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| quote: | Originally posted by Derivative
It used to be the case that you needed a transformer or an op amp to get an unbalanced transmitter to a balanced receiver. But pretty much every soundcard these days that sports balanced inputs can take any combination of balanced and unbalanced lines so it doesn't matter anymore.
Balancing will give you noise rejection and a louder signal. I've typed up a pretty detailed post in ML about how balancing works and why its a good idea so I'll find it and repost it here if you wan't to know the specifics. But the short of it is that an unbalanced cable has a signal carrying line and a ground.
A balanced cable has 2 signal carrying lines (one with an equal and opposite voltage to the other, meaning that the second signal carrying line is in antiphase with the first). The third line is the ground.
As a signal travels along a length of wire it attenuates and accumulates interference (if present from a ground loop, RF Interference or signal cross talk).
A balanced cable will pick this noise up, in phase on both signal carrying lines. When it reaches the input stage of, say, your soundcard, the balanced input reads the voltage difference between the two signals as being the actual signal and everything else is rejected.
So to sum up:
At the output stage you have:
An In phase signal
An Anti phase signal
These two signals travel along the wire and accumulate noise if present.
At the input stage you have
An In phase signal + in phase noise
An Anti phase signal + in phase noise
By this point you will kind of see where this is leading.
The anti phase signal has its polarity reversed putting it back in phase. But in doing so it flips the noise on the anti phase line into...anti phase!
So you are left with:
An In phase signal + in phase noise
An In phase signal + anti phase noise
These are then summed to mono at the input where the noise is eliminated by destructive phasing. The two in phase signals are reinforced and you get a much louder signal.
Those are the two main by products of balancing but this process also eliminates ground loops. This is the same way a DI box works in order to break ground loops.
The Bottomline:
Doesn't matter what soundcard you have provided its not from the stone age. If bought within the last 5 years you could buy a TI and simply plug it in. If you have unbalanced inputs, they won't be able to read the anti phase signal so the balancing process won't work. But you will get a signal on the other signal carrying line. Basically, the Virus TI will work exactly the same as on a balanced card except you get no noise rejection. And as a consequence the output will be quieter. But it'll work just as good as any other unbalanced synth (i.e. Virus B) |
Complicated but I think I get it. Thanks for the post. Something I've always wondered. Does having a better soundcard actually improve the sound quality of any given production or merely sound better on my own setup.
If i was to save up and upgrade from the delta 44 to the e-mu 1616, would it actually give me better produced sound or just sound better to me, but not make a difference once played on other systems?
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Listen to and download all my tracks at www.gregnicot.bandcamp.com
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