![]() While 1/8” jacks are often used in consumer-grade products such as smart devices and headphones, and 1/4” units are more popular for studio use, they are still fundamentally the same type of cable – TRS. The latter I won’t cover due to their rarity in music studios. TRS (balanced) cables come in a range of sizes - from the standard ‘instrument’ 1/4” ( 6.35 mm) to 3/32” ( 2.5 mm). This also applies to utensils like splitters, power packs. 1/4″ TRS to 1/8” TRS or RCA to TRS, etc.). If I go really deep into the functions, the physics and the potential uses of each individual cable on the music market, this article would be about 40 thousand words and more boring than _ insert your least favorite album here_.Īdditionally, I will avoid naming and going into detail regarding every single converter/adapter available unless it is very important.įor the most part, you can convert any prominent and functional cable head into another (e.g. I will provide a base overview, the different forms and uses each cable can provide and that’s it. I’m not going to go deep into specifics about each cable. I won’t go into any further detail on this cable though, as it is very unlikely you would ever come across it at an amateur, bedroom level. There are a few exceptions to this though - for example, a five-pin XLR cable, which can transmit a stereo, balanced signal using just the one connection. Generally speaking, balanced cables are mono, meaning you will need two signals to replicate a stereo sound setting. That is unless your headphone cable stretches from your room to Mercury…Īlso, since the signal coming to headphones is already amplified, the amount of external interference is going to be negligible as opposed to when you’re running a microphone level signal, which is then amplified to line level (with all the distortions that the cable picked up along the way). For example, connecting a pair of headphones to a phone’s headphone output will result in an unbalanced connection yet won’t result in crackling and lower audio fidelity. However, balanced cables aren’t necessarily required to get high-quality audio for a number of applications. With that said, most instruments (such as electric guitars, keyboards, etc.) have unbalanced outputs, so using a balanced cable with them would be a little pointless - the end result would be exactly the same. Unbalanced cables are not, meaning that they are less ideal for the quiet, clean signals required when listening to music on monitors, for example. Mic level is exactly what it sounds like and the softest of the three - the level output by a microphone, which is then boosted by a preamp to reach line level.īalanced cables are essentially designed to be free from interference - be it from radio, nearby signal transmissions, and other external noise. On some audio interfaces, the same input jack can be used for both instrument and line-level signals, but in that case, there’s also a switch that lets you set the correct gain for each signal level (e.g. Instrument level (aka Hi-Z) is the direct level of guitars and basses transmitted via an instrument cable before being converted to line level by something like an audio interface, or a DI box. Instruments such as keyboards/synths/digital pianos are generally outputted at line level when being recorded in a signal chain. Line level is the typical level used by most professional audio equipment. However, when categorizing analog cables there are two more instances we must consider: Balanced vs Unbalanced, and the level at which the signal is transmitted.Īs discussed in previous articles - there are three levels of signal that are transmitted via a cable: That said, this article will still touch upon a few digital cables that will often be just as required as a typical instrument cable (MIDI, USB, Thunderbolt, Firewire, Optical, etc.). Typically, the stars of the show in your music studio will be analog cables. There are two main types of cables: analog and digital.Īnalog cables work by sending information via a stream of electricity (an electrical signal) from one point to another.ĭigital cables work by sending information via a stream of binary code (1s and 0s) from one point to another. What Actually Are Cables? How Do They Work? Digital vs Analog
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