Am I a complete idiot? did i buy the wrong cable??

C

corywdavis

Member
im really confused right now about how i am suppost to connect to a sound board with the xlr cable i just bought.

the xlr cable i bought goes from male to female so i connect the male end to my camera and then how would i connect the female end to the soundboard??

would i need a male to male xlr to do this right?

or do soundboards have a connection for the female end?

or do i need some kind of adapter?

any help would be really appriciated, i leave for tour in a week and im going to be filming every night so im kind of freaking out about this haha

thanks!
 
You have the correct cable. But you will probably need a (really usefull) adapter aswell.

Sound always travels one way down XLR cable. A mic (and other soruce) has a male connector on the output. A recorder (like the DVX) has a female input connection.

However there may be an issue with the audio mixer.
Audio mixers have a row of female XLR connectors on the inputs for the mics coming in. However not all Audio mixers have an XLR output (which will be a male connector).

The Mackie 1402-VLZpro has both for example:
1402PROBack.jpg

Main outs as XLR on the back panel.

1402PROTopIO.jpg

Main outs as 1/4" Jack at top right. Note the Aux sends, which may be used to provide a record feed, are also 1/4".

Normally when audio mixer has an XLR output, it is beeing used for the main house mix and isn't available to plug into. However most all audio mixers have outputs available as 1/4" jacks.
To plug into this you will need a 1/4" Male TRS to XLR-3 Male adapter cable. This goes between your mic cable and the sound board, and can be nice and short. It is also available as a straight adapter (no cable) too. Either way it's an something should always be in your kit when you want to plug into an audio mixer.
studiolink_balanced_2318-ffc8aa204b6d9455d03640aac7a5bede.jpg
43165i0.jpg




- Mikko
 
mikko that reply was extremely helpfull thank you for taking the time to do that for me.

do you know where i can pick up that adapter? do you think radioshack carries one similar to it?

thanks
 
...occasionaly my pictures are usefull too! :cheesy:

I couldn't find one at RadioShack.com however B&H has the cable here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=158484&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation (tehre are other's in the same category too.. cheaper and more expensive)
And the adapter here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=252359&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Either will work, The adapter is smaller & lighter, but the Cable gives you a few extra feet and can fit into smaller spaces (not sure of 2 adapters would fit side-by-side into the output connectors on all mixers)

- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
Sound always travels one way down XLR cable.
Click to expand...

By convention. Just to clarify.

Don't want anyone to think there are directional cables out there. They'll get picked on. Someone will eventually send them to the store to get a cable-stretcher (Part # BA-1100-NS, in case you do need one.).

(But just have to say...I did find a directional cable once. Wouldn't work going one way, worked fine going the other. Like, wtf? BNC on some RG-58. Weird.)
 
Good point, yeah, the cabels *do* work both ways, but the connectors on equipment always follow the standard.

There are very few things more entertaining than watching some poor cable puller having to turn an 100foot mic cable around becuse they got it backwards. (yeah, been there myself too of course).


- Mikko
 
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