"So you’ve pulled an all-nighter polishing your set to perfection, and you’re excited to plug in your laptop and play your latest tracks for the 300 excited, sweaty club patrons crowded around the DJ booth. Suddenly, you realize you’ve got a serious problem: this booth has some unconventional audio inputs and you don’t have the right adapters. Your heart leaps into your throat as you realize it’s 1:00 AM and there’s no way you’re going to find a Radio Shack open at this hour. You’ll need to convince one of the other DJs to take over your slot and beg the promoter to re-book you another night when you’re prepared.
Instead, carry the Electronic Musician’s Emergency Adapters, a “First Aid Kit” that will save the day when you’re faced with a gear-connection emergency. Featuring a set of nineteen audio adapters chosen specifically for the needs of electronic musicians and DJs, it’s packaged in a distinctive red bag and features a clip-on LED light to help you navigate around the rear of equipment in a dark club."
Check it out: link link
Use the code elektrnk at Fractalspin to get a $10 discount. Shhhhhh....
 chicago, Illinois, USA
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I have 26 domain names but only about 6 of them are active. Only two of them produce revenue, but yeah. Oh and I make music (quantazelle.com) and DJ (lizrevision.com) of course, have a label (subVariant.com) and a kickass residency in Chicago (rampchicago.com) with Emulsion. Also I am a girl. My Gear
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Electronic Music other: A First Aid Kit for Live PA
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Written July 21 2007 , Tags: livepa, hookups
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So I asked a friend who's a professional audio engineer and this is what he said:
*** The statement about phantom power is essentially correct, though stated very ignorantly. It is never a good idea to back feed voltage down your output DC or AC. Phantom power does NOT however change the gain structure in any way. Phantom power provides +48V DC across pins 2 and 3 with reference to pin 1 on an XLR connector. It does not change the sensitivity of the mic preamp. But anyhow, theoretically if you convert your RCA to XLR on a mic preamp where the phantom power is engaged, Pin 1 and Pin 3 connects to the sleeve and Pin 2 connects to the tip, so +48V can flow "backwards" through the line through whatever device it is attached to. This does NOT guarantee that the device will be damaged, or even that it will sound funny. In my experience, distortion is likely while being backfed, but damage unlikely. It is possible though, which is why you want to avoid it. Typically, when you want to plug into a mic preamp, you want to use a DI box. The main reason is to match a high impedance output to a low impedance input. The side benefit of a passive transformer DI is that transformers do NOT pass DC so phantom on or off makes no difference on the preamp because the transformer electrically "separates" the laptop output from the console input. The interaction between the two is strictly magnetic. Here is why that adapter is not a problem or "dangerous". Remember that even screwing in a lightbulb is "dangerous" if you do not know what you are doing. Yet people of all types do it every day without a problem. You can still use the RCA-XLR adapter to connect into a mic preamp, but there are several things you need to be aware of: 1) the phantom power issue 2) the typical laptop output at nominal will overdrive the typical mic preamp at minimum gain. You can correct this by reducing the laptop output volume though you relinquish some control by doing this considering the taper on most volume controls digital and analog work logrithmetically. The lower in volume you go, the more dramatic a volume change one small motion makes. That makes it much harder to fade up and down on that control if needed without huge jumps in volume if you are using it in the lower portion of the taper. The other thing you can do to correct this mismatch is a pad. A number of consoles have (anywhere from -15dB to -30dB) a pad built in and all you would have to do is engage the switch. Cheaper consoles don't typically have pads, so you can use an inline pad that come in an XLR barrel. Shure makes one that is switchable to -15,-20,or -25dB. 3) A large number of consoles these days have 1/4" input on their mic preamp. Phantom is never applied to the 1/4", because these are designated as "line inputs" and the gain and impedance are properly matched inside the console. If you are not next to the console, and cannot access the 1/4" directly, you can access it indirectly: on stage adapt your output to XLR into the snake, then at the console, adapt the snake channel whip from XLRM to 1/4" TS M and plug it into the 1/4". In most clubs this will work fine, because the snake run is rarely more than 100' and unbalanced line can usually travel this distance without a problem. This is not an optimum setup mind you, but when you are out of DIs this can still work. There are a number of consoles that have stereo line inputs that do not accept mic level, and do not have a preamp or phantom power. In which case, using a DI would be incorrect. There are a number of consoles I can think of off the top of my head, Yamaha in particular, that their line inputs are XLR ONLY in which case, the adapter to XLR would be necessary to connect into the line input. Plugging into a line input is just as likely a situation as plugging into a mic preamp, and DJ types should be equally prepared for either situation. *** So while it's not an ideal setup, it'll manage, without being inherently dangerous on its own. The point of the adapter kit is that it's for emergencies, so even if the sound quality won't be pristine, you won't be screwed by having no way to get your audio into a club's system. Still, a DI box can be cheaper than all them adapters. The one I have has XLR to Phono and rca capability, so it replaces all those adapters.
But the one I have is old, I cant find it online anywhere. $30 behirnger alternatives exist : link PS: good infos
Yes, they may not be sexy, but DI boxes are the shit.
I worked an AV job for awhile I saw vcr and dvd players get there audio out destroyed this way. I assumed most people wouldn't want to take the risk.
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