Louder you pray better.