[sdiy] New to sdiy but w/ some knowledge

[Donald Tillman]

> On May 27, 2017, at 4:06 AM, Andre Majorel <aym-htnys at teaser.fr> wrote:
> 
> "Instrument level" is a misleading name in that the only
> instruments whose output fits that description are electric
> guitars and basses.

Historically it's also used for organs, electric pianos, acoustic guitars with piezo pickups, any instrument with a contact pickup, woodwind transducers, and high impedance microphones.  It's a very useful level for the musician who needs to be able to plug some random thing into an amplifier for a performance.

Or to plug some random thing into a synthesizer.

Given that, "instrument level" is completely fine.

It's high impedance, preferably 1Mohm, because many of these sources are passive, and loading them down will lose signal.

And it's a low voltage, nominally about -10dBu or about 700mV p-p, but here's no definitive value.  Since many of these are mechanical sources played with dynamics in various conditions, it'll need a couple volts of headroom for sure.

 -- Don

--
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don at till.com
http://www.till.com