Pro Audio cables and connectors - an overview

This video covers what I feel are the most commonly found cables and connectors in the pro audio industry as of late 2015:

XLR aka Cannon, XLR combo
Phone, aka TS, TRS, 1/4", 6.35mm, guitar, jack
Minijack aka miniTRS, 1/8", 3.5mm
Phono aka RCA, cinch
Minijack to RCA & Minijack to 1/4" adapter cables
Neutrik Speakon (4 and 8 pole) & speakon couplers
XLR to TRS adapters
XLR gender change adapters
XLR splitter cables

Video also covers the male/female naming convention used in Pro Audio and provides some tips and advice on the use of the various types of connectors.

This is a presentation that I put together for a group of university students in Singapore. This particular class contained 22 students, which meant that they had difficulty seeing the actual connectors from their seats in the classroom - I thus put together this PowerPoint to provide a visual focus, supplementing it with actual samples passed around.

Voice over recorded with a Shure SM86.

Feel free to get in touch with questions or comments!

[rakra]

Extremely useful video on audio connectors. Most important, no annoying background music. Amazing and Thank You !

[TZoomed]

I was just sitting minding my business and I decided to look up how audio connectors work. Thanks this is very informative.

[rosiabbott]

A million youtubes later ...here I am....Finally a decent explanation for complete explanation of the cables I was looking for...BIG THANK YOU

[vertusmatjaz]

In our church, we have a small mixer that has jack line outs. And we have a speaker with xlr input. So we are using cable jack-xlr. Public Enemy nr.1. In that case, we must use jack cable to di box and then xlr cable to speaker. Just double-checking. great content. I am just going through all your videos

[djfingersflores]

Bruno is the BEST!!! He really knows his stuff. Very knowledgeable in many different aspects of audio gear and accessories .. Peace Bruno!!

[FirebrandVOCALS]

When the male connects with the female they make sweet music 🎵

[BuddhafulSam]

Thank you!! Another incredibly valuable GLB video. In addition to finally understanding Tip/Ring/Sleeve, a major light bulb went on around the 18 minute mark. I've been wondering where the vocals on the Yardbirds "What do you Want" went....I guess the vocals must be pan-centered in the mix! Unbeknownst to me until now I was summing a stereo signal into mono. Good to hear Keith Relf again. Thank you!

[qim]

That is pleasure to hear your pronunciation and voice. The speech is like a song. Thank you!
Btw, English is not my mother tongue, mine is Russian :-)

[lakegirlroxy]

I like your cable sense of humor, it really made things click... I now understand! Thank you so much for your knowledge, this video is like Gold “very valuable”

[seriouslyme]

Thank you for featuring the Cannon XLR. Great video

[sheskimusic]

Excellent video!! Thanks so much for this clear information. I needed a quick laugh too.

[chrisfox]

I appreciate all the work you do, thank you. Started a few months ago running the soundboard at work on the weekends for the bands that play and I've learned so much from you.

I really could have used this video a month ago. There's a bag of adapters we used that only made things worse. We were showing movies and trying to get sound out from the dvd into soundboard to play though our system. Hum, losing vocals, only getting right. That's where I first found your channel, with the how to connect audio from laptops to mixer. Finally went with the 2 DI boxes and correct cables. Everything went smoothly.

[JimE]

Always enjoy your presentations. At 72, I learn something because I can understand them. Thanks. JimE

[denisebutler]

Thank you for this very informative video. I'm trying to set up a home Karaoke system and you helped me to identify the names and uses for each cable.
New sub.
#Karaoke here I come.😊

[keithbrown]

Thank you for this video. It was very educational and informative I must say. I wanted to understand the difference between TRRS & XLR. I basically wanted to know if was one better than the other. Apparently not.

[anthonyheak]

Great explanation! Thank you for posting.

[Choppsthepenguin]

This video is SO HELPFUL even at the end of 2017. I have looked for so much of this information all over the internet and not found it in such an informative, straightforward manner as this (when I could find it at all!) Thank you so much!

[nickkendall]

4 pole 2.5mm trrs are use for balanced headphone cables sometimes too

[mikehopkins]

Even I understud a lot of this I am new too this as I am just starting on a home recording set up .
I now have some idea as to what these cables are for.

[shaikyasin]

Thank you for your valuable information I'm from india i love your videos