Rolls MX54 line input?

[Joseph Lawrence]

I frequently shoot music events at which I get a line level feed from a sound board. Can the Rolls MX54 accept a line level input and if not what 'bad' things could happen if I try to use it anyway?

Thanks,

Joseph

[Aaron Koolen]

I couldn't see anything on it's specs about accepting line level input. In that case if I were you, build or buy a pad that can drop the voltage down to the right level. There's bound to be instructions for that somewhere and they're definately in Jay Rose's book "Producing Great Sound".

If you try to use line level into a mic level, you'll probably just get a crapload of distortion.

Thing that I noted though is that you say you usually get line level feed, which I assume means you have a recorder/mixer etc that can take a line level. If that's the case, you *may* need to then convert the output from the Rolls back to Linelevel but most devices I've seen would accept both.

Cheers
Aaron

[Joseph Lawrence]

Aaron,

I currently use a Beachtek adapter which will handle either mic/line level input, but it doesn't have active gain and I hate to fiddle with the audio level controls on my Canon GL2 during a music performance. The MX54 would give me easier to adjust level potentiometers, phantom power, and a pre-amp so I could set the camera levels at some nominal value and make all live action adjustments from the Rolls mixer. Could I use an inline pad from the sound board to the Rolls mixer and drop the line to mic level?

Joseph

[Aaron Koolen]

Hi Joseph. I'm no pro, but sure you could place a pad, say at the mixer end to drop the line level to mic. It would of course depend on what everything thought "line" and "mic" levels were as to what pad you'd need.

I just looked at BeachTek's site and have you thought about maybe selling your other adapter, and buying thier DXA-8? It has preamps, 48V phantom (The rolls only has 18V) and of course would save you 1 piece of equipment. Of course, looking at the rolls, it's damn cheap!

Cheers
Aaron