Different kinds of equipment can be used together.

Combining Audio Components

Line and Mic Levels

Every piece of audio equipment except for microphones produces a very strong signal. This strong signal is usually called line-level or a high-level signal. Microphones create their own electricity and as a result create very weak signals. Mic-level or low-level signals may be 40 to 60 dB weaker than line-level signals. (Refer to the section on signal-to-noise ratios for a discussion of the dB scale and how it works.) If you take the output of a microphone and plug it into an input designed for line levels, you will hear no sound out of the microphone. If you take a line-level output and plug it into a mic-level input, the line-level signal will be so strong that distorted sound will blast out of the loudspeaker. Most of us make this mistake only once.

Analog and Digital

Even a fully digital audio system will have analog components because microphones and loudspeakers are analog components. Therefore, it is common for digital audio equipment to accept and produce analog signal. In many small and midsized facilities, it is common to have a mix of analog and digital audio equipment. Analog equipment might include microphones, loudspeakers, headphones, and even the audio mixer. (The mixer is sort of like the switcher on the video side of the system; it allows you to bring in many sound sources, choose among them, mix them together, process them, and produce a finished audio signal.) Digital equipment might include a video recorder, digital audio workstations, CD players, and so on.

Professional and Consumer Equipment

Because a lot of consumer equipment produces very good sound and is much less expensive than professional equipment, many smaller facilities will use a mix of professional and consumer equipment. The conversion equipment can be installed in the equipment racks, and a number of companies make mixers that will accept either professional or consumer inputs.

Thus, in smaller studios it will be common to find a mix of analog, digital, professional, and consumer equipment.

Analog, digital, professional and consumer are often used together in the same audio system.