Balancing

[cigam]

I am wiring an ADC balanced bantam patch bay with Gotham cable.

I Have 14 unbalanced synth outputs - 10 from my K2500s and two other stereo pairs from two other synths that will come up to the bay.

Should I balance the synth outputs before they hit the bay. The runs are only about 5 to 7 feet.

Thanks,
CIGAM

[chrispnyc]

I don't see how it could hurt. How would you balance them?

[Vaphoron]

I wouldn't really worry about balanced cables unless you are hearing noise or have to run near power lines. If you are running balanced cables from an unbalanced output though, the signal will still be unbalanced no matter what. So it wouldn't hurt anything to run balanced cables, it just won't help anything in that case.

[cigam]

I would use an inline direct box.

I would like to do it rather inexpensively.

I can get some of those Rapco Dbblox for REALLY cheap from a friend and then I would not have to mess with a rack DI or bulky DI boxes.

I know that ther are probably better DI's out there, but like I said I would like to do this rather inexpensively since I need to do 15 outputs.

But, the question really is: Is it totally necessary? The K2500S has a really hot output.

Do you think I really NEED to balance them?

Thanks for your time!

CIGAM

[Vaphoron]

I honestly wouldn't worry with it. If you are only running a couple feet and you aren't going over power lines you should be fine. You could always buy 2 DI's, check them out and see if anything sounds better.

[cigam]

Good idea!

I'm gonna try that and see what happens.

Thank You for your time.

CIGAM

[JGuth]

2 things: 1) I'd always wire "balanced" ie 2 conductor+shield cables and trs connectors even to unbalanced equipment so that it's easy to upgrade to balanced when that piece inevetably gets replaced.
Some things will be quiter if unbalanced at the connector at their back panal. depends on your and their ground schemes etc. But usually I unbalance by 1 at device outputs lifting the pin 3 wire (pin 2 hot) (in trs plugs lifting the ring) and 2 at device inputs connecting pin 2 and 3 (ie grounding the ring).
K2500 I believe has switching at its individual out jacks which affect the internal mix sent to its mix outs. Check the manual. I believe if you plug a non trs plug into an ind out that signal is withdrawn from the mix out. So if you want to have plugs in all the ind outs AND have the mix out function you use trs plugs at the outs and leave the ring open. Do check the 2500 manual as I'm pulling this from ancient memory...