Mono or stereo cables?

elastic · Post by **elastic** » Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:14 am

I've often wondered, mono or stereo cables? - does it matter when buying the patch cables for sync in / sync out with the SQ1?

Thanks

slug · Post by **slug** » Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:45 pm

Ive seen that stereo cables work best, the Volca Beats in particular can struggle with mono cable.

jeftones · Post by **jeftones** » Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:23 pm

the volcas send a split dual mono signal from the headphone jack. If you use a mono cable with them you loose half of the signal and need to use a lot of gain on the signal which will make it noisy.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:09 pm

jeftones wrote:the volcas send a split dual mono signal from the headphone jack. If you use a mono cable with them you loose half of the signal and need to use a lot of gain on the signal which will make it noisy.

seriously? but when your stereo cable goes into stereo adaptor and into mono channel of mixer (here behringer xenyx1202), it only works if you pull the jack halfway out so only tip is connecting ...

have to check if those are balanced/unbalanced dual connectors. it's quite easy to Null the signal with this output type.

megamarkd · Post by **megamarkd** » Tue Mar 12, 2019 4:35 am

slug wrote:Ive seen that stereo cables work best, the Volca Beats in particular can struggle with mono cable.

They dead-set turn to pus with a mono cable. The kick really suffers. Same with trs->ts cables. Only thing for it is to use a trs breakout cable. Hosa make a decent one (CMP-159)

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Sun Mar 17, 2019 9:30 am

just for a laugh, here's cabling for 6 volcas

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TheDoctor · Post by **TheDoctor** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 4:50 pm

jeftones wrote:the volcas send a split dual mono signal from the headphone jack. If you use a mono cable with them you loose half of the signal and need to use a lot of gain on the signal which will make it noisy.

Yeah! Especially the Beats(which is gainstaged low) loose a lot.
I think if you don't want use so much input on your audio interface the best is buy a mixer where you use 3.5 to splitted 1/4 jack and use the stereo output from the mixer in 2 input of your audio interface.
If you don't have multiple volca or you like to process in your computer separately you have to use 2 input for each volca. Behringer does really ok audio interface with a lot of input, they have insert so you can apply external effect, midi in and out(so you can sequence your volcas), multiple output if you like to check your mix on other speakers or for feedback staff.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:46 pm

ok, so what about summing 2 mono channels to 1 mono channel?
i have read that in-line resistors would do the job - one on each channel, and then you can merge the 2 into 1.

i've seen suggestions of 470 ohm or 10k.
any knowledge on this? (there's a youtube vid somewhere)

the other thing i thought about today would be to use stereo minijack to 2x RCA, which are very common, and you always end up with too many of them.

and then make a little patchbay box - i found a strip of 8x RCA female connectors in my junk box. that would do for 4 volcas. then have mono 1/4" outputs, and in-between, have your resistors. maybe hack in some insert points or do something more exotic.
? (idea...)
would the resistors cut down signal strength? also saw diodes suggested.

jeftones · Post by **jeftones** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:31 pm

There is a Hosa cable that is "1/8 TRS to 1/4 TS". I utilized this cable for by volca keys and volca beat. For the other two volcas i have, the sample and the fm, i use those insert style cable.

some individuals are worried about there being no resistor on the TRS to TS cable \, which is a valid concern, but i have experienced no issues and have been utilizing that specific style of cable for the volcas for 3ish years.

TheDoctor · Post by **TheDoctor** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:39 pm

jeftones wrote:There is a Hosa cable that is "1/8 TRS to 1/4 TS". I utilized this cable for by volca keys and volca beat. For the other two volcas i have, the sample and the fm, i use those insert style cable.

some individuals are worried about there being no resistor on the TRS to TS cable \, which is a valid concern, but i have experienced no issues and have been utilizing that specific style of cable for the volcas for 3ish years.

Did you try with 1/8 TRS to 2 1/4 TS? I noticed the signal is hotter so I have to turn my audio interface knobs quite a lot which is good.
It could probably be that my 1/8 TRS to 1/4 TS is not good that's why I'm asking so I can easily hook one cable.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:01 pm

jeftones wrote:There is a Hosa cable that is "1/8 TRS to 1/4 TS". I utilized this cable for by volca keys and volca beat. For the other two volcas i have, the sample and the fm, i use those insert style cable.

some individuals are worried about there being no resistor on the TRS to TS cable \, which is a valid concern, but i have experienced no issues and have been utilizing that specific style of cable for the volcas for 3ish years.

i'm not sure what the principle is here, but a passive mixer is not just signal wires joined together with a common ground. i was wondering if it was something more complex than just a resistor.

i don't want to use TRS to 2 mono ('insert cable') because i only want to use 1 mono channel.

edit: OP was talking about the sync cable btw. we're onto audio output now.

jeftones · Post by **jeftones** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:30 pm

ShoNuff wrote:
jeftones wrote:There is a Hosa cable that is "1/8 TRS to 1/4 TS". I utilized this cable for by volca keys and volca beat. For the other two volcas i have, the sample and the fm, i use those insert style cable.

some individuals are worried about there being no resistor on the TRS to TS cable \, which is a valid concern, but i have experienced no issues and have been utilizing that specific style of cable for the volcas for 3ish years.
i'm not sure what the principle is here, but a passive mixer is not just signal wires joined together with a common ground. i was wondering if it was something more complex than just a resistor.

i don't want to use TRS to 2 mono ('insert cable') because i only want to use 1 mono channel.

edit: OP was talking about the sync cable btw. we're onto audio output now.

i know what op was talking about but the conversation about volca audio cables has spread across several threads at this point, its hard to keep track of which thread is being replied to. The first cable i mentioned in my post is not a trs to 2 mono. it is a trs to interconnected mono. takes up a single channel.

the following is an often referenced article on why a resistor is needed for summing in stereo to mono cables if you need a better understanding of the principle behind it.

http://www.rane.com/note109.html

as i stated i use the interconnected hosa cable for 2 of my volcas and as far as i recall they have no resistor in them. I have not had any issues with my volcas or my mixer while using them for the last three years.

also for sync a trs-trs seems to work the best. probably why the volcas ship with the little trs to trs cable.

jeftones · Post by **jeftones** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 9:34 pm

also another good article about stereo to mono summing

http://silentsky.net/wordpress/archives/624

megamarkd · Post by **megamarkd** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:20 am

Cheers for the links Jeftones.

ShoNuff · Post by **ShoNuff** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:55 am

jeftones wrote:also another good article about stereo to mono summing

http://silentsky.net/wordpress/archives/624

this is really good, nice one

some disparity with that 1st vid (that i saw before posting).
i have a feeling your TRS to TS cables may just be sending one side (?).
how else could it be? unless there are some resistors in the monojack, which i somehow doubt.

i would definitely go along with the impedance rules on this. was getting mixed up between signal level and impedance maybe (or is it the same thing?) - so: low impedance must go to high impedance. fairly easy to remember. i'd already heard that Y cables used the wrong way round were a bad idea. worth bearing in mind that volcas are pretty robust: i accidentally ran my Keys on the wrong power adapter one day for an hour or so and nothing happened to it : - /