geekhack
geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: melt on Mon, 27 March 2017, 07:50:01
-
Hi, guys, I was wondering if it would be at all possible to use a 1/4" TRS Guitar cable in place of a USB cable to connect a keyboard to a computer?
The keyboard would have a 1/4" TRS output jack on the back where you'd be able to plug in a guitar cable that will in turn be plugged into a sort of USB adapter plugged into a computer.
Can this be done, and if so, how? Many thanks.
-
Guitar cables are analog signals, so you would need something to turn that analog signal into a digital signal and out the USB. One example would be the Behringer Guitar2USB cable.
In terms of will it work with a keyboard, you would need some custom firmware to interpret it.
-
If you're just talking about physically adapting the cable at each end, and there are 4 conductors in the cable (I do not know if this is true of the specific cable you're asking about), then it should work as long as your adapters at each end are pinned consistently. You could use 4 individual wires all separate from each other if you really wanted to. The keyboard firmware and the computer are not able to see how you connected it and care not as long as the pins go to the right places.
However, you should be aware that due to cable construction differences the shielding/interference resistance is very probably not equivalent and there could be other factors like voltage drop. Over a short length of cable you're probably fine but it's hard to be sure.
-
Thanks for your input, guys!
A 1/4" TRS cable only has 3 conductors so I guess it wouldn't work. I know this can be done with a 3.5mm TRRS cable as that's what is used to connect the two sides of the ergodox as it has 4 conductors.
I just wanted to achieve the aesthetic of plugging in an electric guitar and they use 1/4" cables.. but I guess the issue is the cable not having that extra conductor.
-
If you want a big arsed aesthetic, you can try XLR 4 pin plug or if you're really adamant about 1/4" style plug, you can use 2 TS plug, to achieve 4 conductor state. As long you don't swap when plugging, it won't do much harm
Also please don't mix cable and plug, it makes the whole thing confusing.
-
Any cable/ connector that has 4 pins will work..
Buhhhhh.. this is a huge hassle because you gotta solder/ glue all these big connectors to all your keyboards ?