Anyone have experience in DIY line level attenuator pads?

[la malta]

While I'm not taking it personally, I did say what my stage mixer was earlier in the thread. Saying this humbly as possible, I probably disregarded all the questions that assumed I was plugging things in the wrong input because I assume myself more competant than that. No hard feelings.

Anyway, consider the Pioneer DJM-800 which is a very rider friendly standard DJ mixer, has a max output of 22dbu if I recall. That's more than my allen and heath.

[SirNickity]

It kinda... sorta makes sense to have all that headroom, assuming your inputs are full-scale and you'll be summing two tracks, plus high-Q resonant filters, effects, etc. Not that this is much of an excuse, because console mixers have potentially dozens of inputs plus EQ, but maybe a console operator is expected to have more common sense than a DJ. That could also be all the more reason to internally pad the levels before output on the DJ mixer. So yeah, 22dBu is pretty crazy. Not sure what good it does anyone.

I would use 1/4W. No harm in using 1/2W, just bigger and more expensive, and not by much of either. Full scale 22v at 1k is 480mW, so I could see the justification. But I don't know how often you'll be passing full-scale sine waves. (Oh.. duh.. 22dBu, not 22dBv.)

[Bruce Weldy]

Saying this humbly as possible, I probably disregarded all the questions that assumed I was plugging things in the wrong input because I assume myself more competant than that.

Understood.....but it's difficult to grasp everyone's knowledge level without starting with the basics. What you are trying to do is very unusual, thus making sure that everything is hooked up correctly would be the first order of business.

[byacey]

From what I can gather from the posts, you want to lose 30db or so, that will put you into the ballpark for driving a mic input.

+22db before clipping isn't unusual for a +4db mixer output, it equates to around 10 volts RMS, pretty standard for typical +/- 15V power supply rails.

[CoronaOperator]

Anyway, consider the Pioneer DJM-800 which is a very rider friendly standard DJ mixer, has a max output of 22dbu if I recall. .

I don't know if this will help you or not but on the djm800 you can pad down the output signal. In the following picture there is a flat head screwdriver set switch to the right of the xlr outputs called MASTER ATT where you can pad down the signal by -3db, -6db, -12db. Don't worry, the DJ's have no idea what that means or how to adjust it!