From the course: Digital Audio Foundations

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Types of analog connections

Types of analog connections

From the course: Digital Audio Foundations

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Types of analog connections

- All digital audio involves the analog domain as well. Because of this it's important to be familiar with analog connections. Let's talk about physical connectors and cables, the types of signals passed along those cables, and some rules of thumb about which connections are used and when. There are nearly infinite combinations of these so we'll only go through a few common examples. As I discussed in the video about signal flow, there are three main categories of the strength or level of the electrical analog signal. Mic level, line level, and speaker level. Mic level is the weakest of the three. This is usually somewhere around a few thousandths of a volt. Very low voltage. It can't shock you. It's less powerful than even a small watch battery. For processing and mixing, the weak mic level signal needs a microphone preamplifier, or mic preamp, to boost it up to line-level. Line-level is still low voltage and not dangerous but it's a good deal stronger than mic level. It's usually a…

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