r/audioengineering • u/AutoModerator • 3d ago

Community Help r/AudioEngineering Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk

Welcome to the r/AudioEngineering help desk. A place where you can ask community members for help shopping for and setting up audio engineering gear.

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u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

Greetings, everybody!

I recently bought a new audio interface, the MOTU M2 (an amazing little device), but I made the mistake of not accounting for future upgrades.

I recently found a second-hand Avantone MixCube at a great price and decided to grab it. The problem? My MOTU M2's main balanced outputs are already occupied by my Kali Audio IN-5 monitors.

Thankfully, the M2 has a secondary mirrored RCA output that I can use. Unfortunately, the RCA connection constantly picks up noise, interference, static... you name it.

So, as far as I can tell, I have two options:

  1. Buy a studio monitor controller.
  2. Convert the RCA output to XLR or TRS.

The problem with the first option is that monitor controllers can be pretty expensive, and from what I've read, the more affordable options from brands like Behringer and Mackie don't seem to have the best reputation.

So, I'm leaning towards the second option: converting the RCA output to XLR or TRS. Surely it can't be that complicated, right?

Has anyone dealt with a similar setup or found a reliable way to get a clean signal from the M2's RCA outputs to a monitor with balanced inputs?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1

u/Tall_Category_304 1d ago

You can’t turn rca into balanced really. Something needs to flip the phase on the second leg of the hot signal. Used to be a transformer that did it. You can get an xlr adaptor but it won’t be balanced. It’ll just have one channel that’s hot. How long is the cable? Unbalanced really shouldn’t be that bad on line level signals. It may be a grounding issue

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u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

Yeah, Idk. I'm trying really hard to solve it but I'm not quite expert at audio technicalities. Whenever I move my mouse or type my keyboard I can hear the static change the frequency, it like my RCA are cursed by an evil witch!

1

u/Tall_Category_304 1d ago

This is from noise getting into your ground from the computer. The best way to solve would likely be redirecting the ground from your rca cable so that it doesn’t go back to the interface. Essentially you’d have to make a custom rca cable. That’s the cheapest easiest solution I would think. Look up pin one problem. It’s a known issue in a lot of gear

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u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

Ok? But pin one is related to XLR tho? Not RCA. Can you elaborate?

1

u/Tall_Category_304 1d ago

Just remove the part about xlr. RCA has signal and ground. Xlr has signal, phase inverted signal, and ground. Pin one problem has to do with the ground. Same issue just without the balanced leg running next to the signal.

1

u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

Do they seriously not sell cable like this?

1

u/boredmessiah Composer 1d ago

what about a passive switch? those are not expensive since they're not technically difficult to make. will you want to use them both at the same time?

1

u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

Like I mentioned passive switches like Mackie big knob are considered poor quality for many reviews and the internet in general. Do you have any other recommendations for a good passive switch?

1

u/boredmessiah Composer 1d ago

where have you seen these reviews? SOS is pretty reputable and they seem to like it:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/mackie-big-knob

if you're concerned I would buy it with a warranty and perform a couple of null tests, routing the output back from the big knob into your MOTU, to verify its performance.

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u/Cool_Mammoth6901 1d ago

The review made by sos is not for a passive big knob. On top of that it was published a long time ago in 2005. My point is the review is a bit irrelevant at this point in time. Furthermore regarding testing it out, I have no doubt that it will work to begin with, however the review indicated that the failure point start after 2 to 4 years, usually mentioning the knob scratching, left and right channel have different volume, sound quality degradation, in some case the demise of the device and more. So in conclusion, it seems that producing quality monitor switch at a budget price range is basically impossible like you paying like 200 ( I ain't paying 200 just to switch monitor).

1

u/SilentEdge 1d ago

Hi,  my main vocal mic is a SM7B, which is great for screams. But I've been doing a lot of singing now in a different project that's much more indie rock and have been finding all of my recordings sound overly dark and warm, and have been a pain to lift through the mix. I've had to resort to some hilariously nasal renditions (to me at least) just to make my voice focused enough to fit, and that's not something I want to rely on.

I've got a budget of like $500, but can stretch if I find something I really like.

What are some good, brighter sounding mics that pair well with dark, warm baritone/baritenor voices? Hoping to cut through the mix better and emphasize more of a crisp vocal sound.

Thank you!

2

u/Tall_Category_304 1d ago

For $500 get something from Miketek. Also you can eq and compress an sm7b to sound pretty good and natural on softer vocals. It needs a big treble lift and some of the low mids taken out

1

u/boredmessiah Composer 1d ago

the sm7b is an unusual mic and it's rather insane how it's become so popular. you can get far more neutral sounding mics from 100 onwards. since you have such a spacious budget, get a nice large diaphragm condenser. rode nt series, audio technica at20xx series, you really can't go wrong.

1

u/jaymz168 Sound Reinforcement 18h ago

Before you spend any money just try boosting high mids and/or highs with EQ.

The sub $1000 mic market is very saturated. JZ Microphones has some crazy sale going on right now for the Amethyst. It's normally $1200 but like $700 with a free shockmount right now.

Roswell Mics also has some really good options around your budget in the Mini series.

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u/Byte_Of_Pies 23h ago

Hi everyone, my partner and I are recording some meditation audios.
We’ve been experimenting I’ve been using a Rode Pro wireless compact mic directly into my iPhone recording through the Blackmagic camera app.

If I’m being kind the audio sounds rubbish.

We record in a spare room at the house which is fairly quiet, but still the audio sounds so cold and tinny. I’m editing in Adobe premier but I still don’t seem to be able to get the audio sounding warm and rich.

Short of going to a recording studio (which we’re happy to do if needs be) is there anyway of upgrading/making better the home setup to get better audio?

1

u/Substantial-Falcon-8 23h ago

Not sure if what I am trying to do can even be done, but I have a recording from a cassette that is now a wav/mp3 file (I have the recording in both formats) and the hiss is pretty loud, our grandmother just passed away, and my aunts want to use a recording from the tape to play at her celebration of life. I have no idea if this is even possible, but thought I would see if anyone can point me in the right direction. Is there an Ai that could handle something like this, or a program that I could try and learn to use? Thanks.

Here is the song

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u/Vinvannon 20h ago

If you're playing the recording through a mixer, you can use the hi frequency eq to filter out the hiss. You can also do the same in a DAW.

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u/Substantial-Falcon-8 20h ago

Thanks, I was hoping to do it through a program, to make a new file, it will be played on a phone or something connected to a speaker at the church.

1

u/papercutsonmyballs 23h ago

I have a simple mixing desk with the rack space for the longer, more common sized outboard gear. I have only my preamp that I mounted on the desk.
I want to build a small preamp from diyrecordingequipment.com and mount it on the desk (if it’s even possible). Has anyone done this and what can I do to make them fit?

1

u/jaymz168 Sound Reinforcement 19h ago

If you're talking about the taller modules then they are 500 series modules and you'll need a chassis for them. The advantage of the 500 series format is that you have a single chassis with a single power supply that can host multiple types of equipment like preamps, EQs, and compressors and more.

One of the more expensive parts of manufacturing rack equipment is the chassis and power supply so it can save money in the long run. The chassis provides power and I/O for the modules which themselves only have a card edge connector to interface with the rack.

These racks are typically 3RU tall though there are also smaller ones that have like two slots and will only take up 1RU.