Sound Board questions

[Hokiefyd]

I wouldn't call this "consumer electronics", but since there appear to be some real audiophiles in here, I'll give it a shot.

A group of about three of us are inpromtpu "sound guys" at our church. The sound board is an Allen & Heath ZED-24. We've got a wedding coming up the couple wants to play a CD during some portions of the service. From reading the user manual, it looks like I should be able to take a headphone cable (male on both ends) and plug it into one of the microphone inputs that we wouldn't be using during the service. The user guide for the ZED-24 says that a line in overrides the microphone in.

Does anyone have any direct experience with this particular sound board who could give me any pointers? The user manual gives basic information, but seems to assume the reader is already knowledgable in mixing sound, and I am not that.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[stephen9666]

I am not familiar with that exact board, but I use audio boards quite frequently. All I can tell you is you're on the right track and you should try to test it in advance.

You could test it with a smartphone or any other device with an audio output that you can plug that cable into.

 

[Dave Sherman]

I've worked with a couple of sound boards, between community theater and church. Looking at the picture of a ZED 24, looks like you do two ways:

1. Use a headphone cable to two RCA plugs, and use the aux return in (looks like channel 17/18 has that, unless it's used for something else)

2. Use a headphone cable to two 1/4" plugs, or use two RCA to 1/4" adapters with the easily found headhphone cable to RCA and use two available channels. Use the line inputs on two channels. I do this to use a laptop for sound effects at our theater.

 

[bepperb]

I have a headphone (3.5mm) to two 1/4" plugs just for doing this, though I'm not sure if I've ever used a ZED-24, just whatever the rental place gives me. It's kinda an obscure cable but it comes in handy and I doubt it was very expensive. Maybe order one from ebay/monoprice for a couple bucks.

It comes in handy for ipods and pc's too. One thing to watch out for is ground loop, if you're getting feedback try using batteries only (for a discman or ipod or whatever) or at the least plugging both into the same outlet. That's the only problem I've ever experienced.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Thanks guys.

Yes, it does look like channel 17/18 would accept 1/4" left/right inputs. I have such a cable at home, that takes a headphone jack and turns that into two RCA plugs. Our board also has adapters in those slots, which are probably to convert 1/4" to RCA (unless those are the same thing).

I hope to test this Wednesday evening and will find out more then.

I'm only mildly intimidated by all the rotary controls and switches on this thing. I'm sure it's a real art to make the most use of it. Unfortunately, the acoustics of our sanctuary are very poor (current building was built in 1906), so sound quality is never a real big priority.

 

[sleddriver]

If going from a CD player into a mic/line in, be sure the phantom power for that In is OFF. If the source instead is a phone/mp3 player, you'll get the best result if the source output impedance matches the board's input impedance. Higher Zin is always better than lower as it will preserve battery life and bass response.

As always, test thoroughly before-hand and check your levels to avoid a mis-match between differing sources.

Note: RCA plugs & jacks are not the same as 1/4". They look completely different.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I had a meeting at church last night, so I went down early to try a few things. Turns out it was a piece of cake. There were already two 1/4"-to-RCA adapters in the L/R inputs on the 17/18 channel that Dave Sherman noted above. I brought my cable with me, which has a male headphone connector on one side and two male RCA connectors on the other side, and plugged it into my phone and played a song. And it worked. Brilliant.

Will play around now with my laptop plugged in to it to make sure that works without interference. I don't believe our sound deck has an actual CD player in it. We have always run multimedia from a laptop before.