Beginner gear question - XLR to line level (help save our wedding please!)
Hi,
I am a hobbyist guitarist with no experience playing live amplified. My partner and I are planning to sing a song at our wedding reception (instead of a first dance because we can't), me on guitar, her singing, and I'm trying to get the kit together so that she can sing through a microphone as the venue is quite big.
I have an electro-acoustic guitar going through a few pedals into a Fender Mustang modelling amp which all works fine, no noise on the line or anything. I have just acquired:
- Shure PGA48 microphone
- Behringer MX400 mini mixer for getting the mic and the guitar to the amp simultaneously
- random XLR to 1/4" jack cable for getting the mic to the mixer
Which has just arrived today, and I have discovered that I have to crank the mixer and the amp all the way to get any discernible sound out of the microphone, getting a horrible hum on the amp and feedback if the microphone goes anywhere near it. A bit of googling suggests that there is a difference in amplification between XLR cables and instrument ("line level?") cables, and you can't just swap from XLR to 1/4", you have to boost the signal somehow in order to hear anything at reasonable volume settings?
Hopefully this is all painfully obvious to you guys, and you'll know exactly what I need to fix this please? Is there such a thing as an XLR to 1/4" adapter that also amplifies the signal? I've found a few XLR to 1/4" adapters on amazon, but I'm not sure if they're just swapping the jack format, rather than doing anything to signal as well. I can't afford much, but I'm in for a penny at this point.
Any advice very gratefully received - thanks.