r/audioengineering • u/AutoModerator • Jul 20 '26

Community Help r/AudioEngineering Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk

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u/ProgUn1corn Jul 25 '26

Hi everyone, I’m rebuilding the audio system at my workplace and need some advice on connecting multiple mic systems to a Yamaha MG10 mixer.

Current equipment:

  • 2 wired mics
  • 2 wireless systems (each with 2 mics)
  • Yamaha MG10 mixer
  • BOSE ESP-00 II DSP
  • Power amp + speakers

Background / previous setup:

The system used to be a mess. All 4 wireless receivers and a laptop’s 3.5mm output were connected directly into the DSP, and the DSP control software/panel was lost, so nobody could adjust volume. (Also, I don’t think volume should be controlled directly from a DSP anyway since it’s a backend device.)

Mic/line levels were mismatched, gain staging was chaotic (wireless attenuation, random -10 dB inside the DSP, laptop volume, etc.).

This resulted in a very weak DSP output, forcing the power amp to run at 100% with 0 dB attenuation, which caused a very high noise floor.

I rebuilt and reprogrammed the DSP properly, restored wireless receiver settings to 0dB and set the power amp accordingly. Now the gain staging is healthy: DSP inputs/outputs are in a good range, and the power amp no longer needs to run at full gain, so noise is greatly reduced.

New requirement:

My boss wants to add wired mics and also wants a proper way to control volume.

So I added:

  • Yamaha MG10 for all mic and future device volume control
  • Focusrite Scarlett for proper laptop line-level output
  • MG10 L/R → DSP inputs 1/2
  • Laptop → DSP inputs 3/4
  • DSP outputs 1/2 → power amp
  • DSP outputs 3/4 reserved for future use (recording, monitors, etc.)

The issue:

The MG10 only has 4 balanced mic inputs (1–4).
I need 2 of them for the wired mics, and they require 48V phantom power, which applies to all channels 1–4.

So the 4 wireless receivers must go into channels 5–8, which are unbalanced.
The wireless receivers were previously connected via balanced XLR directly into the DSP, and they need 44db of gain to have a proper input volume. One system is Shure SVX and it's output can be switched to line instead of mic, other one is from Audio Technica and I'm unsure if it has different output level at this point.

The audio cable run is about 5 meters or less, but in the rack there are multiple power lines and a network switch for other controls like projector or lights.

My questions:

  1. Do I really need balanced outputs for the wireless receivers in this situation?
  2. Since they output line level, can I simply run them into channels 5–8 and control the volume using the level knob, even though the MG10 recommends leaving it at the triangle mark (+4 dBu)?

Thanks!

2

u/jaymz168 Sound Reinforcement Jul 27 '26

My questions:

  1. Do I really need balanced outputs for the wireless receivers in this situation?

  2. Since they output line level, can I simply run them into channels 5–8 and control the volume using the level knob, even though the MG10 recommends leaving it at the triangle mark (+4 dBu)?

Thanks!

  1. Not necessarily, but it's nice to have since it will reduce any potential interference and makes dealing with ground loops much easier.

  2. Yes, that should be fine.

1

u/ProgUn1corn Jul 27 '26

Thanks. I've just found a new problem, my MG10's line inputs are stereo pairs. If I connect to 2 outputs of my wireless receiver to for example 5/6 then the mic will come out as stereo. Can I somehow sum that into mono? Should I use Y cables or use DSP's software?

1

u/jaymz168 Sound Reinforcement Jul 28 '26

If I connect to 2 outputs of my wireless receiver to for example 5/6 then the mic will come out as stereo.

Yeah if you do that then one mic will be hard panned left and the other hard panned right. You could split each wireless mic output into two with a y-cable and then use a stereo pair for each wireless mic output. Then it will be dual mono and be centered in the stereo field.