My mixer has no pad switches so how to overcome?

[TomHoward]

My personal recommendation would be to build some, with about 12" of cable and Neutrik XLRs on each end - there should be enough room to fit the resistors within the connectors, and the advantage would be that you don't end up with the adaptors sticking 6 inches out of your desk, like the Canford and CPC pads would - as they become perfectly placed for getting whacked and damaging your input connectors.

[Rob_Beech]

Very valid point about the connectors sticking out, though a short patch lead on the end and an inline connector would solve this but add more to go wrong to the chain.

 

Buying the cheap ones, or making them is the simplest option. Do have a good listen to your microphones though, with some mics, the hot signal not only overloads a desk without a pad, but actually overloads the microphone giving a nasty sound. Though I suspect a decent kick drum mic and a condenser used for drum over heads are unlikely to cause this problem.

 

 

And slightly OT, as for that up there, I for one am somewhat disappointed. I expected better to be quite honest.

[TomHoward]

Very valid point about the connectors sticking out, though a short patch lead on the end and an inline connector would solve this but add more to go wrong to the chain.

I also though this; you could also insert them halfway down the cable if you were joining XLRs, but it isn't an especially neat solution. You could also insert them at the mic end, but in most situations that would not be entirely practical either.

[Bobbsy]

I've always built my own....as Rob describes with a short length of cable in the middle to avoid plugging what is effectively a lever into the back of my mixer.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has direct experience with the build quality of those CPC attenuators? The price is truly amazing considering that, using Neutrik connectors, the ones I've built cost around double that price before I even factor in any of my time. If I include my efforts, even the Canford price doesn't seem bad but the CPC ones (if they're reliable enough) are the bargain of the century.

 

Bob

[Rob_Beech]

A while back I had some of the CPC adaptors (the non attenuating ones) in barrel form similar to those shown above. XLRM to M, Jack to XLRM, lots of combinations. They were there to serve a purpose and do a job. I still see them knocking about on a shelf from time to time but I don't tend to use them any more. I did have a few issues with them crackling, but this was mainly the Jack to XLR (all combinations) than the XLR to XLR barrels. I suspect that the bulkiness of them doesn't help when they are of a cheap build quality.

 

I can only suspect the attenuators will be the same quality, only with a bit of magic added, so they're probably fine really, providing you look after them.

 

I guess overall they'd be fine for a "GYOTS" device but if you know you'd need it every gig then I'd maybe look into something else.

[mervaka]

I've always built my own....as Rob describes with a short length of cable in the middle to avoid plugging what is effectively a lever into the back of my mixer.

 

I'm wondering if anyone has direct experience with the build quality of those CPC attenuators? The price is truly amazing considering that, using Neutrik connectors, the ones I've built cost around double that price before I even factor in any of my time. If I include my efforts, even the Canford price doesn't seem bad but the CPC ones (if they're reliable enough) are the bargain of the century.

 

Bob

 

if they're anything like the thomann unbranded connectors, the physical stresses in the female connectors are applied to the socket itself, not the barrel. really poor design.