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Connecting Montage to FOH
I am awaiting delivery of my new Montage 8. I see it has balanced outputs. What are other folks doing when using Montage live? Are you just running TRS to XLR cables directly to FOH inputs or are you using DI boxes.
If using DI, are you using active or passive? What are some favorites if this is the route most folks are going?
If I should be using two DI’s or a stereo DI I would like to go ahead and get them on the way as well.
Posted : 09/01/2021 6:50 pm
I've got balanced cables with TRS on one end and XLR on the other for the studio.
For live, I've got the same thing - only much shorter. An adapter for TRS to XLR. These have not been very popular at all. My sound guy always throws me a DI box (yes - singular) - so I also have an unbalanced cable in my bag for live gigs.
99% of the time I'm running mono with a TS cable plugged into the backline's single DI box. The other 1% of the time I'm using a different crew and either run balanced all the way through and/or stereo. I don't carry my own DIs. That's really only because of how the needs have turned out for me. Your situation may be different.
... it's worth adding:
Had Montage used combo XLR/TRS connectors - I'd likely be using XLRXLR for both the studio and live. That'd make life (I mean live) a lot easier. Here in the studio, I've purchased the cables to convert but still have "a ton" of XLR/XLR cables scattered about. The sound guys I've encountered don't like to put different types of ends on their cables - so they have XLR to XLR or TS to TS. Not any TRS stuff and certainly not TRS to XLR.
Posted : 09/01/2021 10:00 pm
Topic starter
I have all the cabling I need to connect however. XLR-XLR, TRS-XLR (male and female), TRS-TRS,etc.
I am primarily curious if many people are finding it necessary to put a DI between Montage and FOH for phantom power protection and ground loop elimination.
I was having trouble finding a DI that would let me use the balanced output from the keys instead of using an unbalanced TS cable.
I finally found the Radial JDI-Duplex this morning. It has multiple input options including 1/4”, 1/8”, RCA, and XLR. It has 2 channels so I can run stereo if there are enough channels and any reason (lots of FOH being mono anyway).
I’m really happy because I run my guitars and bass through a Line6 Helix and was looking for a solution to similarly protect its balanced outputs from phantom power and ground loop issues as well.
Posted : 10/01/2021 3:45 pm
Right - I was just saying that the house's lack of cabling using dictates what I get thrown at the gig to connect to.
Posted : 10/01/2021 7:48 pm
