Shoutbox

TO KNOW:

* Don't use another cable or adapter (stereo vs. mono) unless it is stated that you can. This is very important, because otherwise you'll loose one of the two channels (left or right)!!!!!

* To use these hardware-solutions, your soundcard must be full duplex. This means it can play and record sound at the same time. Almost all soundcards are full duplex these days, but older cards aren't.

* Be carefull if you record sound thru the microphone and you play sound with your speakers at the same time. This can cause feedback if you put your microphone to close to your speakers, or if your speakers are set too loud.

* Connecting the line-out to your microphone-in on "bad" soundcards can cause distortion on your speakers, even if you are not recording or playing anything.

* Determining the difference between a stereo jack and a mono jack is very easy: A stereo jack will have 2 colored "rings" (mostly black) on its plug, a mono will only have 1...

* Audio cables and adapters work in both ways. This means for example, a 1x "Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 2x "Stereo Jack Female Sockets" will convert 1 stereo signal (on the male plug) to 2 stereo signals (on the female sockets), but will also convert 2 stereo signals (on the female sockets) to 1 stereo signal (on the male plug).

* Prices for cables and adapters can differ very much. Mostly it depends on the materials they are made of: Gold plated plugs are far better, but cost much more. Also it depends on common use: mono to stereo converters (components d, e, f) are more expensive then splitters (components a, b) or extension cables (component c).

* The following setups can be achieved with different kind of adapters and cables. But here I'll give the "shortest" solutions...

DIFFERENCES IN HARDWARE:

Setup A
* PC Microphone socket is true stereo.
* Microphone is a (true) stereo microphone.

Setup A bis (special case)
* PC Microphone socket can have a stereo (left and right) input signal but will output a mono signal to your motherboard (it will combine the two signals of a stereo signal to 1 mono signal).
* It doesn't matter if your microphone is mono or (true) stereo.
* In this case refer to Setup A and its components a and c.

Setup B
* PC Microphone socket is true stereo.
* Microphone is a mono microphone.

Setup C
* PC Microphone socket is mono.
* Microphone is a (true) stereo microphone.

Setup D
* PC Microphone socket is mono.
* Microphone is a mono microphone.

Notes
* Having a stereo microphone is very rare (and more expensive), thus most likely you have a mono microphone...
* On most PC's, the microphone plugins are also mono...
* The above makes that most likely your setup would be setup D.

COMPONENTS:

a) A so called "splitter".
Type: "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 2x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Female Sockets"
This exists in the form of an adapter or as a cable.

b) A so called "splitter".
Type: 1x "3.5mm Mono Jack Male Plug" > 2x "3.5mm Mono Jack Female Sockets"
Instead of this mono type, you can use the stereo type (see component a).

c) A normal stereo jack cable.
Type: 1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug"

d) A special stereo/mono jack cable.
Type: 1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 1x "3.5mm Mono Jack Male Plug"
This cable combines the left and right stereo signal into 1 mono signal.
This cable can be hard to find though.

Instead of this one cable (if you can't find one), you can use various other combinations to come to the conversion. eg:
   1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 2x "Phono (RCA) Female Sockets"
   connect to
   2x "Phono (RCA) Male Plugs" > 1x "Phono (RCA) Male Plug"
   connect to
   1x "Phono (RCA) Female Socket" > 1x "3.5mm Mono Jack Male Plug"

e) A special jack adapter (or cable).
Type: 1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Male Plug" > 1x "3.5mm Mono Jack Female Socket"
This adapter (or cable) combines the left and right stereo signal into 1 mono signal.
It can be hard to find and of course there are again other alternatives/combinations to come to the same result.
The difference with the above (component d) is that this one has a "Mono Female Socket" instead of a "Mono Male Plug".

f) A special jack adapter (or cable).
Type: 1x "3.5mm Mono Jack Male Plug" > 1x "3.5mm Stereo Jack Female Socket"
This adapter (or cable) combines the left and right stereo signal into 1 mono signal.
Again, it can be hard to find and there are other alternatives/combinations to come to this.
It is the opposite of the above (component e).

If you microphone is not a true stereo microphone, but has a stereo jack plug, then you can do without this component f. This is because in that case the microphone is actually a mono microphone, but will output its signal to both the left and right channel of the plug; Both channels are exactly the same, so it doesn't matter if you loose a channel of the microphone signal...



picture was here

EDIT: whooohoooo, thanks to WDZ, this thread was restored from the dead. Unfortunatly the big picture explaining all the setups isn't. So sorry for that...