I’ve decided that I want to make my home set-up as close to a club set up as possible, which means that my DDJ-SX2 probably will no longer fit the bill. I do, however, still plan on doing a lot of private parties and events where I have to bring gear out, so I would like to have a controller to lug around. I also have some good speakers with XLR connections that I typically bring with me.
My question is, are there any good, small, light controllers out there that can be used with Serato DJ and have XLR ouputs???
Alternatively, are there certain adapters that can that a 1/4 out or RCA out and turn it into XLR? If so, do they drastically reduce sound quality?
The type of connector is one thing. But the CRITICAL idea is this: are the outputs “balanced” or “unbalanced.” That is the thing to look for.
Balanced outputs include a ground connection to use as a reference. This requires THREE conductors in the cable, and is commonly used with “xlr” or “1/4 inch TRS” connectors. The connector type does not matter, as long as the connection is “balanced.” Balanced connections can be used to make LONG cable runs (my longest was about 800ft) with minimal loss of signal and minimal increase in signal noise.
Unbalanced connections use TWO conductors in the cable. 1/4" STEREO cables also use a TRS connector, but send two unbalanced signals that share a common neutral return path. RCA is a two conductor only connection. Provided the cable lengths are reasonably short (<10ft), there is little degradation of sound quality.
I have to ask another newb question to confirm my understanding of your previous explanation:
If I wanted to use a controller with RCA outputs, but I also wanted to play in venues where I would have to connected to speakers placed more than 10 ft away, I would basically be out of luck, right?
I know I don’t have to worry about what will happen with what I’ve got (DDJ-SX2), because it’s a full featured controller. Unfortunately, it’s also large and heavy, and makes traveling a bit of a chore (I go to Japan often and would like to be able to have a smaller controller to lug around). That’s why I was considering going to something like a Mixtrack Pro III when it comes out
When I play clubs, I always use the house gear, so this kind of thing doesn’t come up.
Interesting. It is a bit pricey for a discontinued product, though. I think at this point the Mixtrack III is probably going to be the best bet, as long as sound isn’t going to be an issue with my speakers.
The VCI380 is in a different legue to the mixtrack in terms of audio and build quality - also its a real mixer and at sub $500 is really a steal right now.
You could get away with a (decent) DI box for longer Cable runs or run into a small secondary mixer first like a behringer 502 ($50) which has balanced outs
No. I have seen unbalanced cables that are 25ft long, but not much longer “off the shelf.” It’s not like something is going to burst into flames at 11ft or 26ft. However, the odds of a “hum” or a “buzz” being introduced into the sound is increased. The solutions for longer signal runs are well known, and reasonably inexpensive…so it tends to not be worth pushing the boundaries to any degree.
If my sound source was ONLY unbalanced RCA, I would put a mixer with a balanced output into the signal chain. Something like this would be OK. This mixer has 1/4" outputs that are both balanced / unbalanced.
Converting the cable is trivial. I have some of these in the 1ft range to use as patch cables.
That said, there are a LOT of sound interfaces, and controllers that offer balanced outputs. If you know you need longer cable runs, then just make that feature a requirement for what you will buy.
Couple of things, a DI is used to connect Line level output to Mic level input, although these days they can be quite hot on the output and can be used to balance signals, and nothing in Behringer with an external power supply (so below the 1204) has balanced outs on their masters.
I’ve used RCA to XLR without issues for years so stop worrying about it and get into playing
