Soundcraft FX-16 -- HELP!

[Noiz2]

Here's a newbie question: If all the inputs are mono inputs, then why does each fader have a balance (L-R) control on it? What's to balance if there's no stereo input?

A good way to think of a mixer is that stuff pours in from the top (back) flows down the channels and then flows to the right and out.

Your mixer has 16 mono inputs and two mono outputs (plus some sends for FX and such). The two outputs can go to two speakers and if so then you could send stereo content to them.
But it's important to remember that stereo is a very specific thing, not just two speakers getting some sound. The mixer is sending two channels of audio but they are not necessarily stereo. If you take a mono signal, say a mic, and send it to both speakers by setting the pan to center you are sending a MONO signal to two speakers, it is not stereo.

So the basic answer is that this mixer is set up for live shows and it is really built for sending multiple mono signals to two speakers. The pan control (balance) sets how much of that mono sound will appear in each speaker.

You can create a stereo mix by taking those mono signals and panning them to different positions. The individual mics will "appear" to come from different places between the two speakers. Or you can pan them all center and you have a mono mix in two speakers, and everything will "appear" to be playing centered between the two speakers.

A lot of time you will want to spread things out a bit so that the sound appears to come from a position that more closely matches where the mic is on stage. Or just so the sound is "wider".

Some mixers have stereo channels and those would have worked (probably) with the cable you had. However you would still want to go with two mono channels so that you could do the one channel to both speakers thing you describe.

 

[iain.bason]

This is actually confusing. There is only one type of RCA plug, you are confusing an RCA plug with a phono plug.

RCA plugs are what you see on the backs of most consumer receivers and CD players,and composite video connectors on consumer gear. They are only unbalanced. Phono plugs are the ones that come with a variety of configurations in 1/8" and 1/4" diameters.
A TRS phono plug is what is typically seen for unbalanced stereo, as in headphones and most consumer 1/8" connections. Mono versions will have just a Tip and the Sleeve. Some other versions have multiple rings.

Thanks, I always get the names of these confused. But I thought that phono was what connects to a phonograph, and phone is what comes in ¼" diameters and has the tip and the sleeve. I wonder if there's a good web site out there that's like a visual dictionary for these connectors.

 

[davefisk]

A good way to think of a mixer is that stuff pours in from the top (back) flows down the channels and then flows to the right and out.

Your mixer has 16 mono inputs and two mono outputs (plus some sends for FX and such). The two outputs can go to two speakers and if so then you could send stereo content to them.
But it's important to remember that stereo is a very specific thing, not just two speakers getting some sound. The mixer is sending two channels of audio but they are not necessarily stereo. If you take a mono signal, say a mic, and send it to both speakers by setting the pan to center you are sending a MONO signal to two speakers, it is not stereo.

So the basic answer is that this mixer is set up for live shows and it is really built for sending multiple mono signals to two speakers. The pan control (balance) sets how much of that mono sound will appear in each speaker.

You can create a stereo mix by taking those mono signals and panning them to different positions. The individual mics will "appear" to come from different places between the two speakers. Or you can pan them all center and you have a mono mix in two speakers, and everything will "appear" to be playing centered between the two speakers.

A lot of time you will want to spread things out a bit so that the sound appears to come from a position that more closely matches where the mic is on stage. Or just so the sound is "wider".

Some mixers have stereo channels and those would have worked (probably) with the cable you had. However you would still want to go with two mono channels so that you could do the one channel to both speakers thing you describe.

^^^This right here is pretty good in terms of understanding the mixer and what's going on.

So far, out of everything I've read on this thread, the best solution has been to run one of the RCA outputs to input 15 on the mixer, and the other to input 16, and pan as desired. That's the quickest, easiest, least amount of knob turning/button pushing solution for you and will get you the desired results. In your situation you'd only use the stereo returns for your CD player if you had all 16 inputs used up on other things and had no other inputs. Those stereo returns can be handy, but they are not needed here.

 

[Noiz2]

Thanks, I always get the names of these confused. But I thought that phono was what connects to a phonograph, and phone is what comes in ¼" diameters and has the tip and the sleeve. I wonder if there's a good web site out there that's like a visual dictionary for these connectors.

Damn you are right, well at least the Phone part. LP's used RCA jacks, but you needed to run them to the Phono input because they have some pretty extreme EQ that needs to be undone and the signal is pretty low.

 

[graywolf]

This is actually confusing. There is only one type of RCA plug, you are confusing an RCA plug with a phono plug.

He, he, caught you. An RCA plug is a "Phono" plug. The quarter inch (also 1/8, and 3/32) are "Phone" plugs. However, I am sure you actually know that.

If the OP insists on using only one channel on the mixer, what he needs is a RCA stereo to TS mono cable, but then he does have the summing risks you mentioned if the source is weird stereo.

 

[graywolf]

And I am going to correct myself on the hard panning. Noiz2 is correct you want to center that pan. Doing it as I suggested earlier would just reverse the channels. I tend to forget that the two channels out may, or may not, be stereo, because I use my mixer deck to drive my computer monitors which are usually stereo.