I bought a monster cable from guitar center for my keyboard, "studiolink" that has 2 1/4" going into one 1/4" instead of using 2 instrument cables for stereo sound, according to the guy who sold me it...usually when I plug two cables from one keyboard into my mixer i get alot more volume then just one.

i plugged the end with 2 jacks into the back of my keyboard and the one jack into my mixer, and it sounded like just one cable...im really dissapointed as the cable was $45 and i threw away the original packaging...why arent I getting the volume of 2 cables with this?

Upon second thought, is it because im doing it backwards? Should I plug the end with one jack into the L/mono of the kayboard and the two jacks into my mixer? im only asking because I cant try it until next week, and I want to know if I should get 2 seperate cables instead

I think your problem is that probably the monster cable you bought is an insert cable which means it has one left and one right plug on one end and a stereo ring tip sleeve single quarter inch jack on the other end. You can tell this if the single jack on one end has two black thin bands running around the jack rather than the single ring on each of the other two jacks.
If this is the case, you are trying to plug this into a jack which is not intended for this stereo type of plug. In this case you are better off using two cables with one plug going into one channel panned left and the other plug going into another channel panned to the right.....or if you mixer has stereo input channels, you can plug one into left and one into right and control from one volume control and usually a pan knob.
I hope I didn't confuse you even more!
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, california

BC,

I think George hit the nail on the head. The cable you probably purchased is known locally as an In/Out cable, with a pair of 1/4-inch mono plugs that go into a 1/4-inch stereo plug. Its primary use is for sendng effects--not for combining signals. Wrong cable for what you hoped to accomplish. just a pair of ordinary instrument cables is all you need.

Good Luck,

Gary

------------------
Travlin' Easy

does it matter if theyre gold tip or silver, does it really make a difference live for sound quality? would save me alot of money for cables

bthmedicinetree,

I worked as an electronic technician for 10 years servicing organs, synths, and amps. You will find some folks that might disagree with me, but I wouldn't waste my money buying monster cables. 99.9 percent of the time they won't make any difference, especially on input cables going into mixers and amps. The whole concept of the Monster cable is mostly hype.

You will get some folks who will tell you about the impedance of the wire and how it could affect the frequency response of the input signal. In theory if the impedance is just right and the frequency of the input signal is just right, that could be true. In real life any good quality shielded cable works just fine throughout the hearing range of the human ear.

If you were pumping out very high wattage between the amp and your speakers you need enough strands of wire to handle the current. A Monster cable in that instance might be called for.

I have in the past, used common speaker wire with plugs purchased at Radio Shaft and made my own cables. I've never had bad results on both the input side of the amp and the output side. They aren't even shielded. Once in a great while if you are close enough to a radio station broadcast tower you might pick up a little radio. Even this happens sometimes with shielded wire.

Many of us use the Logitech speaker systems. I quite sure the cables going to and from the amps are not shielded.

Tom

IF
You need a y-type cable, look at the cross-reference chart from Hosa.
Y-type cables

In the chart, if you click on model numbers CYM-100 and STP-200, you can see the mono + stereo plug differences (1 ring and 2 ring) that George and Gary referred to.

As Tom said, lower-priced cables can also do the job.
I have bought different types of Hosa cables from local Guitar Center or Sam Ash stores, at lower prices, and they have done the job.

Happy Connections!

sounds good guys, thanks for the input.

what do you think about returning a monster cable to guitar center without the receipt and original packaging? possible they'll take it for a store credit? or am i screwed with this $45 cable thats now useless to me?

I think its worth a try.

Every time I make a purchase, they ask my name and bring it up on their screen.
I don't know what info is on that screen, but hopefully it shows purchases.

thanks. they took it back, and i exchanged it evenly for 2 seperate monster cables

i have to agree with tom, in an audiophile HI-FI world as opposed to say a live band PA there is an argument, in theory, for using monster cable, but as tom points out, everything has to be "just so" when it comes to pre-amps,amps and speakers... i would defy anyone doing a blind a/b/c test to pick the difference...i actually use power cable (swg1.5) for my live pa rig from amps to speakers and they do just fine.

[This message has been edited by miden (edited 03-23-2006).]