Putting XLR In and Outs on a Tubescreamer?

[sevenisthenumber]

I want to build a tonepad overdrive but only have xlr in and out so it can be used for vocals..... What am i looking at here with impedance, wiring, issues?

[Ripthorn]

Microphones are very low impedance, so I am not sure that matters (since the input impedance will look even larger than it does to a guitar).  The big problem is that in a microphone, two of the xlr pins are signal, but they are out of phase.  You would need to have some way of either inverting the phase of one channel, or take only one channel in and then on the out, put in a simple transistor phase inverter and send the signals on the output.  Of course, that means that you are essentially losing the advantage of a balanced signal going from mic to your box.  Should be doable, but there are modifications needed.

[hoostavah]

maybe build a seperate box for the mic signal handling? I dont know jsut trying to come up with a solution that might help.

[John Lyons]

You need a mic preamp to come before the TS and the transformer and or impedance matching before and after as well.
Any dirt added to mic signals is best added as an insert at the mixing desk.
Not to mention feedback issues on stage. It gets pretty crazy fast (in a bad way).

John

[wavley]

You need a mic preamp to come before the TS and the transformer and or impedance matching before and after as well.
Any dirt added to mic signals is best added as an insert at the mixing desk.
Not to mention feedback issues on stage. It gets pretty crazy fast (in a bad way).

John

I agree with this.  A couple of days ago I was reading Mix magazine and there is an article about The Faint's live rig and they use a cheap Wal Mart distortion pedal as an insert because they actually like it better than the boutique pedal they accidentally lost.

[Paul Marossy]

You need a mic preamp to come before the TS and the transformer and or impedance matching before and after as well.
Any dirt added to mic signals is best added as an insert at the mixing desk.
Not to mention feedback issues on stage. It gets pretty crazy fast (in a bad way).

John

+1