if you're just getting into home studio recording it can sometimes be a little confusing of when
you use your line, instrument, and even sometimes your microphone input and most audio interfaces
will have at least those three types of inputs so in this video i'm going to look at each of those
types and when you might want to use each one so you can better understand your audio interface
and get the best quality recordings possible with it now first let's look at your mic input
also known as your mic level input and we'll see what that's all about the voltage generated by a
microphone is the lowest of these three so it requires a preamp to bring it up to line level
therefore your audio interface's mic input has a mic preamp built into it and what you're going to
connect to this type of input is your microphones whether it's a dynamic microphone like this one
or a condenser microphone that requires phantom power now one thing to note is that some audio
interfaces like this one have a dual purpose mic input here so you have your microphone input that
can accept an xlr cable but also you could put a trs cable in there for a line input now if you're
connecting a microphone always use the xlr cable to connect the microphone that way you're going
into the mic preamp if you use one of those xlr to quarter inch cables and you go into the line input
you could be bypassing the mic preamp or sometimes they put a pad on it so you're not getting the
full mic preamp and then your microphone's going to be a little on the muddy side and you're not
getting the best quality recordings out of your mic also to note about this is if you use a
condenser microphone you must use the xlr cable to connect it or else you're not going to be getting
the phantom power as phantom power does not pass through the line input so that was your mic input
pretty straightforward stuff there now let's look at the line level input and line devices
have the highest voltage level going into your audio interface and the things that you connect
to a line level input could be synthesizers or keyboards that have line outputs on them
mixers that have line outputs on them there's also hardware rack gear like compressors and EQs things
that you would put in a hardware rack those would have line level outputs on them and more on those
in just a bit but there's also some multi-effects guitar pedals that have line level outputs on them
even some guitar amplifiers have line level outputs on them so you could plug direct into
your line level input on your audio interface and do some hybrid type of recording and if you want
to connect home stereo gear like cd players and receivers and some amplifiers they typically will
have a line output on them as well and those will go into your line input so now let's go back to
the external rack gear like the eqs and hardware compressors that sort of thing and the reason why
i want to go back to this is because there can be two types of line levels there's consumer and pro
so consumer level is typically going to be all of your home stereo equipment that has line levels on
it and most small format mixers are going to have your consumer line level format on them things
like that and typically your multi-effects guitar pedals are going to be consumer level
and just so you know consumer level is -10 dbv so what is professional line level
well this is +4 dbu and it's typically going to be your more professional rack gear
so the higher end rack gear is typically going to output that +4 dbu now some audio interfaces
can accept both consumer and professional and some hardware gear will also output to both
consumer or professional level some of them do it better and it will automatically detect
or some will have a little switch or button on them that you'll have to push in to select so
keep this in mind if you plan on purchasing some rack gear and other types of gear have a look at
your audio interface does it accept the +4 dbu or does it only accept the consumer level
-10 dbv you can always look at the specs in your owner's manual to see that type of
information or just do a quick google search for your audio interface and see what it's capable
of handling for your line inputs now next let's look at the instrument level and this
one can be really confusing because you'll have things like synthesizers and keyboards and those
output to line level so you might think that they're instruments so let's plug it into the
instrument input but typically your instrument input's going to be for electric and bass guitars
also some guitar effects stomp stompboxes will output to instrument level as well just
be sure to check the specs on the stompbox before you plug it into either instrument or
your line input and now another important thing to note is that some audio interfaces like this one
have a switch or a button that you can switch between your line input or your instrument input
so if you're plugging an instrument into this make sure it's switched or the button's pushed
so it's on instrument and if you're using a line level device make sure it's switched to
line now check out how to set up your audio interface by clicking the video on the screen
and if you like this video please give it a thumbs up also subscribe to the channel for more videos
like this thank you so much for watching for Audio Tech TV i'm Zane keep creating and we'll talk soon