Sound Card Hardware

Sound Card Sockets

Most sound cards (or built-in sound facilities) have four or more 3.5mm sockets in the back of the computer. A 3.5mm stereo plug is required for these sockets. The four basic sound card sockets are:
  • Speaker or headphone output. This socket is where you plug in your speakers or headphones
  • Line Output. This socket allows you to connect your computer to a home entertainment system or other sound system, so you can hear computer generated sounds on other sound systems
  • Line Input. This socket allows sounds generated by other systems to be captured by your computer. These other systems are things like record players, CD players, televisions, radios etc
  • Microphone Input. This socket is where you plug in a microphone for live sounds
The sockets are labelled SPK OUT, LINE OUT, LINE IN, MIC IN or , , , or are colour coded requiring reference to the sound card or computer manual.

Audio Equipment Sockets

Home Entertainment systems and other audio systems, such as some record players, CD players, televisions and radios also have Line Out and Line In sockets. However, these systems usually have RCA sockets and require an RCA plug, similar to the one shown, to connect to them.

So, to capture sounds from a audio system onto your computer, you require a cable similar to the one shown. The 3.5mm plug goes into the Line In socket on your computer. The two RCA plugs go into the two Line Out sockets on your audio system. Cables like this are available (in Australia) from places like Dick Smith Electronics and Jaycar Electronics for around $10.00.

Microphones

If you want your computer to capture live sounds then you will need a microphone. This is a simple case of purchasing a computer microphone from a computer shop for around $15.00. A computer microphone will have a 3.5mm plug on it.