Is there difference in Mono and L+R combined?

sviveen · Post by **sviveen** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:45 am

I'm using the TEX through a mono system. My question: would there be a difference in connecting to only the Left (Mono) output, or using a Y-connection to bundle Left and Right?

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:15 am

Yes, if you plug the Left and Right outputs together with a Y cable you have a good chance of burning one or both of them out.

Never hook outputs up to each other by shorting them together - which is what a Y cable does when hooked up to two outputs.

Y cables/adapters can be used to split one output to two separate inputs, but not to combine two outputs together for any reason.

BruceL · Post by **BruceL** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:53 am

that's what your phone/headphone output is there for...use that instead.

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:59 am

No, the phone/headphone output is for headphones. You can burn them out too by shorting L+R together. The L/Mono jack is designed specifically for the purpose of getting a monophonic summed output of the L+R channels. There is no other way to get this output from the keyboard, as it has one and only one summing circuit.

kanthos · Post by **kanthos** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 2:43 pm

If you really wanted to combine the L + R, use a mixer. This won't gain you anything though, if your connection to the house mixer is in mono, and even if you connect in stereo (i.e. through two DIs or something), you still won't gain anything if you're not using panning in your programs or combis, either by panning individual programs or by using effects like autopan that do something with the panning of some or all instruments.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:42 pm

Not to mention that just plugging into the L/Mono output sums the left and right signal anyway, so you're not really loosing anything, except for actual width.

BruceL · Post by **BruceL** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:13 pm

xmlguy wrote:No, the phone/headphone output is for headphones. You can burn them out too by shorting L+R together. The L/Mono jack is designed specifically for the purpose of getting a monophonic summed output of the L+R channels. There is no other way to get this output from the keyboard, as it has one and only one summing circuit.

i meant he could connect the y-cable to the headphone output instead to get
the left/right stereo signal out to his mixer...but, i do see your point as well.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:57 pm

It is also often advised not to use the headphone output for anything but headphone monitoring. you get less signal to noise ratio, i.e. worse quality, because of the amplification involved. Also it is a higher output level, again due to the amplification involved.

sviveen · Post by **sviveen** » Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:53 am

Thanks guys!