What is a A/D converters.

[mtown408]

Can someone please tell me what it is. Is it in a preamp or interface?

 

[Lt. Bob]

Aalog to Digital converters. They convert analog sound such as a mic signal to digital code so the 'puter or processor can deal with it. They're in all sorts of things ..... even that little CD Walkman has D/A converters.
So they may be in a pre-amp ...... they would certainly be in interfaces ...... but they can be in all sorts of things. By themselves they're not neccessarily anything in particular ..... they're usually in conjunction with something else.

 

[travelin travis]

Converters are what change your audio electrical signals to digital information and vise versa. Kind of like this:

mic/mic preamp > A/D > computer < D/A < power amp/speakers

 

[gordone]

Not entirely correct, an AD converter would have to be fed a line level signal in order to convert to digital. A mic signal is too low for an A/D converter to do anything useful with.

Aalog to Digital converters. They convert analog sound such as a mic signal to digital code so the 'puter or processor can deal with it.

 

[c7sus]

Any A/D could still convert a mic signal to 1's and 0's.

Your noise floor will be fer shit, however.

Also, some older tube mics put out damned near line level from their power supplies.

So is it doable? Yes.

Is it the desired method? No.

 

[daav]

To try to clarify a bit more:

A preamp will take a mic level signal, which normally will be too low to be used by most audio equipment to a higher level signal, it amplifies it. They usually will also supply phantom power for condenser mics.

An AD/DA converter takes an audio signal and converts it to digital.

A sound card (by itself) is a device that helps process digital audio signals inside your computer. Most soundcards have some degree of AD/DA built in as well.

AN audio interface is generally a device that combines two or all three of th above. Almost certiainly you will get AD/DA converters and the soundcard funtionality that lets the computer manipulate the audio in digital format. Often you will get at least a couple preamps built in as well.

Last, quality of the various items above tend to be proportional to their "bundled" status. Entry level home recordists will usually want a all in one packatge with preamps, converters, etc all in one package. But stand alone preamps, converters, etc tend to be, item-by-item, more expensive and higher quality.

Daav.

 

[Lt. Bob]

Any A/D could still convert a mic signal to 1's and 0's.

Your noise floor will be fer shit, however.

Also, some older tube mics put out damned near line level from their power supplies.

So is it doable? Yes.

Is it the desired method? No.

well, obviously I should have used a different term ..... I was just quickly pointing out the analog to digital conversion aspect of it and used the simplest quickest term that popped in my head. Didn't really mean to say that it was all you needed to run a mic into.
Sorry for my lack of correctness.

 

[chestwick91]

simple....converts Analog signal to a Digital signal
easy enough?