Centralizing Audio

Santiago Mejia HI8O

Ok, so I finally wish to centralize all my shack audio and will appreciate the advice and orientation of other who had walked that path.

My current set up consists of Flex 6300, Yaesu 991, Shure PG58-XLR, Heil HM12, Yaesu desk mic and a Logitech Headset I use for streaming. I have 2 Logitech computer speaker.

My goal is to be able to run all mics thru a mixer so I can use any of them at any time, to send all radios audio to speaker and also to connect the headset to it to improve my audio on streams. I don’t plan to equilize while using Flex but it will be helpful for the other radios and the streaming headset. I’m open to a reasonable budget speaker monitors.

Anybody doing now that can throw some pointers at me (mixer, monitors, interfaces, software, etc.)

73, Santiago

Ronald Panetta

I will start with a disclaimer. My solution does not address electret mics (those that require bias like most ham mics). Also, if you have any condenser mics, those require phantom power which usually comes from the mixer or a phantom power injector. This is a case where a picture is worth 1K words but don't have one yet. Can chicken scratch if necessary.

Equipment list used for several mic inputs, mic output to Flex 6400, Flex 6600, Heath SB-101, Drake TX4B, Drake TX4C. Flex 6400, 6600 and PC speaker outputs drive powered speaker via mixer aux 1& 2 busses. Note all vintage equipment have individual vintage speakers.

-dynamic and/or condenser mics

- mixer (Allen Heath ZED-14 in my case as I already had this in stock and repurposed it for the shack)

- Distribution amp (eBay Shure FP16a, really nice unit) that distributes mixer mic output to the 2 Flex and the 3 vintage mic inputs

- powered speakers for flex and PC audio out

Setup:

Mics drive the mixer channels on left side of mixer (mono input, balanced left). Flex 6400, Flex 6600 and PC drive right channels of mixer (stereo input, left feeds Aux 1 bus, right feeds Aux 2 bus, all channels muted, channel gain slider all the way down). Aux 1 & 2 busses feed powered speakers.

Left mixer out drives distribution amp with outputs to each transmitter (2 flex and 3 vintage). The shure outputs are transformer coupled, outputs can be mic or line level and each individually adjustable.

73, Ron WB2WGH

Santiago Mejia HI8O

Thanks a lot Ron! I’ve reviewed your response and researched your set up, very nice. I think I can begin with a more modest equipment and go from there, but certainly that’s where I’m headed.

73, Santiago

Ronald Panetta

Santiago,

One correction and some additional comments. Correction is right side channels (driving speaker) are not muted as the mute button is in the audio path to the Aux outputs. Additional comments:

-many years ago I got roped as a volunteer to audio/video record choir concerts for a couple of elementary schools in the area. I bought the AH ZED mixer for that prior to graduating to a larger unit. The ZED had been sitting in a box for a few years when I repurposed it for the shack. There are many other smaller mixers out there.

- I recently integrated speaker audio through the mixer on the right side as I wanted shared speakers for the 6400, 6600 and PC audio. If you choose yo do that, you'll need a mixer that can funnel those channels to a pair (stereo) of aux outputs as the standard L/R channels are used for mic audio (actually only left as mic is mono).

- If you're not driving mic input to multiple rigs, you do not need the Shure distribution amp. If only 2 rigs, you can set balance on mixer mic inputs to center, then drive one rig with left and the other with right.

73, Ron