Print
EmailPart 1: Recording from an external Source
Making the connections
Lets say that you want to record from your Hi-Fi. (Any equipment in which you can plug in the plugs as in Figures 3 and 4 it is possible to record from. But I will use the example of a Hi-Fi.) You may have cassettes that you want to burn onto a CD, or you might want to record a segment from the radio. Whatever you want to record, basically it must be playing on the external equipment.
Diagram A
The phono jacks provide a way for the Hi-Fi to broadcast the sound it is producing to other equipment. These may be labelled audio, MD In/Out, Out, etc. The jacks should look like the ones below:
Figure 5
The black plug (Figure 3) goes into the white jack (Figure 5) and the red plug (Figure 3) goes into the red jack (Figure 5).
Note: In Figure 5, the yellow plug is not for audio, only the white and the red is. Therefore we would match up red to red and black to white, since we have no choice. However, if only yellow and white are for audio, then it is your choice for which plugs to put the black and red into.
Also, MD means Mini Disc. For the Hi-Fi pictured, the “In” jack is for when you want to play something on the Hi-Fi that is playing on your Mini Disc. (eg. You are holding a party and you have a cool song on your mini disc and you want to amplify it onto the Hi-Fi’s subwoofers) The “Out” jack is for when you want to play something that is playing on your Hi-Fi on your mini disc. (eg you want to listen to the radio on your mini disc) You may notice later on that we are using these jacks to connect to a computer. This does not matter, as we are still using the jacks on the Hi-Fi for the same purpose.
At the back of your computer, there should be 3 plugs. These will look like the ones below:
Figure 6
They will be labelled. One will have a microphone next to it, and one will have a microphone next to it.
Note: In Figure 6, the jacks shown are from a laptop. Your computer will have these holes as well if you have a sound card. The only difference may be that you have more or less hole. The first two from the left have a speaker icon next to it and the one of the very right has a microphone icon next to it. When we want to broadcast audio that is playing from the computer we would use the 2 ones from the left. When we want to record audio on our computer that is playing from an external source we would use the plug on the very right.
So therefore since we want to record from an external source in this section we would use the plug on the far right.
Now, to set it up we would put the plugs (Figures 3 and 4) into Figure 5, and into the two jacks named “Out”. We would put the plug (Figure 2) into Figure 6 and into the jack on the far right. If you don’t understand how this works, try to imagine:
Diagram B
The Hi-Fi is tuned in to a radio station, so therefore there is audio playing through the Hi-Fi’s speakers. Now imagine that through the “Out” jacks, the Hi-Fi sends the same signal that it sends to the speakers. So therefore if we were to connect a cable to these Out jacks we would get the same signal as if we were listening through the speakers. So the audio (via the Out jack) travels through the wires, merges into one, and then comes to the computer. It comes into the computer via the jack with the microphone symbol on it. And imagine that the microphone jack collects all audio. It is like a vacuum…. So therefore audio from the Hi-Fi makes it’s way to the computer, and at a very high quality.
NOTE: When you learn how to record audio later on, you will find out that the audio that you record from other equipment will be of very high quality, with no static that was not present on the original equipment. Eg if you record radio on your computer off a Hi-Fi, when you play it back it will be like listening to the radio again. The quality is “crystal-clear”.
10606 Views - View Comments (0)
Sorry, your account does not have access to post comments.