Plugs, Cables, and Connections

In setting up your home studio, you learned how to assemble your equipment in regards to spacial consideration, workflow optimization and organization. However, the cables and connectors are truly the ties that bind and make everything work together. Understanding which plug is needed where, and what each plug does is important information for any recording or home studio commando.

In this article you will learn:

• The cords, cables, and connections used in music production

• What they do and where they go

• Most common uses

1/4” Analog

The most common and popular cord you may recognize is the 1/4 inch analog plug. Their are two flavors mono, known as TS, (Tip sleeve) and stereo, known as TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve)

1/4 TS - mono (unbalanced)

The main thing about the T/S cable is that is a single channel, which is also called mono, and you don’t want to confuse or misuse instrument cables vs speaker cables.

Uses: Instrument connections i.e. guitar/synth, power amp, and speaker connections.

Instrument cords which contain a wire and a shield, which helps to minimize the noise, is different from speaker cords which carry more power, and doesn’t have a shield.

1/4 TRS - stereo

A stereo cord, or Tip Ring Sleeve (TRS) cord, contains two separate channels and left and a right. The advantage of balanced cords is that you can run longer cables without adding excess noise to a signal.

Uses: Headphones, audio equipment and gear that requires balanced connections. A TRS Y cord can also be used for inserting effects and signal processors to the line in on a mixer.

XLR - These are used for microphones and line connections in some cases. The male and female ends are different, and carries a low impedance signal. XLR cables are balanced.

RCA - These are also called phono plugs, and are often found on home stereo’s, they are like a TS plug, and aren’t very common in pro audio equipment. RCA plugs are also used for Digital S/PDIF signals.

ADAT Lightpipe - This allows you to send 8 tracks of digital audio at one time through a fiber optic cable.

TDIF - TDIF is a competing format for ADAT, designed by TEAC, not nearly as common as ADAT, and uses a 25 pin connector.

S/PDIF - Uses an unbalanced coaxial cable and RCA plugs. S/PDIF can transfer two channels of digital data at one time. S/PDIF is a more well known option, but similar to AES/EBU connectors.

AES/EBU - (Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcasting Union) AES cables are similar to S/PDIF, and can allow you to transmit two channels of data at one time. AES uses balanced XLR, unlike S/PDIF

Firewire - A.K.A. IEEE 1394/ iLink, Firewire is probably the fastest connection format between computers and digital devices. Firewire was made by Apple, and is common on a large range of equipment by an expansive range of companies. Firewire cables have the same connectors on both sides.

Firewire 400: Data transfer speeds are up to 400 Mbps.

Firewire 800: Transfer speeds of up to 800 Mbps.

Uses:

A connection format between electronic equipment used to transfer data, typically from a device to a computer.

USB - (Universal Serial Bus) Just about every computer today has at least one or two USB ports. It is a heavily popular and convenient format for connecting interfaces, (audio & midi) controllers, midi keyboards, external hard drives, printers directly to your computer. The “A” (recieving) and “B“ (sending) connectors look a little different is size and shape.

USB 1.0: The standard, it is the original and can handle a 12 Megabits per second data rate.

USB 2.0: The new standard, it can process 40x the data flow - 480 Mbps.

Because of the considerably faster transfer speeds USB 2.0 is quickly becoming the new standard format for new gear on the market.

Uses:

A connection format between electronic equipment used to transfer data, typically from a device to a computer.

MIDI - (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Is a standardized protocol used to shuttle informational data between devices. MIDI cables transfer the data from gear to gear through two MIDI connectors, the male end with 5 pins, which goes into the female MIDI jack (port) on the device.