CV Cables from A4 to Modular

ah, forgot that you had the exact cables listed - yep, for the few percent and unit matching i’d go for black w gold, but I’m not convinced on the realworld significance of galvanic corrosion arguments, certainly best to opt for a gold contact when both sides are
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might use those particular TRS with a halved stackcable as I made mine a little short for the subsequent gear I got

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Currently I am not making the boxes or cables, (just out of stock) but with regard to using cables with the A4 or AK:

1- Don’t be a cheap ass and use adapters, it is the most idiotic thing you can do when connecting expensive equipment that relies on reliable connection, not to mention the added strain put on the expensive to repair sockets.

2- Do use the correct plating on the plugs, that is gold plated for A4/AK and more often than not nickel plated on euro modules (but check to be certain) The main and most important reason is simply due to the different hardness of the plating, you do not want flakes of conductive gold plating inside your expensive synth, do you? Also in areas of high humidity different platings in contact can corrode in not very useful ways.

3- Using a well made cable, adapter box or module, either a DIY solution or any of those mentioned on this forum is going to be far less hassle than saving yourself a few units of currency.

4- If going the DIY route use decent plugs and cable, cheap is cheap for a reason.

5- Stackable 3.5mm are not a good idea, take a look at a socket and how fragile both the contacts and the solder pads are on the PCB, now imagine accidentally knocking a stacked cable. Use mults instead, you can build a small mult box for less money than a few stacking cables, or use those intellijel splitter/mults instead.

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That’s all top advice DarenA.

Oxidisation is the main concern with jacks/connectors and the gold plating eliminates this issue. re. gold flakes inside the synth, there may be an issue with super cheap gold plated jacks but It’s a non issue with reputable products. The plating may just slowly wear away if used heavily but so will the silver/nickel plated sockets when used with even harder jacks. It’s almost impossible to match everything or to even find out the technical information of various components used entirely.
The NP3X-B stereo jack is a long life jack with hard gold plating, it’s perfectly matched to the elektron sockets so it won’t wear them out. The NYS226BG use a softer gold so they would wear first, before your eurorack sockets.

All of this is kind of trivial as any oxidisation/wear out will take a very long time indeed! The oxide is removed easily and the connector still functions perfectly even once all the plating is worn away.
Most minijack sockets used in eurorack gear are likely to fail before the jack wears out, it’s a flimsy design.

As for the Galvanic compatibility, the anodic difference for Gold + Nickel Copper Alloy or Silver = 0.15 Entirely acceptable even in highly corrosive environments, like under the boardwank!

:slight_smile:

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^ Not a fan of the StackCables then :wink: It is a very valid point that needs to be considered on a case by case basis, I think most eurorack gear is mounted to the chassis, so i’d say that’s okay, but may be a bad move for an MS20 mini e.g. (into which i do intend to add Mults/attenuators etc) with its fake chassis mounts - can’t be too worried over at Arturia wrt socket mounts if they ship them with stackable cables now - for the sake of clarity, i am NOT advocating piling adaptors on the back of an A4 - but using ‘adaptors’ with short cable male>female breakouts is obviously okay as it gets you clear of the unit safely (like 2nd img below for monotribe - a done on the cheap stopgap)
i was meaning to chop the stackcable in two (not short w crappy plugs like this tweaked pic obviously … > )

  • they may be a second best, but i don’t have any eurorack gear (but lots of things to CV up inc Doepfer) so cheap mults aren’t an option - the stackables make an easy way to share a channel



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My comment about stackables was more aimed at beginners, plus perhaps a general disdain for them :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: But yes if you are sensible and do not stack them too deeply, and are certain the socket is chassis mounted then I suppose they can be ok in some scenarios, I’ll never be a fan of the though :wink:

To clarify my point about gold flakes, I meant when a plug plated with harder material is repeatedly inserted into a gold plated socket there is a risk (over time) of some of the gold plating coming off.

One more thing about cheap plugs/adaptors is that I have seen them come apart inside a socket, leaving the tip inside the socket!

i’m sure they are oft abused with tragic endings - i wince every time i frequently see someone do this (below) with a mini :wink: so the warning is a good one - plus i’d never thought/read of the flaking issue before / good to file that one away - especially wrt cheap stuff
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mod 1 on mini will be a quarter inch out the back, allowing the front out to be another source (and NO stackcables either, really not sure about these mounts on the korg, i presume they’re through board, but no point in testing that out)

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It was important to me not to have adapters putting extra strain on the connections which is why I didn’t go with the insert cable plus adapters. In the end I picked up some parts at radio shack and made a couple cables. Yours look nicer though. Thanks for all of the advice and information.

I had been looking for cables as well. I was able to configure some for about $20 a piece here: http://www.cablesforless.com/Cable-Calculator-Studio-Grade-Audio-Cable-P6888.aspx

Hope this helps someone else.

I want to use the CV Outs of my A4 with out using various adapters. Currently use an insert Y cable with 1/4" TRS to Dual 1/4" mono then adapter to go to 1/8" for eurorack modules. If someone makes a 1/4" TRS Y cable to 1/8 mono cables I wouldn’t need adapters but can’t find such a cable anywhere. Anyone have a source?

I make these, it takes 2 insert TRS cables and gives all 4x 3.5mm broken out, it is labelled for easy identification of the outputs and has a 3mm hole so that it can be screwed down to a surface or case if required.

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Mono jack to mono mini jack cables is ok for the A4MK2 though right? Because it has seperate outs for A,B, C and D?

And also, it wouldn’t matter if it was a stereo jack though would it?

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@Dapifer yes the mk2 has separate TS jacks for each output. I’d stick to (mono) TS personally for mk2.

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Gold plated mono mini jack to jack cables seem to be impossible to come by though.

I think these might do the trick for the ARMK2?

http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=282441217616&category=41459&pm=1&ds=0&t=1496384628000&ver=0

That’s handy, because if you mix and match metals you run the risk of galvanic corrosion - search it - if your eurorack is nickel plated (which I guess 99% of it is) then you are probably better with regular jacks - now as to what they’ve put in the back of the A4MK2, I dunno

probably not much to this either way you look at it, but why introduce extra cost for less choice

Ah, I was under the impression that the A4 connections were gold plated though from Darenagers post further up.

Is there an issue with using high quality mini-jack to jack adaptors to send CV from the A4mk2 to modular gear? Why would that put any extra strain than a jack to 3.55mm jack cable?

yes - for Mk1, but Mk2 ??

Look at this (deliberately wrong) image and ponder what would happen to the socket if you leaned on that cable - let alone try to avoid the bulk of it

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Ah, I get you now, but I mean the other way about, I can see a large jack cable going into a Minijack adapter is putting a lot of weight on it, but the other way round where I have a eurorack cable going into a 1/4 jack adaptor of decent quality and into the back of the A4? Maybe I have misunderstood if that’s what you’re referring to.

I haven’t followed all the thread above - but if you’re angling for something like this I don’t see the issue, nor the massive need for quality tbh
… but better things last and don’t break off inside (as has happened to some !!)

adaptor


edit: none of these are gold plated