Lace resource
THE PHONO GUITAR
The turntable can become a surprisingly musical instrument when the record is used as an oscillator.

One interesting way to add a 3rd turntable to your setup is to run it through an effect processor. The setup for this consists of your 3rd turntable (1) plugged into a phono pre-amp (2) which then goes to the effect processor (3) and then to a line level input on your mixer (4). Some effects have good gain and you might be able to bypass using a phono pre-amp (2), but the signal might be unusable due to noise, poor grounding and lack of proper equalisation.

You can buy simple phono pre-amps from radio shack for around 30 dollars or so. The unit is a little box with an ac cord, two phono input RCA connectors and two line level output RCA connectors. The advantage of using a phono pre-amp is that the signal is amplified and equalized properly (using an RIAA circuit) before reaching the FX processor. The line out of the phono pre-amp goes to the inputs of the effect processor. Since most effects use ¼ inch connectors you will need adapters to go from RCA to ¼ inch. These can also be purchased at radio shack for a couple dollars.

If your effect processor has stereo inputs then plug both connectors into them. If not you can use only one of the RCA connectors or use a Y-cable to mono the signal. Since you have already amplified the signal you are now working at line level. So you can connect the output of the processor to a line input on your DJ mixer. If your effect has a stereo out then just get 2 more ¼ inch to RCA adapters and plug in to whatever line input on you mixer you want to use. If your effect has only one mono output, you MUST split it with a Y-cable to make two lines out of it. If you were to only plug in to one of the line inputs your source would not come out centered but panned all the way to one side because it would not be in stereo, or in this case dual mono.
Stereo setup
Stereo to mono setup

 

Mono effect setup (no Pre-amp)

The first Y-cord takes the stereo signal and combines both channels into one. Then the other Y-cord takes the mono signal coming from the effect unit and splits into dual mono. This signal goes to the line in of the mixer.

A more advanced setup

The signal coming out of the turntable is split. You can achieve this using more Y-cables, but you'd be better off making a custom cable. the first part of the signal goes through the regular effect chain. The second signal goes straight to the mixer into a phono input. you can have both the phono (dry) and line (wet) signals on the same channel and cut back and forth between the two using the phono/line selector, or you can bring them on different channels to mix them.
   

This setup gives you a third table running through all sorts of crazy effects. You can cue it, mix it and mess with it live over top one or two turntables in the mix. For an advanced setup you can also split the un-amplified signal from the turntable and plug the second set of leads into a 3rd phono input on your mixer. This way you would be able to cue with or without effects and you could switch from the dry signal to the effected signal live in the mix just as if your were transforming.

 

Although it is true that some DJ mixers provide fx sends on each line, the resulting sound is different. This setup provides a certain sound only available this way. It turns your turntable into some sort of phono guitar.

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