Hi,
Im having a hard time wrapping my head around the neutrik xlr/trs combo jacks and if they can be connected for my usecase .
In my rack I have a 3.5mm trs input jack that can be either line or mic level (it’s an ATEM extreme switcher) . My plan is to break this out into a patch panel where I have two combo jacks .
What I want to achieve the following
1. Plug in two balanced XLR then these should combine to LR on a 3.5mm trs plug
2. Plug in two balanaced TRS then combine as for 1.
3. Plug in two unbalanced TS , use L and R to 3.5 mm jack directly
4. One stereo TRS , just patch LR channel as for 3
Is this setup possible to achieve without using a mixer?
Im having a hard time wrapping my head around the neutrik xlr/trs combo jacks and if they can be connected for my usecase .
In my rack I have a 3.5mm trs input jack that can be either line or mic level (it’s an ATEM extreme switcher) . My plan is to break this out into a patch panel where I have two combo jacks .
What I want to achieve the following
1. Plug in two balanced XLR then these should combine to LR on a 3.5mm trs plug
2. Plug in two balanaced TRS then combine as for 1.
3. Plug in two unbalanced TS , use L and R to 3.5 mm jack directly
4. One stereo TRS , just patch LR channel as for 3
Is this setup possible to achieve without using a mixer?
Not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve, I think you might need some kind of switch to select a different plug.
To clarify , this is mounted in a fly pack that I bring to different venues . Before I am at location I often don’t know what type of audio connection I will receive from the venue . Sometimes it’s balanced Xlr , sometimes a stereo TRS , and even an rca pair (but that is very unusual) . I’m trying to design my case so that it can mate with the most common connectors without me having to bring a whole bunch of adapters .
Oh thank you so much for the excellent reply and schematics . Happy to see from it I can achieve it just with another jack and don’t need any switches or mixers . Thanks a lot
The OP is responding to a post that was present for a few minutes but which I deleted as in the interim I discovered that the Neutrik combo jacks have separate connections for TRS and XLR and I hadn't depicted this in my drawing . I hope to update the drawing and repost , but the only difference will be teeing the TRS connections into the XLR on the combo jack . The additional stereo TRS jack is still required .
Thanks , appreciate your help . One additional question to your drawing there , to unbalance the balanced input I would need a DI box of some sort , right? What would happen if I fed an unbalanced signal through such a DI box? Would the conversion still work or would it break down somehow? I would assume it would work since one of the signals should just have a constant 0 (hopefully) , so the phase invert and addition would just result in adding a 0?
My understanding was that you are already connecting balanced sources to your unbalanced ATEM already but using adapter cables to cope with the different signal presentations .
I do one balanced source for intercom , using a Behringer mono DI box. But that I know is always balanced since I am always controlling it, I have not tested using unbalanced into that . The new setup for production audio is a bit different in the sense it might be either balanced or unbalanced coming in .
To the best of my knowledge DI boxes are generally used for interfacing high impedance unbalanced instrument feeds to low impedance balanced lines to be fed into a mixer input .
My deleted drawing did also not allow for maintaining the integrity of a balanced connection , to do so with some quality would I suggest involve the use of quite expensive transformers , thus I am erring on the side of a pro/semi pro mixer
To get a clearer picture , from what type of equipment will your audio be coming from . I am thinking about signal levels and also the possibility of ground loops .
My deleted drawing did also not allow for maintaining the integrity of a balanced connection , to do so with some quality would I suggest involve the use of quite expensive transformers , thus I am erring on the side of a pro/semi pro mixer
To get a clearer picture , from what type of equipment will your audio be coming from . I am thinking about signal levels and also the possibility of ground loops .
Aha , ok so then perhaps I must restrict to unbalanced audio via the combo jacks .
Either it comes from whatever the venue has to offer or in some cases i route that through my Mackie ProFx and add in some ambient sounds .
Either it comes from whatever the venue has to offer or in some cases i route that through my Mackie ProFx and add in some ambient sounds .
If you have a Mackie ProFx already then I am totally confused , it will surely deal with most of what you are trying to achieve .