Using the Venue DI with an Allen & Heath Mixer

[Mking]

I am sure these are very basic questions and principals but I still don't completely understand the correct connection of these two pieces of sound equipment. I have a Gibson J-45TV with K&K mini transducer pickups, a Baggs Venue DI, and an Allen & Heath ZED-10FX mixer. I understand a DI is supposed to change an unbalanced signal to a balanced signal. If I connect to my mixer with a regular guitar cord with a quarter inch plug (unbalanced) out of the DI, do I go into the mixer line/mic channel or the guitar/Hi Z channel? If the DI is supposed to match the line level, wouldn't I go into the line/mic?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Mking

I am sure these are very basic questions and principals but I still don't completely understand the correct connection of these two pieces of sound equipment. I have a Gibson J-45TV with K&K mini transducer pickups, a Baggs Venue DI, and an Allen & Heath ZED-10FX mixer. I understand a DI is supposed to change an unbalanced signal to a balanced signal. If I connect to my mixer with a regular guitar cord with a quarter inch plug (unbalanced) out of the DI, do I go into the mixer line/mic channel or the guitar/Hi Z channel? If the DI is supposed to match the line level, wouldn't I go into the line/mic?

Hi Mking...
I'd plug from the XLR output on the Venue to an XLR channel input on the Allen & Heath. Not only will it match impedance wise, it will allow much longer cable runs without signal degradation.

You may have to flip a switch on the channel input-gain section (or dial it down a bit) to matches the XLR input level to the channel so you don't overdrive it.

[Mking]

Larry, Thanks. I will try that. The only drawback to that is, going out with the XLR the volume knob on the DI is disabled.

Michael

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Mking

I am sure these are very basic questions and principals but I still don't completely understand the correct connection of these two pieces of sound equipment. I have a Gibson J-45TV with K&K mini transducer pickups, a Baggs Venue DI, and an Allen & Heath ZED-10FX mixer. I understand a DI is supposed to change an unbalanced signal to a balanced signal. If I connect to my mixer with a regular guitar cord with a quarter inch plug (unbalanced) out of the DI, do I go into the mixer line/mic channel or the guitar/Hi Z channel? If the DI is supposed to match the line level, wouldn't I go into the line/mic?

You should get an XLR cable (you sometimes hear them called "mic cables") like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Waves-C...=1418789058301

These cable have a male and a female end. The female end goes into the DI output on the back of the unit, and the male end goes into any of the mic (XLR) inputs on your mixer. This gives you a balanced, low impedance signal of the kind the mic input on a mixer is designed to see, allowing in turn for very long cable runs without noise and loss of signal. This output on the Venue is not affected by the volume control on the unit, so set the gain on the input, and use the gain control on the ZED to get the right input gain for the mixer. If you hit the "Listen" button at the bottom of the controls for that channel, the ZED will send this signal through the LED meter. It should jump into the orange range on your loudest bit of playing, maybe only very very occasionally hitting the red.

The 1/4" output on the side of the Venue is for feeding a stage amp, usually for monitoring. It's unbalanced, and so the cable you use shouldn't be very long. You could use this to go into a line input on your mixer, but one of the purposes of the Venue (in addition to it's EQ, tuner, and etc.), really, is to allow you to interface with one of the mic inputs on a mixer like the ZED. Since the output is unbalanced, it doesn't matter if the input you go into is balanced or not. T

he two High-Z line inputs on the mixer are for plugging in a passive pickup directly. OK if you don't have a DI box or a preamp/DI unit like the Venue, and as long as the cable run is relatively short.

Louis

[Mking]

Louis, That was the explaination and use case info I was looking for. LR Baggs should have come to you when they were writing the user's manual for the Venue DI. You cleared it up pretty well.
You responded to me on another thread about adjusting the EQ with a sweepable freq knob and I have one more question regarding that. Let's take the freqs for the hi mid on the Venue. It covers 500-2.5k. Those frequencies are all being presented except for the one I selected that I don't want? As you said in the other thread, turn the level all the way up and sweep through until I find the one I don't want in the mix. I assume turning down the level to reduce the offending freq will also cut the other freqs in the 500-2.5k spectrum or the one I don't want is isolated (to either cut or boost)
If anyone else has an opinion please chime in.
Michael

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by Mking

Louis, That was the explaination and use case info I was looking for. LR Baggs should have come to you when they were writing the user's manual for the Venue DI. You cleared it up pretty well.
You responded to me on another thread about adjusting the EQ with a sweepable freq knob and I have one more question regarding that. Let's take the freqs for the hi mid on the Venue. It covers 500-2.5k. Those frequencies are all being presented except for the one I selected that I don't want? As you said in the other thread, turn the level all the way up and sweep through until I find the one I don't want in the mix. I assume turning down the level to reduce the offending freq will also cut the other freqs in the 500-2.5k spectrum or the one I don't want is isolated (to either cut or boost)
If anyone else has an opinion please chime in.
Michael

When you cut the frequencies you've identified as the ones you don't want, you actually pull down a whole swath of the frequencies on either side of the point at which your frequency knob is set (the pattern is a slope on either side, not a sharp line). The width of the effected frequencies can be narrower or wider (and the slopes steeper of shallower) depending on how how the EQ is designed. The one on the Venue is "semi-parametric," meaning that you can set the frequency point for cut or boost and the amount of cut or boost, but not the width, which is called the "Q." In a full parametric design, you'd be able to set the Q yourself. Note that the "notch" filter on the Venue uses a very narrow Q with a fixed amount of cut. That's for reducing a particular frequency that is feeding back without effecting a wider range of frequencies (the idea is to deal with the problem without affecting the sound too much). The Q on the Mid frequency controls is wider, but I don't know how wide. The idea is to create an effect of cut or boost that sounds subtle and natural, "musical," as the marketing literature will often put it.

I hope that's helpful!

Best,

Louis

[Tomm Williams]

Mking

I've been using A&H consoles for years and they are very good ones. The Q as Louis talked about is not adjustable but (most likely) is narrow enough for most any purpose. I think you might find that it isloates your problem frequency to a satisfactory level. Any knowledgeable sound tech will tell you that live sound is all about compromising what you want and what is possible. I use the GL2800 series for live events and even at that level ($5,500) the Q is not adjustable.............never been an issue.

[Mking]

Louis, A lot of help. thanks. Now if I can only get this guitar to sound natural and not so quacky, metallic, and without the boominess. Thanks again.
Michael

[Tomm Williams]

Originally Posted by Mking

Louis, A lot of help. thanks. Now if I can only get this guitar to sound natural and not so quacky, metallic, and without the boominess. Thanks again.
Michael

Your mixer has also a HPF (high pass filter) it might help considerably with the "boominess"

[Mking]

The HPF has helped along with decreasing the gain. Thanks