Hi there
Where is the input “Pad” button on the QU16 please?
Is there even one? My drummers phantom powered mic for his hi-hats are coming in almost too hot, even with the gain all the way down.
Thanks
If you are using the local inputs (on back of mixer), there is no pad:
Local (red Gain) – Rear panel Mic/Line sockets
feeding the internal Qu mixer preamps. These are a
pad-less design featuring wide gain range.
If you are suing a dSNAKE, there is a pad on the main screen for each input.
Some mics have a -10db switch on them, have you checked this?
Loops -10db XLR In-Line Balanced Attenuator Adapter - Volume/Noise Reduction Audio Cable Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ if you’re still struggling…
I’m sure better examples exist, but it was the first hit
Do those attenuators pass phantom OK? Some do & some don’t & that one doesn’t seem to say which it is!
Also, check impedance. 600Ω is probably a better bet than 200Ω.
Attenuators shouldn’t need to touch pin 1! Differential mode attenuation is all that should be needed.
Why is R1 halved?
Because of the differential nature of the circuit. It’s a derivation of a simple potential divider.
Here’s some light bedtime reading:
Using this method, the circuit I posted previously should in fact read R1 and 2*R2.
Why? I presume R1 and R2 refer to different resistances, so there is no reason to arbitrarily halve or double one of them.
Or is it that R1 is R2/2?
I have never seen a pad where R1 and 2 were different. Basically they are impedance isolation providing for the shunt resistor to passively reduce the level. Basically shorting. Same with a H pad.
It’s not arbitrary, see Figure 1 in the PDF I posted.
R1 and R2 are independently respective of their single ended equivalents in a potential divider, where R1 is the resistor connected to the source, and R2 is the resistor connected to GND.
The link is for filters. The one you show on your post is a balanced out. No ground. Single ended pads are usually T-pads.
In my intended example, it is inferred that ground would run 1:1 with no circuitry other than the screening of the cable. Same as what your schematic shows.
Yes the link is for filters, but the same principles apply, just without reactive components.
Just some points from my side for clarification. The circuit expects a High-Z input to work correctly (reduce level by 6dB), otherwise R2 has to be seen in parallel to the input impedance. If R2 equals the input impedance, reduction will be 12dB.
-6dB Pad isn’t very much for a pad and when choosing R2=R1 you’ll get -12dB.
For symmetric signals R2 needs to be 2*R1 for the virtual ground in the “middle” of R2 to obtain -6dB, as Mervaka said.
The non-trivial problem is to choose optimal values for R1 and R2, since you also need to take into account the source impedance, input impedance and capacitance.
Anyway, I somehow doubt this is a pad issue, since level from a mic should be way below line level and the inputs allow signals up to +19dBU which I rarely saw from any device (particularly not a mic, and never from a phantom powered condenser).
I’d probably check cabling first. A broken ground or signal line on a phantom powered mic can easily produce that high spikes when shaked.
Wasn’t quite what I said, see post 53103 
That’s why my sentence ended with “, as Mervaka said”. 
In fact my post refers to some posts before, just been to slow with typing.
I have built a lot of pads over the years. Mostly H. Some U or O. I never got into the math of calculating them. There are charts everywhere or online calculators to figure the loss and values needed.
And to be honest we’re probably way off topic - the depth of the gain the QU inputs is remarkable, hence lack of a pad.
What mics are that hot?
With about any console you stick a good LD mic inside a kick or put a decent mic on snare and you probably will wish you had a pad. I have one install with DSnake on a 24 that I have pad in and still dialed way back on gain. Mic doesn’t have a pad.