huh?
HEy guys/gals,
I got this cable that has Midi on one side and 4 RCA plugs on the other in a resent studio close out.
Only thing is, I have no idea whatsoever what it is for, and I’m not sure I can sleep at night till I find out (just how my brain is wired)
Got any ideas?
Also on a side note, I have these two red cylinders that look like shotgun shells with XLR’s on both sides that say “Ground Lift” on them, just curious as to what I could use those for too… 
that mystery does not keep me up, but it still would be nice to know what their possible application would be.
dontcare 
I’m wondering if you’ve got a couple of 5pin DIN to phono and a couple of DI boxes.
Quote: (TonyR @ Feb. 09 2012, 9:53 PM)
I'm wondering if you've got a couple of 5pin DIN to phono
Sounds like it
Quote: (TonyR @ Feb. 09 2012, 2:53 AM)
I'm wondering if you've got a couple of 5pin DIN to phono and a couple of DI boxes.
yeah that's what the cable looks like, phono/rca plugs on one end.
any idea what those were used for?
I think I got the ground lift sticks sorted, they look like this:
Ground Lift
apparently you put them in signal chains where hum is an issue, it displaces the ground pin or somethin' like that.
considering what they cost not a bad deal that two of them were in a box of misc cables.
dontcare
Quote: (Mark A @ Feb. 09 2012, 4:36 AM)
Quote: (TonyR @ Feb. 09 2012, 9:53 PM)
I'm wondering if you've got a couple of 5pin DIN to phono
Sounds like it
I've never seen any devices with phono/Midi inputs.
anyway there are 5 pins in midi, (granted only 2 of them carry voltage signals, the rest are ground) but yet there is only 4 phono's on the other end, I'm thinking they paired the two +- on the 4 and dropped one of the grounds.
this could come in handy in routing things for experiments without having to soldier but still it would be nice to know what it was designed for.
dontcare
It’s not a midi cable. It’s an audio cable. It’s just that midi devices happen to use the same connector.
Plenty of old 70’s hi-fi devices used cables like this. Eg a tape recorder/player. The “midi” connector would go to the tape player and one set of phonos would be L/R in and the other L/R out.
Quote: (Mark A @ Feb. 10 2012, 2:08 AM)
It's not a midi cable.
It's an audio cable.
It's just that midi devices happen to use the same connector.
Plenty of old 70's hi-fi devices used cables like this.
Eg a tape recorder/player.
The "midi" connector would go to the tape player and one set of phonos would be L/R in and the other L/R out.
Showing your age, Mark;-) I of course, am not old enough, to remember such wizardry.
Quote: (TonyR @ Feb. 10 2012, 10:31 PM)
Quote: (Mark A @ Feb. 10 2012, 2:08 AM)
It's not a midi cable.
It's an audio cable.
It's just that midi devices happen to use the same connector.
Plenty of old 70's hi-fi devices used cables like this.
Eg a tape recorder/player.
The "midi" connector would go to the tape player and one set of phonos would be L/R in and the other L/R out.
Showing your age, Mark;-) I of course, am not old enough, to remember such wizardry.
Ha ha! :-)
I think I've still got a cassette recorder somewhere that has one of those connectors.....
Quote: (Mark A @ Feb. 10 2012, 4:06 PM)
I think I've still got a cassette recorder somewhere that has one of those connectors.....
I've got tons of the stuff. My old TOA 8trk used 3 X 5 pin din. 2 for audio and 1 for control deck. But not for the SMPTE/synch - this was done with rca/phono's. Suppose the crossover point was somewhere around that time.
Quote: (Mark A @ Feb. 10 2012, 2:08 AM)
It's not a midi cable.
It's an audio cable.
It's just that midi devices happen to use the same connector.
Plenty of old 70's hi-fi devices used cables like this.
Eg a tape recorder/player.
The "midi" connector would go to the tape player and one set of phonos would be L/R in and the other L/R out.
OK cool that makes a lot of sense!
kinda like Roland proprietary 13 pin wires.
well it would be nice to find some collector with one of them old devices and give this to them....one less cable in a land fill and all that jazz
thanx everyone for chiming in, I can sleep a lot better now.
dontcare