The Lost Cord
How many times have you gone searching for a longer guitar cord (or just one that works), or wished the headphone cord was slightly (or a lot) longer? If you say not many, you ain't a pro yet. Happens all the time. Sometimes you need to stick the singer in the bathroom with a mic and a set of headphones, cuz that's where he/she wants to sing, but the headphones won't reach. Whadaya do? If you're smart, you have some of these handy:
They're XLR to 1/4" TRS, with the Tip wired to Pin 2, the Ring wired to Pin 3, and the Sleeve wired to Pin 1.
Need a long guitar cord in a hurry? Grab a M/F XLR pair (with male 1/4" ends), a standard mic cable, and bingo, instant long cord. Need a long headphone extension cord?
Grab a M/F pair, a mic cable and you're in business.
Don't wanna run long separate cords on stage or in the studio? No problem, Use these on your snake into an empty channel to get a guitar or bass into the board without running another long cable.
Switchcraft makes all of these adaptors, and when you really need them, they'll save your ass every time.
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Like a lot of people, I just never got around to laying out the $50 to $100 that it would cost for a full set of these adapters. (they ain't cheap - up to $12/ea). But when Yale Electronics closed up their Sunset Blvd store in Hollywood, I spent three days lugging stuff home from their "closing sale', including a large bag filled with the Switchcraft adapters. In the ensuing 5 months or so, I have not worked even one day in my studio without using at least one or two of these things. Must haves...
I've got a couple of just about every adapter and connector known to man! OK, so I exadgerate a little...(did I spell that right?)
Nothing pisses me off worse than having to run down to Radio Shack to pick-up a crappy, over-priced doo-hickey to make something work. Unfortunately, it's often either make the trip, settle on not doing the thing you're trying to do, or say "screw it" and go fishing...
My collection of 'gadgets' has been invaluable at times, sometimes 'saving the day'. There's some stuff in there that sits for years, only to be resurrected for another odd purpose one day, saving me yet another long delay of a trip to R.S...
"You need to plug WHAT into WHAT?...Yeah, I think I can do that..." <<>>
Just be careful what you connect...
Originally posted by The Kooch:
However, what's kinda funny is how in my experience it's the pro studios that lack these interconnects while the semi-pros have scads of them. In my experience, the bigger studios have all of these things, but it does sometimes take longer for the assistant to hunt one down than for me to fire up trusty Wenger and make it myself. LOL
In my workbox, drawer 3 are all kinds of wonderful adapters, turnarounds, pads, variable attenuators, Pin-1 lifts, "Y" cables, etc.
Of these, I find I use the 'polarity reversal' cables most often, second comes the "Y" cables. Here's a neat "Y" cable trick...you make them with 2 A3M's and 2 A3F's...that way you can use them as a "Y" in either direction, as 'male to male' or 'female to female' turnarounds, and on the ultimately rare occasion, as a three output "mult" cable.
Having taken the time to put all these together [I carry 1/2 a dozen of each, except polarity reverse cables, there are a dozen of those] I have found saved me more time than expended, when I need one, it doesn't interupt the flow of the session, because I know exactly where they are.
For additional convenience, they're all 'color coded' as well...so separating who does what is a snap. Alot of the "active" adapters [filters, attenuators, etc.] are built into 'barrel connectors', these are all neatly labeled with "P-touch", unless it's brutally obvious what they do [i.e. turnarounds].
I'm with ya on this one. However, what's kinda funny is how in my experience it's the pro studios that lack these interconnects while the semi-pros have scads of them.
One more very useful thing with these is using them to interface from your mic snake to with your headphone amps. (unless you have cool old ones like my Valley Audios--which use XLR)