Questions on Equipments to be Used

[SymboliC]

Hi,

I have 4 quesitons below. Would be happy to get answers to clarify these.

-----------------------

1) I own a Roland Duo-Capture EX and for mixing I use monitors Fostex PM0.5 MKII Active nearfield monitors.

Which type of cables should I be using between these two in order to get the best audio experience with minimal loss in sound quality??

Fostex monitors have "BALANCED combo XLR/TRS 1/4"" input behind them.
Roland has two 1/4" BALANCED outputs.

Can I just go and buy two BALANCED (TRS with 2 rings on the tip) cables? Any details that I should be aware of?

-----------------------

2) Duo Capture EX has an HEADPHONE output at the front panel. When I plug my phones in, the sound level is very low. I know that it is a common sense to listen the mixes in low volume levels for monitoring purposes but other than this, when I just want to listen to music with enough levels, I crank the output knob up to the end.

Can I use a headphone pre-amp to eliminate this problem? What are the specs that I need to pay attention while purchasing a headphone pre-amp?

Somewhere I've read that someone mentioned the phones output impedance of Roland is 47 (though this number seems a little odd to me).

-----------------------

3) The switches are at the back panel for my monitors (which is a con for FOSTEX) and also Roland doesn't have a "mute" switch.
So I keep switching my monitors on and off when I'm about to plug my headphones in.

I've heard that there are "monitor controller" interfaces. Active & passive.

Which one should I get without sacrifing the signal quality between my interface and monitors? Remember, my monitors are active nearfield and the cable length isn't that much.

-----------------------

4) MIDI keyboards.

I'm pretty much a foreigner about these best friends of MIDI programmers and sequence users.

Up to this time I've been doing all heavy MIDI work using the piano roll interface and MIDI lanes.

I'm thinking of buying a MIDI keyboard but since they're a bit too expensive around my local area, I wanted to ask the experienced users which specs I should pay attention to.

What I want is,

1st) Instead of composing songs using a guitar, I prefer to use MIDI keyboard.
2nd) Better and easier experience for controlling velocities, expression levels and modulation.
3rd) Record MIDI data in real time.

I prefer to have a 2 or 3 octave ranged MIDI keyboard.
I prefer a relatively cheap one. What are the differences between the cheap and expensive MIDI keyboards?


THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE!

[pryere]

Hi,

1. You could use two BALANCED (TRS with 2 rings on the tip) cables.
I would use 2x XLR to 1/4" cables. XLR is always a better connection.

2. Too low sounds like a settings problem or your 'phones are not compatible.


3. There are lots of monitor controllers to choose from.
As with your MIDI keyboard, you get what you pay for.
Just avoid anything M audio and you will be fine.

Good luck.

Peace,

J.

[SymboliC]

Originally Posted by pryere

Hi,

1. You could use two BALANCED (TRS with 2 rings on the tip) cables.
I would use 2x XLR to 1/4" cables. XLR is always a better connection...
J.

Hi,

Thanks for the answers.

I bought a KORG microKEY 49. It was nice buy since considering the price and it really suits to my needs since I'm not a pianist and just playing around with triads and automating with MOD wheel. =)

2nd one is a complete phenomenon to me and bit roll-a-dice thing when it comes to making the right choice since most of the stores around here do not allow the headphones to be tested and I couldn't learn about my audio interface's phone impedance.

Also, the info on this particular subject is quite confusing and I see lots of true-false info on the web people arguing about the overall performance of headphones.

What I understand from the info I gathered is that, the impedance of phones should match with the audio source's impedance. After that, need to pay attention to SPL to get the huge volume levels without sacrificing quality? Right?
(Freq response spec. is another thing but it's much more obvious)

Thanks,

[slooky]

I have the Roland duo capture ex too and do not have a problem with sounding really low. So it must be your settings

[ivansc]

Headphones impedance ... The lower the impedance the less power needed to drive them. 8 16 or 32 ohm will be louder. But the MPatch 2 controller for example has a headphone amp built in. Not too expensive and I like mine.

[noise_construct]

Low volume from headphones is usually caused by the amplifier not being able to supply enough power to drive them at the required volume. While this can be caused by the high load impedance of your cans (because the amp has to supply the power at the phones' impedance), it's more likely due to headphone sensitivity, expressed in dB/mW.

That Roland is designed to work also on batteries, which means that it is low in output power, and should be paired with headphones with high sensitivity and low load impedance.

Headphones vary greatly in their sensitivity, which explains why some posters in this thread are happy with the volume they are getting from the Roland. You're not as lucky, and your options are to switch to other pair of cans or add a headphone amplifier. It might not make a difference, but you could try powering the Roland from an AC adaptor instead of USB.

The "47 ohms" could be the maximum headphone impedance the Roland can handle, but the actual impedance also varies with frequency. There's no way of knowing the exact specs without measuring.