audio cables

[chaza]

i have just got hold of a mixer for disco purposes, it takes the 3 mm jacks, i only seem to get one channel working why?
in the back of the computer there is a sterio 3mm jack, the red wire went to the centre, the white wire went to the outer and the eqarth went to the long tag.
all works fine but only one side works. it is my undertsanding that the red wire is one channel ( left) and the other wire is the other channel (right). what have i done wrong.
i am using the correct cable and jacks.

 

[Sheep]

the 3 wires(if 3mm) are the 6 channel input for computers, but they are usuall green, orange, and pink, or something similar. They double up the channels per wire, fronts, center/sub, rears. They are 3mm plugs, is this what they are?


Red and white is usually left ad right.

Its kind of hard to understand what your asking, try editing or a repost.

thx
sheep

 

[chaza]

the connections are the input connections at the back of the mixer, there are two jacks, black and red. the red jack is supposed to be the left channel and the black or sometimes white is supposed to be the right channel. all the wires are connected right im sure, but its strange how only one channel works. the sound is fine but i would like to be able to balance the channels, the same situation is the same for the amp inputs. any thought would be appreciated. thanks

 

[MDS]

Are you absolutely sure you are using the right cables?

You need to connect from the line-out on the sound card to the mixer by using a 1/8" STEREO mini to 2 rca adapter. If you are only getting sound from one channel that makes me think the mini plug you are using is mono.

Have you also verified settings on the mixer? Make sure you haven't panned/faded to one side or have the gain for one channel all the way down to zero.

 

[chaza]

the cables are correct, the jack is a stereo jack cause it has three sections to it separted by the black fibre washers, if it was mono it would only have two sections to it. that is how i understand it to be.
i dont have the channel knob turned off, the jack form the sound card goes into the mixer, then out of the mixer to the amp and then onto the speakers.
are you of the same frame as me, that is i should have two channels?
i am resonably conversant with electronics, but this has confused me a bit.
i even bought a new mixer, the jacks were slightly different, but even that only gives me one channel.

any further thoughts

 

[MDS]

The way you describe the mini plug it sounds right, but to be sure does it look like this: http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=15-2473 ?

If the cable is correct and you get the same result with a different mixer then it must be something with the sound card or what you are playing. What kind of sound card and how is the jack on the sound card you used labelled? What do you use to play the music you want to feed to the mixer?

 

[markw]

Sometimes ya gotta stop thinking and just isolate the problem.

Before starting, before pluging and unplugging any connectors, ALWAYS make sure ALL power is off to ALL units.

First, make sure the adapter cable is working as you think it is.

Try using that adapter with a walkmans headphone output. That should do a right/left split with no problem.

Play the walkman (via your adapter) thru the aux input of a known working stereo to be sure it's working.

If it doesn't work then odds are it's the adapter that's at fault. Replace it by buying a 1/8" stereo mini to 2 RCA adapter at RatShack. That should fer sure cure the problem. But, just for S & G, try it thru the stereo again just to be sure.

Now you have the walkman playing thru your stereo, you have something to work with.

Now, let's check out that mixer by unplugging the RCA plugs from the stereo and plugging them into your new mixer. Since we know we have signal up to the mixer's inputs there's several reasons why it could work through the stereo and not the mixer. Either the mixer or something after it has problems.

Trace it out. Does the mixer have meters to show it it is getting a signal? How about a headphone jack? If the meters show a signal and it works at the mixers headphone jack but not to the amp, I'd be looking carefully at he outputs of the mixer and where the signal goes from there. If it doean't show on the meters or you can't hear it in the 'phones, it's most likely the mixer causing your headaches.

Once you get both channels from the walkman, through the adapter to the red/white RCA's, working through the mixer and the speakers, there's only one reason it won't work with the sound card. The sound card either has issues or you misunderstood the output connections. On this, my friend, you're on your own.

FWIW, red is generally the right channel, white would be the left and whatever other color remains would be the common.