Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Samuel Rees]

Understood. Any non-DIY options out there that won't break the bank? EWI Splits don't have lift switches, how big of a deal breaker is that?

[Geoff Doane]

Any recommendations on where to get a decent priced splitter for a band that's looking to carry their own monitor console?  Ground lifts would definitely be nice. 

Here's an example of a simple splitter I built a few years ago.  It was made for someone who does location recording, but the idea is the same for bands carrying their own monitor console.  Whirlwind and Radial, as well as other manufacturers seem receptive to custom work like this.  You just have to spec exactly how you want it built for them.  I think it's important in a situation like this to cause the least grief possible for the host PA company.  With this setup, the end of the snake with the single XLRs stays plugged into the monitor console, and the end with the doubled connectors gets inserted between the stage mic cables and the main snake inputs.  You simple pick off which channels you need in the monitors, and insert the double end XLRs. 

You still have to decide what to do with the shields on one of the outputs.  For this example, I think I connected all the grounds, since the owner might want to use it as a non-split snake in some applications.  For one that would always be used with a monitor console, I'd just leave the shields disconnected at the monitor console end.  The cables will all get their ground from the house system (which is presumably already working), and the monitor console gets its ground from the AC plug.  As much as I'd like to think that pin 1 has been solved as JR noted, I think it will take a few more years before the offenders are all banished to garage practice systems. 

[Rob Spence]

My $0.02

I have an EWI poor mans split. Never had a problem using it with consoles made in the past 20+ years.

I used to have 24ch of transformer split. It weighs a lot and uses up lots of rack space unless you have a custom unit made.
An IEM rack I made for a band with 4 transmitters and 16ch with mixer weighed 250lb.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jay Barracato]

Understood. Any non-DIY options out there that won't break the bank? EWI Splits don't have lift switches, how big of a deal breaker is that?

I don't think it is a deal breaker at all.

The odds are if you need a ground lift, it is going to be for one particular channel because of something that is on that channel. In that case I really don't want the ground lift at the stage box, I want it where I have better control, i.e. either at FOH or Monitor land or at the equipment itself.

Anywhere you decide you need one, a handful of barrel type (I use the ones from Audiopile) take care of the need.

[Samuel Rees]

I don't think it is a deal breaker at all.

The odds are if you need a ground lift, it is going to be for one particular channel because of something that is on that channel. In that case I really don't want the ground lift at the stage box, I want it where I have better control, i.e. either at FOH or Monitor land or at the equipment itself.

Anywhere you decide you need one, a handful of barrel type (I use the ones from Audiopile) take care of the need.

Makes sense. Actually, would it make sense to open the box up and just cut all the grounds for the secondary leg and label it as such? That way Phantom would always be from FOH/Primary leg and grounding would always be from FOH power?

[Tim McCulloch]

Makes sense. Actually, would it make sense to open the box up and just cut all the grounds for the secondary leg and label it as such? That way Phantom would always be from FOH/Primary leg and grounding would always be from FOH power?

Unnecessary.

I've been following this thread and have a couple of observations -

I've been a "isolated split" guy for a long, long time and was very reluctant to accept "wye" splitters.  Remember that I'm an old, crusty guy that lent the brass key to Ben Franklin for his little kite/lightning experiment... and back in the day we had lots of gear that had "pin 1 issues" designed into them, no standard for electrical powering of FOH (get it where you can, usually), and often had to interface with artist-provided gear of unknown status.  Transformer isolated splits without grounds were the primary way to keep ground loops out of inputs.

Fast forward to more recent times and sound company practices have improved regarding power to FOH, most gear no longer exhibit pin 1 issues and most artist-provided equipment is of more current vintage.

About 10 years ago I reluctantly approved purchase of wye splitters and we have not had any ground loop experiences that could not be dealt with by pin 1 lifts... and if lifting pin 1 doesn't solve the problem, chances are a transformer won't, either.

Impedance changes brought about by varying the input gain on consoles will pass through the transformer.  The only way to not have that happen is with a true active split as described by Tom Young, and such splits are very, very expensive and usually unnecessary unless you must interface with the "outside world" like recording or broadcast trucks.

Get a poor man's splitter or just make up a bunch of XLR wye cords.  Carry a half-dozen pin 1 lifts (that will go mostly unused).

It is not necessary to over think this.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc

[George Dougherty]

Makes sense. Actually, would it make sense to open the box up and just cut all the grounds for the secondary leg and label it as such? That way Phantom would always be from FOH/Primary leg and grounding would always be from FOH power?

That's what I was thinking of doing.  Except I think I'd open the connectors for the monitor side and snip them there.  Then again, it'd be a lot easier to do it at one time in the stage box, as long as you keep the lines straight.  Mix them up and you might have to do a bunch of re-soldering.

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Makes sense. Actually, would it make sense to open the box up and just cut all the grounds for the secondary leg and label it as such? That way Phantom would always be from FOH/Primary leg and grounding would always be from FOH power?

I think you should buy a poor mans splitter without ground lifts.  Do not cut pit 1. Use phantom from both consoles.  Don't worry about it.

[Samuel Rees]

Thanks everyone. This is something I really needed to get into my head.

[ProSoundWeb Community]