The basic functionality of a MIDI output to send control information out to a device: a synth, a module, or something that has midi input capability. If you are a super nerd, you can read about the history of MIDI from this wikipedia article, which is kind of interesting to, because I am a little bit of a nerd. You can get really elaborate with MIDI information, to the point that you can control lights and slides, and all kinds of other gear, but that’s a story for another day Well you can use the MIDI output to send all that information to your synth. You could have created a piano part on your computer, but maybe you decide that you want to use a sound on an old synth that you have. You hook up a midi keyboard to your computer, and then you can play some of the virtual instruments.īut all of this MIDI information that you create and save on a computer, can be repurposed in other ways too. The most common version of this is a midi keyboard. The basic kinds of information would be what note was played, how hard it was played, how long it was held, etc. Basically it is just information that is transmitted either to or from a device that has the MIDI capability. If you are around music production for any amount of time you are likely to hear the phrase MIDI. I’m honestly not sure why you would want this to be your option for monitor output, but that’s just me.
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I’m assuming that this would be for someone who would want to send their sound to a regular home stereo setup or maybe to some consumer grade speaker setup. On the back of the audio interface the monitor outputs will be marked as monitor, or main out, and then have a L and an R to show you which line is meant to go to the left speaker and the right speaker.īut you will have some of the smaller audio interfaces, like the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, that has RCA outputs on the back rather than ¼” outputs. The more common route is powered studio monitors, and most of the studio monitors that you will see on most of the major online stores will be powered monitors. Most of the ones you will find will have ¼” outputs that are intended to be fed into either powered studio monitors directly, or to an amplifier and then to passive studio monitors. Pretty much every interface is going to have some form of monitor out setup. Or another instrumentalist that you are recording through a mic. There are some other ways around this, by using a separate pair of line outs to send as a mix to the vocalist. So something to consider is whether the audio interface that you are considering has more than one headphone output. Most vocalists are self-conscious when it comes to hearing their own voice in headphones without any effects. Maybe you create a small mix of their voice with some eq and reverb to help them feel confident about what they are doing. It’s also convenient when you are working with a vocalist to have them to hear the track that they are singing to as well. It’s helpful when you have only the headphones output turned up and the monitors turned down when you are recording, so you can avoid the nasty feedback.Īnd also avoids getting some weird echoes in the things that you are trying to record through a microphone. This is probably the most obvious one, but this output will usually send whatever is on the master channel of your digital audio workstation (DAW) to your headphones so that you can listen to the mix. Let’s start with the easy ones: Headphone Outputs So let’s start with a picture a list … I’m a visual person, so it helps me to be able to see images and correlate it to the function etc. We’ll talk about how they all work, and what they are used for.
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So we’re gonna dive into a list of the audio interface outputs. Overview of 7 basic outputs on an audio interface How does this audio interface actually have 20 outputs? You may have seen quotes of “this audio interface has 18 inputs and 20 outputs”.īut when you look at the photos of the back, it doesn’t seem like the number of outputs or inputs lines up to what they’ve quoted in the spec, and you’re left scratching your head, wondering: On each interface, chances are you saw some different options when you looked at the photos of the device. When you are doing your research on audio interfaces, you have probably looked through the pictures of the unit you are considering on sites like Amazon, Sweetwater, Front End Audio, Vintage King, or some other online store that carries the interfaces.