Daily Vlog # 9:

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to spend some time editing this video while my wife and baby slept. I find it is easiest to work on my Vlogs in the morning when I am the only one awake.

In this video I show how to solder a basic 1/4" TRS cable. A TRS cable or Tip Ring Sleeve cable is a cable that has 2 lines for transmitting a signal and a shield for connecting grounds. A TRS cable can either be used as a stereo cable with the left and right audio signals on the two lines, or a balanced cable with the same mono signal on both lines but out of phase 180 degrees. Not too much equipment uses TRS cables as stereo cables and most mixers inputs are expecting a balanced cable when they see a TRS at the input.

So let me explain quickly how a Balanced cable works and then what would happen if you use a stereo signal on a TRS cable going into an input expecting a balanced cable. A balanced cable works by connecting a balanced output to a balanced input. The balanced output copies the signal to be transmitted and inverts one of the copies by 180 degrees in phase. when a signal that is identical but 180 degrees out of phase is combined with the original it cancels to 0 or in the case of audio silence. However a balanced input doesn't just recombine the two signals, it flips the phase of one by 180 degrees again. The result is that any noise pickup on the way is flipped 180 degrees and combined with itself to cancel to 0 while the signal is flipped 180 degrees to be back in phase with the original signal so it does not cancel.

Once you understand these principles its easy to see that if you use a stereo output to a balanced input with a TRS cable you'll end up with just the side information of the signal. This is because anything signal present on both left and right audio channels will be inverted in phase and cancelled out. I digress but I'm a huge geek when it comes to this stuff and couldn't help myself.

In this video I am using Mogami balanced cables with Amphenol stereo jacks. I got them at the link below.

https://www.redco.com/
I used a radio shack soldering Iron, Hakko makes a similar soldering Iron, the key thing to consider when buying an iron is how hot it can get and if it has control which allows you to set the temperature. I solder around 680f/360c. The key to soldering is to always use a wet tip, one that has solder on it and to touch the iron to both components you are soldering. You then touch the solder to the components not the iron. Solder at your own risk, use plenty of ventilation, the fumes are hazardous to your health.

The music in the background is from my album Emerge into Light and the track is Emerge. It is a 14 minute one shot take from my eurorack modular system, you can check out the full track at the link below.

https://illuminationstation.bandcamp.com/album/emerge-into-light

As always please consider delegating to Dtube and Dsound to help support creatives and musicians like me, expect a video later in the week on how to delegate steempower. Also coming up tomorrow is going to be dsound resteem mondays, so stay tuned, I'll be asking for submissions on my Vlog tomorrow morning. Although I'll still be chilling on dsound tomorrow night to look for music so resteems won't be exclusive to the work submitted.

thank you to all my followers, this has been an amazing ride so far!
~Noah