Storm 3G Audio Output Level

[dougcollins]

Is the a way to adjust the audio monitoring level from Storm 3G? When I go to System Settings>Hardware>Preview Device>Storm 3G Output>Audio Settings, All the "Balanced Audio Output Settings" options are greyed out.

I just want to balance the sound so that it is relatively the same as other sources routed through my amp.

Thanks,

Doug

[BernH]

Originally Posted by dougcollins

Is the a way to adjust the audio monitoring level from Storm 3G? When I go to System Settings>Hardware>Preview Device>Storm 3G Output>Audio Settings, All the "Balanced Audio Output Settings" options are greyed out.

I just want to balance the sound so that it is relatively the same as other sources routed through my amp.

Thanks,

Doug

Hey Doug,

I'm not familiar with the Storm box, but I would suspect you are experiencing the difference between Consumer line level and Pro line level, in that pro line level is about 12dB louder. If this is what you are referring to and you can't turn down the output of the storm, you can insert a pad in the outputs to knock the level down.

There are many manufacturer's out there that make pads or matching transformers for this exact purpose, such as Kramer, Henry Engineering, RDL, and others, or if you don't want to spend the cash on an off the rack thing and you or someone you know is handy with a soldering iron, you can build a pad into an xlr to rca or 1/4"TS cable or an xlr adaptor barrel by, inserting 2 resistors into the xlr connector.

Values and diagrams are here http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/

You would be looking at the L Pad diagram (top left, simplest one), with the values for the +4dBu to -10dBv line in the value chart. R1 (series) resistor 10k ohm, and R2 (shunt) 3.6k ohm.

If doing this right in the XLR of your cable, this gets built between pins 2 and 3 of the xlr with a straight wire jumper between pins 1 and 3 in place. Pin 2 is the IN on the left of the diagram, and pin 3 and pin 1 via the jumper is the COM, with the cable shield attached to pin 1 and pin 3 has only the jumper to pin 1 and the shunt resistor. The jumper puts the negative signal on the shield so it behaves like an unbalanced signal, and the resistor network knocks the hot signal down by reducing the voltage through the series resistor and also some amplitude reduction via 180 degree phase cancellation through the parallel/shunt resistor. On the other end the OUT goes to the tip of the xlr or rca, and the COM to the shield.

Another way to look at it, which may be easier to visualize without a picture of the exact build, is the two resistors get made into a "Y" with the shunt and series resistors forming the upper "v" part, connected to pins 2 and 3 of the female xlr and the cable center conductor forming the bottom/tail. Pin 1 is the cable shield with the jumper to pin 3. This turns the 3 xlr pins into the 2 required in an rca or 1/4 TS connector and reduces Pro to consumer levels

If you do it in an xlr adaptor barrel, you need to be careful to make sure you have the L in the correct orientation to the input side of the adaptor (ie. don't build it on the male connector), and somewhere along the line you still need pins 1 and 3 tied together, so you can tie them together in the adaptor barrel on the female side or you can connect pin 1 to 1 and 3 to 3 (in which case the COM in the diagram is treated as pin 3, and hope that the cable on the output side has pin 1 and 3 tied together. It's safer to tie them together in the adaptor, because if the cable does not have them tied together for some reason, this will not work correctly.

Personally, I would just to it in a purpose built xlr to 1/4 or rca cable and save the cash you would have to spend on the adaptor barrels, especially considering that, by the sounds of it, you already have this hooked up with cables that are just missing the padding resistors in the "v" portion of the "Y". Just open the XLR's and solder in the resistors and jumper.

$0.50 of parts and about 20 minutes of time with a soldering iron and you are done with 2 pad cables to show for it. If you nor anyone you know have soldering skills, you cold probably get an electronics repair guy to do this cable mod for you for very little.

This will not get exactly -12dB in reduction but comes very close at -11.79dB

[dougcollins]

Hi Bern,

Thanks for your reply. That's interesting information and I might be inclined to try to solder something up, except I am dealing with an HDMI output on the Storm card. That might be a little more complicated, I think.

There's probably manufacturers that can satisfy that need too, but it's really not that big a deal for me to just adjust the volume when I'm switching source.

I was just hoping a simple click of the mouse might correct the issue.

Thanks for your help. Your advice might come in handy in other applications too.

Doug

[BernH]

Originally Posted by dougcollins

Hi Bern,

Thanks for your reply. That's interesting information and I might be inclined to try to solder something up, except I am dealing with an HDMI output on the Storm card. That might be a little more complicated, I think.

There's probably manufacturers that can satisfy that need too, but it's really not that big a deal for me to just adjust the volume when I'm switching source.

I was just hoping a simple click of the mouse might correct the issue.

Thanks for your help. Your advice might come in handy in other applications too.

Doug

Hey Doug,

Most devices can't adjust the audio level on and HDMI or SDI output. This unfortunately is a common situation. Off the top of my head, I am not aware of anything the can act as and audio pad in and HDMI, but that isn't to say such a device does not exist.