Help identifying cable/jack

Special Interest Groups Recording Equipment
1

I’m sure this is easy, but it’s been driving me mad and for once Google doesn’t seem to help. I would like to connect my stage piano (Yamaha CP33) to my p.c. The piano has a left/right line out, which I usually connect to my powered speakers. The line out takes what I think is a TRS jack, so I think I need to combine the two outputs into a single 3.5mm stereo audio jack. I cannot for the life of me find the cable or adaptor to do this. I bought a cable that I thought would do it, but it doesn’t work - I think perhaps because the jacks on the end don’t have three connections.

I’ve attached a photo showing the cables that plug into the output from the piano (black) and the jacks from the lead I bought (red and black).

I would welcome your thoughts on whether I have definitely bought the wrong cable, and which cable/connector I need to buy and crucially where I can get it from (pref in the UK).

Many thanks.
Image039.jpg

2

CP33 Owner’s Guide, page 14 says:

1 OUTPUT [L/MONO][R] jacks (page 42)
These jacks output stereo audio signals (1/4" mono phone
plug). For monophonic output, use just the L/MONO jack.

So, you need a 2 x 1/4" mono to 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo plug cable, …

If your equipment is close to each other then two 1/4" to RCA plugs + 2 x RCA to stereo mini jack plug (1/8"/3.5mm).

2 x




Juha

3

All that is perfectly correct assuming you have a large deskside PC, or a Mac. If you have a PC Laptop, chances are you can’t do this at all. PC laptops mostly have very sensitive mono microphone connections and no provision for musical instruments or stereo. If you look closely at your machine, does it have a little microphone symbol next to the audio connections? Or does it say Mic-In?

You can add an external USB sound card and you may not have to buy as many adapters. Many musical performers do this.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/sound-card-reviews/8375/1

Koz

4

Thanks, but the 1/4" jack in your picture looks identical to the 1/4 jack at the end of the cable I bought (the uppermost two in my photo). If that should work then I’m wondering if the problem lies with where I’m plugging it into my pc. It’s the mic socket - the one with the picture of the microphone next to it underneath the socket for headphones.

I haven’t tried that mic socket for anything else since I either record on my usb mic or webcam. I have selected the soundcard as the audio input and checked the volume level. Is there something else I could be missing?


5

I am connecting to a large pc in this case, and is does have a microphone symbol next to it. I can buy hardware if necessary but I think I should be able to do this with my existing inputs and outputs. Thanks for the link though.

6

<<>>

That’s still the wrong connector. You need to find the Line-In, frequently blue. That’s the connection that handles high-level stereo music.

Koz

7

A ha, I think I might have one of those round the back of the machine, I’ll check tonight. Thanks.

8

Yup, that’s fixed it: right cable, wrong socket. Thank a lot.