Instruction Manual

1218 Beginner’s Guide to Cakewalk Software
Audio
instruments such as electric guitars. The Mic input is calibrated to accept
the input from microphones (however, you can usually get a better recorded
sound by plugging a mic into a preamp or mixer with preamp, and plugging
the preamp or mixer into the Line input). The S/PDIF input is the one to use
for digital audio sources such as samplers and some CD players. Guitar
cables usually have a 1/4 inch plug on the end, so to connect an electric
guitar to a 1/8 inch jack, you need a 1/4 inch-to-1/8 inch adapter, which is
readily available at electronics supply stores. If you’re not sure what kind of
inputs your sound card has, you can actually measure their width
(diameter).
If you have a more professional-grade sound card, the input jacks will
probably be 1/4 inch, and you might also have some XLR inputs for low-
impedance microphones, and S/PDIF and possibly AES/EBU connections
for digital input and output. If your microphone cable has an XLR plug on
the end of it (an XLR plug has 3 pins sticking out of it), and your sound card
only has 1/4 inch input jacks, you need to put an XLR-to-1/4 inch adapter
on the end of your microphone cable.
The following table summarizes the possible sound card inputs, types of
cables required, and the inputs to plug into: