Can someone please tell me why.........

[Mane1234]

When I take my Ipod and plug it into the mixing board right into a regular channel, using a stereo cable, a mini jack to quarter inch, on certain songs you only hear half the mix. There's obviously some of the tracks not coming through. This is just mp3s of stuff I listen to. Stones, Aerosmith, Black Flag, you know whatever. Stuff I'm very familiar with. Doesn't do it to every song but some of them. Is it because of how the final mix was done or something from mastering? What the hell is it?

[kslight]

Out of phase mix maybe, or fake stereo mix? Especially when you say mp3s...if they are randomly "acquired" mp3s from the internet who knows how it was encoded...so it could be either an mp3 encoding issue (there are many different ways) or a mix issue. What happens when you phase reverse on one channel of the mixer?

[ott0bot]

maybe because you are using a stereo trs cable into a mono channel. so the songs that are mixed mono...most 60's or earlier...seen to come through just fine. but any stereo mix will be missing half the sound.

you need a Y cable (1/8" trs to dual 1/4" ts) and plug into to 2 channels. hard pan L & R and you should be in business. however the impedance and input level may not be matching too well.

If the board has a stereo channel you still usually need a Y cable, as ther are dual input.

some boards have a dual RCA aux input that expects a consumer line level device...so you'd use 1/8" to dual RCA. they usually have a separate volume control in the master section.

[Nick Sevilla]

What Ottobot said.

[losthighway]

Yeah, a 1/8"trs -> left and right 1/4"- y cable is really handy for anyone who wants to be able to plug an ipod in anywhere. Just pan your two tracks and you have stereo ipod listening.

[fossiltooth]

Yeah, if you're plugging it into a single channel device, it ceases to be a "stereo" cable and becomes a "balanced mono" cable instead.

[Mane1234]

Thanks for the answers everyone. Actually most of these songs were either acquired from Itunes or just ripped off my own cds. We tried a Y cable and ran into two channels and I think we had the same problems. Its a cheap Carvin board. No phase buttons. But you all gave me some answers so I can stop obsessing now. It seemed to be a lot of the stuff from the late 70's and 80's. Rocks and Draw The Line especially and some of the songs off the first Pretenders album. I'm pretty sure it has rca tapr outs but no rca ins....

[Snarl 12/8]

If you're using this:
into a single channel on the board, stop and use this:

into two channels on the board. (Pan them hard L and R if you're running your PA in stereo.

[Nick Sevilla]

Thanks for the answers everyone. Actually most of these songs were either acquired from Itunes or just ripped off my own cds. We tried a Y cable and ran into two channels and I think we had the same problems. Its a cheap Carvin board. No phase buttons. But you all gave me some answers so I can stop obsessing now. It seemed to be a lot of the stuff from the late 70's and 80's. Rocks and Draw The Line especially and some of the songs off the first Pretenders album. I'm pretty sure it has rca tapr outs but no rca ins....

Hi,

After reading the entire post and reply, I am amazed that you have not found the issue, and have decided to blame the music instead of the equipment.

I do hope that, one day, you find your issue.