Members Elements6259 Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Is there some sort of device that can combine two 1/4" cables (one from each keyboard) and allow it to be plugged into one 1/4" input in an amp? I want to do this to easily switch between keyboards and not lose signal quality. Thanks! - Nate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rosalie Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Yes, I'm looking for something similiar. They exist, but are {censored}ing impossible to find. Luckily, with impossible to find things, when you do find them, they're generally good quality, but it's still not guaranteed, so looking everywhere and ending up with a piece of crap might be a bit disheartening. I recommending reading up on the different brands and buying one off ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HuskerDude Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Might I suggest a cheap line mixer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twolefthands Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Most keyboard amps come with two inputs, a clean and a dirty, you might consider upgrading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sevensinner Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Originally posted by twolefthands Most keyboard amps come with two inputs, a clean and a dirty, you might consider upgrading? No they don't. Guitar amps do. Keyboard amps are basically combo PA systems - you generally want the cleanest non-colored sound with the greatest dynamic range from a keyboard amp. The exception would be with certain Motion Sound amps. Roland, Peavey, Behringer, and Alesis keyboard amps usually have 3-4 input channels on them so you won't need a line level mixer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Artur Meinild Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 http://www.nobels.com/cgi-bin/products/show.pl?e_mix-42c Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twolefthands Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Sorry, I assumed that since only one channel had a "bright" switch, it was the clean, same as with my guitar amp... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nightsynth Posted April 24, 2005 Members Share Posted April 24, 2005 Anybody ever heard of a 'Y' cable????? You can get these at any Radio Shack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elements6259 Posted April 25, 2005 Author Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Originally posted by Nightsynth Anybody ever heard of a 'Y' cable????? You can get these at any Radio Shack. Will there be any signal quality loss? If that's not a concern, hey, sounds good. "Most keyboard amps come with two inputs, a clean and a dirty, you might consider upgrading?" Actually, I use a guitar amp with only one input. I love adding tube drive. "Might I suggest a cheap line mixer?" Good idea, but seems like there should be something simpler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Darkstorm Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Yes a Y cable. Or a mixer. Some bass amps come with two inputs. One for passive & one for active. Sometimes if you plug into both, they both become passive. Bass amps are easilly equal imo to best keyboard amps for amp pick. And can be better. 10" bass drivers easilly handle synths very well. Including the upper treble stuff. When it comes to combo amps, hasnt heard a keyboard one that does as good a job as bass combos with 10" speakers. And if you need a tweeter, is less expensive to get nice bass combo with titanium tweeters rather then piezo ones. Unless your doing the powered Pa speaker route for "combo amps". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fear My Potato Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 A y-splitter even from Radio Shack shouldn't cause signal quality problems. For a while I was using it to send a turntable and a CD player into a mixer so I wouldn't have to switch, and I didn't notice anything. A whole song mix has a lot more frequencies and they're more sensitive to signal loss than just a single instrument, so it should work. Worth a try before anything else...I mean a y-splitter is pretty damned cheap considering the alternatives. One thing that I did notice is that if one side of the split is disconnected you lose about half the signal strength (I think, it's been a while). As for the most keyboard amps have a clean and dirty input, that isn't true. A couple may, but for the most part as was said keyboard amps try to keep the signal as clean and true as possible. Not many people want an overdriven grand piano. The compression is also not desired among most keyboard players. Bass amps are also a very very good alternative. I've never blown a bass amp with keyboards, but I have blown more than one guitar amp. I wasn't being ridiculous but I guess if you just throw too many frequencies in, at any volume, you'll lose it. For keyboards I wouldn't hesitate to use a bass amp though. Depending on the amp you may lose some higher frequencies, but at a gig they'd probably get cut anyway, and at home there's always headphones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fear My Potato Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 By the way, with any inexpensive mixer...Mackie or Behringer or whatever...you will experience a certain degree of signal damage. You hear a lot about them sounding "sterile" and so forth...cheap preamps. I'd rather let a dedicated amp take care of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GigMan Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Originally posted by Elements6259 Is there some sort of device that can combine two 1/4" cables (one from each keyboard) and allow it to be plugged into one 1/4" input in an amp? I want to do this to easily switch between keyboards and not lose signal quality. Thanks! - Nate What model amp is it? And yes, the Radio Shack Y adapter would be the way, 5 bucks at Radio Shack - http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=274-892 Heres's what you would do with it: 1) Run cable #1 from keyboard #1 2) Run cable #2 from keyboard #2 3) Connect ends of both cables into Y adapter, which has 1 male 1/4" plug on one end + 2 female 1/4" jacks on the other side. 4) Connect male end of Y adapter into amp + voila! That's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nightsynth Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=AdptQmp-2Qf&preadd=action This is a good alternative to the Y adaptor shown in the previous post. I prefer these Y *cables* because they don't protrude out of the amp like the Y *adaptor* does, especially once you plug the two cables from the keyboards in to it. This one just hangs like a normal cable would. I didn't check the Radio Shack site, but I'm pretty sure you can get them there still. I have a couple I keep handy for various tasks. They are from Radio Shack and they are black too! Back in the old days, when I was a wee lad in my first band, we owned only one little Peavey practice amp, yet we need to amplify two mics, a guitar, and a keyboard. So we Y'd all of those using multiple Y adaptors (3 I think)! Talk about a quality PA!!! We were pretty good though, despite this technical and financial shortcoming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Nightsynth Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Well I checked the Radio Shack site and they don't show the cable style, but I bet they have them. Also, make sure to get an unbalanced (mono) Y for this task as shown in both of the links posted. The balanced (stereo) cable has two black rings on the sleeve and the unbalanced has one, in case you didn't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fear My Potato Posted April 25, 2005 Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Originally posted by Nightsynth Back in the old days, when I was a wee lad in my first band, we owned only one little Peavey practice amp, yet we need to amplify two mics, a guitar, and a keyboard. So we Y'd all of those using multiple Y adaptors (3 I think)! Talk about a quality PA!!! We were pretty good though, despite this technical and financial shortcoming. You'd fall in love with our PA I'm not sure how it's rigged right now, but it's basically two separate PA systems piggybacked via dozens of adapters. I believe we have one mixer going out it's monitor send into another mixer through one its channels. Then we had a practice monitor for the drummer coming out the second mixer's monitor send. I wish they had more sends and inputs just so I could connect things pointlessly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elements6259 Posted April 25, 2005 Author Members Share Posted April 25, 2005 Originally posted by Nightsynth http://www.audiogear.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=AdptQmp-2Qf&preadd=actionThis is a good alternative to the Y adaptor shown in the previous post. I prefer these Y *cables* because they don't protrude out of the amp like the Y *adaptor* does, especially once you plug the two cables from the keyboards in to it. This one just hangs like a normal cable would. I didn't check the Radio Shack site, but I'm pretty sure you can get them there still. I have a couple I keep handy for various tasks. They are from Radio Shack and they are black too! Hey, it's just that simple!Thanks, this saves me an extra investment. My amp is simply a fender blues. I run synth organs and all sorts of synth sounds into it. It really gives it a cool drive when I crank it.In my situation, I wouldn't want a keyboard amp because I'm all about that drive sound in the band. It REALLY gets rid of the digital edge. The point is that I want to keep the amp I have now!! But thanks all for the help, this makes my life easy. I'll pick one up today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bronzee Posted April 26, 2005 Members Share Posted April 26, 2005 I have a kx1200 Berringer Keyboard amp with four channels to it and a hookups,,,are tape deck, CD player, I have myroland hammond vk8 module to it , my keyboard, and a mic it can bee connected to a pa system,, and a xlr mic can be connected..and has a main output to connected even another amp to it..i have this amp for more then 2 yrs..its pretty nice for the money..it sold for 249.00 then now they are sale for 199.-- at some places. I have a monster Y cable. ..its male-felmale spilt,combine in one., i put a 1/4 adapter on the end to enter into my amp.i have not try to play 2 keyboards in on Y chord..i think i am going to try this..i had 2 keyboards..but never tried it cause of the 4 channels on my amp i didnt need to. I got this cable at a best buy...i haven't seen one since i purchased it. I haven't use all my channels and hookups at the same time..i didn't have the need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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