Audio Connections - CAKEWALK SONAR User Manual

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Audio Connections

There are several types of audio interfaces (soundcards). CardBus (PCI), USB/USB2 and FireWire are
the most common. Laptops can use an audio PCMCIA card. Many audio interfaces also have MIDI
inputs and some have built in MIDI synthesizers as well. This section covers the various audio
connection options.
Analog and Digital Inputs
There are two basic types of audio inputs, analog and digital. Analog inputs allow you to connect a
guitar, mic or other instrument to your computer directly. The audio interface converts the analog input
to digital. Digital inputs allow other digital devices to connect directly to your computer. Common
digital inputs include external analog to digital converters, popular guitar processors like the Line6
Pod, and other digital recording systems like the ADAT decks. Analog inputs are very common, and are
standard in virtually all consumer sound cards (the ones that come with your PC). Digital inputs are
becoming more popular and are very common on professional and mid-level, "prosumer" interfaces.
Analog inputs allow you to record a mono or stereo signal (assuming you have a stereo input) while
digital inputs allow you to record 1 to 8 signals depending on the type of digital connection.
The following table describes the various analog inputs and outputs:
Type of Analog Input/Output...
Balanced (XLR, phono or RCA)
Unbalanced (TRS)
The following table describes the various digital inputs and outputs:
Type of Digital Input/Output...
S/PDIF
ADAT Lightpipe
TDIF
AES/EBU
Read your hardware documentation carefully to determine what kind of digital connections, if any, you
have on your audio interface.
To Connect an Electric Guitar to Your Computer
• If your sound card has a 1/8 inch input jack, plug your 1/4" mono guitar cable into a 1/8" stereo
adapter, and then plug the 1/8" adapter into the microphone input or line input jack on your
computer sound card.
• If you use a professional or "pro-sumer" sound card, there is probably a 1/4 inch input jack on your
30
Description...
a mono input/output
a stereo or mono input/output
Description...
Sony/Philips Digital Interface—capable of carrying a stereo signal, S/
PDIF is transmitted via RCA, Toslink or more rarely BNC jacks (single-
pin cable-TV connections)
Up to 8 channels of simultaneous transfer. If you want to import your
old ADAT material without any signal degradation, this is the
connection you should use.
Tascam Digital Interface—up to 8 channels of simultaneous transfer.
Often referred to as simply AES, this type of digital connection uses a
modified XLR cable to transfer a stereo signal.