best way from unballanced line level to ballanced pro?

hello out there , i´m about to buy a ssl alphalink in a few days and now i would like to hear some comments about converting
unbal.line to bal. pro to plug in my drummachine and synths..
i really would like to add lots of colour to the (digital)sounds before entering my daw..so i bet a dual tranny solution (in and out)
with some gain between would be just right..sounds like a modified mic amp maybe..

so i would like to ask you about experiences with different DIY-projects for DI-ing !

greets and a nice sunday

ax.

If the gear is physically close and on the same mains ground there may be no need to balance. The balanced receiver will have differential circuitry so you could get acceptable signal quality from using 3 circuit wiring, despite the 2 circuit output from unbal gear.

check here and try simple wiring techniques, before fixing a problem that may not exist.

http://www.rane.com/note110.html

I agree with John. At my job, I'm often called upon to connect consumer/prosumer devices to our balanced infrastructure and rarely do I have to use converter boxes. The notable exceptions are when the destination device (unbalanced --> balanced) does not have adequate gain, or when the source device (balanced --> unbalanced) does not have a ground referenced output. I should mention that 600-ohm I/O complicates the interfacing issue somewhat, but this is not an issue in most systems nowadays.

In the case of unbalanced --> balanced, connect the source to the + and - terminals of the balanced input using shielded, twisted-pair cable. Connect the cable shield at the receiving end only, or at both ends, depending on which gives you a quieter signal (you may not notice a difference).

I've ran a micpre output unbal through 100 ' of snake for classical recordings
with no problem given the high level output to a bal mixer input
the average tv sports golf match has a ton of fx mics running bal but unshielded
that's another story

Hi All:
I just added some DIY stuff to my web page including a balanced line driver.
It takes a single ended input and provides a true balanced output.
A few of the members around here have used them.
I've actually used the on some 500' cable runs in a high RF environment
with no problems. Go to the DIY page.

http://www.nashaudio.com


RonL

JohnRoberts said:

If the gear is physically close and on the same mains ground there may be no need to balance. The balanced receiver will have differential circuitry so you could get acceptable signal quality from using 3 circuit wiring, despite the 2 circuit output from unbal gear.

check here and try simple wiring techniques, before fixing a problem that may not exist.

http://www.rane.com/note110.html

Click to expand...

hi john, just wondering what is considered to be "close" as far as running unbalanced lines is concerned. Is there a cutoff length that is "too far"?

Too far is obviously when it gets noisy.. In practice it can matter if plugging into different power circuits, sometimes different outlets. How much noise is in the environment to cause trouble, etc.

No simple answer, and quality of shielding on wire can even make a difference...

It works well enough that the vast majority of mixer insert points are unbalanced, while balanced inserts are an expensive option or feature of high end consoles.

JR