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Well, all other things being equal, the amount of mains hum picked up by a cable is independent of the signal
level. Speaker lines run 50 or more volts, enough to diminish the effect of mains radiation to vanishingly small
even with no screen. (In fact, at these voltages another effect comes into play: capacitive resistance. It is
positively undesirable to use screened cable to wire an amp to a speaker. Speaker leads should be as thick
and short as possible, with XLR or wound post terminals.) Line-level signals can usually be run unbalanced
over short or moderate distances (rack to desk etc.), but NOT from the back of the hall to the stage, always
provided that there are no earth loops (see section 8.3 Looming Problems A loop acts as an ariel, positively
inviting electromagnetic radiation to flow around the system). Microphone lines, however, are another story
altogether.
Most microphones generate not volts, but millivolts. Protecting such a low level signal requires a more
sophisticated solution. Hence, all mic networks run along balanced lines. It works like this. The mic diaphragm
moves forwards and backwards according to the air pressure increases and decreases that constitute sound
waves. Diaphragm movement generates a corresponding electrical signal, which is either positive or negative
depending on the direction of travel. The +ve and -ve signals are mirror images of each other: if you shorted
+ and - youd end up with nothing: one would cancel out the other. In fact this cancelling effect is what makes
the balanced line work. Instead of simply shorting the negative line to earth, as would be the case in an
unbalanced system (losing half the signal, or 6 dB, in the process), the two lines are kept apart until they
reach an electronic (or transformer) balanced input.
Here something exquisitely simple happens:
You may not know this, but whenever a signal is amplified, its polarity is reversed. By inverting the negative
side and adding it 1:1 to an unchanged positive, a balanced input wastes none of the available signal energy.
In doing so, it also subtracts all the radiation picked up along the line. Random noise is unaffected, but youll
hear no hum, and much reduced thyristor noise (from poorly-screened lighting dimmers). Live, you could not
run a rig without balanced mic lines, and although in the studio cable runs are shorter, the recorded mediums
demand on signal to noise is far greater.
When patching a balanced input/output to an unbalanced one, simply short the -ve and screen together at the
unbalanced input or output.
Fig. 12.1: A balanced microphone line
13. START-UP
13.1 A-channel setting up procedure
13.1.1Selecting inputs
MICROPHONE: MIC/LINE switch (S1) UP,PAD switch (S1a) UP, FLIP switch (S3) UP
LINE: MIC/LINE switch DOWN, FLIP switch UP
TAPE: FLIP switch DOWN