7 MUST-HAVE Adapters for Studio & Live Sound Engineers

here are seven adapters that are guaranteed to save the day on your next Studio or live sound gig and make you feel like a hero even though probably no one else will notice you can support audio University by purchasing these adapters using the links below the two most common connections in Pro Audio are XLR and quarter inch TRS these are essentially the same connector in a different form and while each has its own unique structural benefits both of these connectors are capable of carrying balanced mono signals over long distances most of the time the mic inputs on your mixer or audio interface will be XLR and the line inputs and outputs will be quarter inch TRS however there are many mixers and interfaces that have XLR line inputs and outputs you'll almost certainly encounter situations where you'll need to connect a quarter inch TRS output to an XLR input or vice versa in these situations you'll either need a TRS to XLR mail or an XLR female to TRS connector you could also use one of these adapters on each side of a long XLR cable to effectively create a long quarter inch TRS cable like I said XLR and TRS are basically interchangeable when dealing with mono signals these adapters typically come in one of two forms as an all-in-one adapter or as a small cable and while there are situations where the all-in-one form is preferable I tend to prefer the small cable variation in most situations because it puts less strain on the jacket you're connecting it to and it provides more space if you need to use an adapter on consecutive inputs or outputs another XLR adapter that's almost guaranteed to save you time if not save the day is an XLR turnaround these come in two variations of course XLR male to male and XLR female to female and you'll generally always use one of each whenever you use this type of adapter let's say you're working on a live show where the drummer needs a stereo feed for in-ear monitors if you have a sub snake in place from the drum riser to the side of the stage for routing drum mics to the stage box they will typically have female XLR connectors on the drum Riser side and male XLR connectors on the stage box side if you have two spare lines on that sub snake you can simply turn them around by using two male to male XLR turnarounds on one end and two female to female XLR turnarounds on the other end this basic technique can be used anytime you want to make more efficient use out of sub snakes or front of house snakes in a live situation or the tie lines between the control room and the tracking room in a studio situation it can also save you a bunch of time if you or somebody else runs a long XLR cable backwards rather than re-running the cable just use a turnaround on each end while it's generally best to avoid y cables they can help in a pinch especially if you want to send one output to multiple destinations without using two separate sends if you're sending a single Dynamic mic to multiple consoles for example an XLR female to dual XLR male adapter is a simple solution however I'd recommend using a proper mic level splitter if possible more commonly you may use an XLR female to dual XLR mail adapter when routing the main PA output from your console to a powered speaker and subwoofer or an amp that's configured in Stereo or a PA that requires multiple amps many speakers amps and amp racks have parallel outputs built in for this purpose but if you don't have that as an option A Y cable is nice to have I wouldn't recommend using a y cable to send two sources to the same input though if you want to switch between sources a rat sound switcher is a good choice and if you need to mix two sources together you should probably be using a mixer another situation where y cables are useful is when dealing with headphones using a simple headphone splitter is not a perfect solution but it works when you only have one headphone amp available ideally you would have two headphone amplifiers when using two sets of headphones using a splitter impacts the load on the amplifier and it doesn't allow each listener to independently control their listening level but again it's an okay solution when there isn't another option as you probably already know quarter inch and eighth inch Jacks and plugs are both very common you never know when you'll need to connect a pair of headphones with an eighth inch connector to a quarter inch Jack or vice versa so I'd recommend carrying at least one or two of these adapters with you in my experience most headphones will have one of these built in and most professional gear has a quarter inch headphone output so I think it's most important to have an adapter that allows you to connect an 8 inch plug to a quarter inch Jack although they do make adapters that do the opposite in addition to these quarter inch to eighth inch adapters that we've needed for decades it's now become necessary to also have adapters that make it possible to get an analog signal from smartphones this includes a lightning to eighth inch adapter for Apple phones or a USBC to eighth inch adapter for most other phones getting a simple adapter like this is fine as long as your device has plenty of battery or it can charge via a wireless charger but I prefer to carry an adapter that allows me to charge my phone with a cable and extract audio simultaneously these are also useful and that they allow you to send audio into your phone when necessary whether you're using a device with a built-in eighth inch headphone output or extracting audio with an adapter you'll still need a way to connect that Source into your mixer or audio interface this is why it's important to have at least one eighth inch TRS to dual quarter inch TS adapter an adapter like this lets you pump audio from your smartphone or laptop to the PA to test the system which is an important part of the setup process for short distances of less than 15 to 20 feet a simple adapter like this is perfectly acceptable the great thing about this adapter compared to the eighth inch TRS to dual XLR adapters is that the Dual quarter inch TS will connect to the line inputs on smaller mixers helping to avoid accidentally destroying your device with phantom power but it can also be useful when you need to provide an auxiliary input on stage for any situation like this where the cable run is longer than 15 feet I'd recommend using a DI box or something similar that will transform the high impedance output of that device to a balanced signal otherwise you run a huge risk of creating a lot of noise and Distortion in the signal you can integrate a DI Box by connecting the eighth inch to dual quarter inch TS adapter to two mono di boxes or to one stereo di box alternatively you could use a DI that's specifically designed for these types of applications such as the radial Pro av2 you if you're just running the stereo signal from the high impedance source to a mono PA system you could simplify the whole process by using something like the rapco Horizon LTI blocks it turns any 8 inch stereo output into a balanced mono signal so that you can place it anywhere you need it without worrying about cable length it also has a built-in level knob which is good for when you need to disconnect and reconnect a device without causing a pop in the speakers making it perfect for on-stage aux inputs because it's easy for non-audio people to use and it sums the stereo signal into a single Channel in the next video you'll learn why it's so important to use a DI box for long cable runs like this go ahead and click the link that's on your screen now and I'll see you over there

Channel: Audio University

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Id: _sr0rOXEC6c

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023