XLR to 1/4" adapter madness!

[benton netty]

okay, here's something that's been driving me crazy, and i'm coming to this website as a last resort.

i'm recording right now with a tascam 488 MKII, and what i'm trying to do is run my shure sm58 into my guitar effects pedals and then into the machine's. but, for whatever reason, this won't work. what i mean by this is i plug the XLR to 1/4" adapter on the end of the mic cord and then into the input of the pedal. then i run a cord from the output of the pedal into the 1/4" jack on the recorder. but nothing happens. no signal, and the lights on my pedals don't even come on when i press on them.

to troubleshoot, all i did was take a cheap radio shack mic with a built-on 1/4" jack on it and plug it in in place of the sm58. it worked perfectly. what the?!?

then what i did was unplug the cord from the input of the machine (the same cord that was coming from the output of the pedal), and i plugged the sm58 with the adapter on the cord directly into the machine.

now it worked just fine.

i fiddled around more, swapping out pedals, mics, and cords, and i learned that the ONLY thing that i couldn't get to work was the sm58--->mic cord-->
adapter---->to pedal input ----cord to recorder 1/4 input setup.

this is driving me nutty. ESPECIALLY because i used to do this same thing with my cheap tascam porta 03 4-track all the time, but now it won't work with my 8-track.

what's the story, here? if you need clarification, don't hesitate to ask.

any help is HUGELY appreciated.

thanks,
tony

[Meriphew]

i was running vox through a fx pedal last nite as well. A Shure Beta 58 using a mic input transformer (plugs onto the end of the XLR cable turning it into a 1/4 inch dealy). The one I have is made by Hosa and the piece of crap just came apart (don't ever buy Hosa stuff).

[jayrope]

xlr to 1/4 ... pins. check if the pins are correctly wired.

[mpedrummer]

Your problem is basically mismatched impedance.

Dunno how you are with electronics, so I'll use the explanation I used with my mom. Don't mean to offend.

An 'ohm' is a thingy in electronics. Specifically, it's a measurement of impedance. A guitar generally puts out somewhere in the range of 10000 ohms. All your guitar pedals, etc, expect/need 10000 ohms to really do anything.

A mic (in this case, the 58) puts out about 150 ohms. Not enough.

The RadioShack mic with the built in 1/4" connector is probably a "high-impedance" microphone. Which is why it worked.

The device Meriphew is talking about is an impedance converter. Its purpose in life is to take mic impedance and match it up with guitar amps, etc.

Hope that helps!
MPEDrummer

[benton netty]

yeah, i actually tried two different "low-Z to high-Z" transformer/adapter dealy-bobs.

i can't figure this out.

[jajjguy]

i dont think it's an impedance problem. that kind of problem would hurt your tone, but it wouldn't stop it from working.

i think it's a wiring thing. the pins on the XLR are probably wired differently than on the adapter. XLR has three pins, while standard 1/4 has only two bits of wire. the adapter takes the two it thinks are the important ones and shorts the other one to ground. if the wiring is non-standard, then you've just lost your signal. this same mic will work just fine with a regular XLR. i had this problem myself with one particular C1000s; other ones were fine, but that one didn't like XLR -> 1/4" cords.

the solution, if you're handy, would be to rewire the adapter. i'm not handy, so i won't try to tell you how.

[AnalogElectric]

Well lookie lookie...hi Tony. We'll be seeing you in a few days, heh.

--Adam Lazlo

[rhythm ranch]

i plug the XLR to 1/4" adapter on the end of the mic cord and then into the input of the pedal. then i run a cord from the output of the pedal into the 1/4" jack on the recorder. but nothing happens. no signal, and the lights on my pedals don't even come on when i press on them.

to troubleshoot, all i did was take a cheap radio shack mic with a built-on 1/4" jack on it and plug it in in place of the sm58. it worked perfectly. what the?!?

then what i did was unplug the cord from the input of the machine (the same cord that was coming from the output of the pedal), and i plugged the sm58 with the adapter on the cord directly into the machine.

now it worked just fine.

i fiddled around more, swapping out pedals, mics, and cords, and i learned that the ONLY thing that i couldn't get to work was the sm58--->mic cord-->
adapter---->to pedal input ----cord to recorder 1/4 input setup.

Hi Tony,
Most effects pedals won't turn on if there isn't a 1/4" plug in their input. Plugging in a cord completes a circuit and allows the pedal to work. From your description: "...nothing happens. no signal, and the lights on my pedals don't even come on when i press on them," it sounds like the XLR to 1/4" adaptor you're using is shorting the input of the pedal. Is it a TS (tip/sleeve) or TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) 1/4"? If it's a TRS, this could be the problem.
Hope this helps,
Mark