Computer Sound Card Connections

There are normally at least 3  jacks (holes) and a rectangular connector in the sound card section of your computer.  The audio output jack, the microphone input jack, the line input jack, and the game port.  The 3 similar jacks accept a 1/8″ or 3.5mm (same size) plug.  Of course, higher end cards may have more of these types of  jacks for extra surround sound speakers, but I am only going to cover the basic type here.  The rectangular connector is a 15 pin D-sub connector that’s called the game port.

Audio Output Jack:
The audio output jack is normally color coded green, and is a stereo output for your speakers or headphones. 

DO NOT plug your electric guitar amplifier speaker OUTPUT into this jack, or you may have to go shoppin’.  You can, however, plug a cord from this audio output jack into your guitar amplifier INPUT to greatly amplify the song playing on your computer.  Doing that will also greatly amplify your parent’s/wife’s voice. ;>)

Microphone Jack:
The microphone jack is usually color coded pink and is strictly a low level, mono, microphone input.

Line Input Jack:
The line input jack is usually color coded blue and is for playing or recording music or sounds into your computer from the line output jacks on a keyboard, CD player, etc.

Game Port:
The game port is a 15 pin, D-Sub, input/output (I/O) port for a joystick, game controller, or MIDI device.  It’s unique shape and size prevents someone from inserting the connector in wrong, or from inserting the wrong connector in.  Here is a diagram of the computer game port pin out:

Computer MIDI Game Port Pin Out

For older computers that don’t have the MIDI capabilities, pin 12 would be connected to ground and pin 15 would be +5V out.