Typical Input Channels and Controls
Each of the following signal sources has its own gain and mute control in a typical mixer scheme:
| Control | channels | Controlled source |
|---|---|---|
| Wave / PCM | stereo | Audio signal generated by the CPU via the sound card's digital-to-analog converter. (This includes audio produced by games, MP3 or WAV players, but also some software playing a CD-DA through the CPU, such as, Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic, as well as TV tuner cards that use the CPU for decoding audio.) |
| MIDI/SW Synth | stereo | Audio signal generated by a synthesizer chip (often described as “MIDI device”) or digital signal processor on the soundcard. |
| CD playback | stereo | Audio signal received from the analog CD input of the mixer, which is usually connected to the analog audio output of a CD drive. |
| Microphone | mono | Audio signal received through one of the (typically two: MIC1 and MIC2, switchable) analog microphone inputs. MIC1 is typically connected to the external microphone jack (colored pink under PC99). An optional 20 decibel (10× voltage) amplifier can be activated for this input in most mixers. |
| Line in | stereo | Audio signal received through the LINE input of the mixer, usually connected to an external jack (colored light blue in PC99), which can be used to connect a HiFi amplifier, tuner, iPod, television, etc. |
| Aux in | stereo | Audio signal received through the AUX input of the mixer. This mixer input is not used by all PCs. |
| PC speaker | mono | Some soundcards provide an input for the (very crude) audio signal that the Programmable Interval Timer of an IBM PC generates for the PC speaker. |
| SPDIF | stereo | Digital interface, uncommon in the PC world |
Read more about this topic: Sound Card Mixer
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