Thankfully the audio world simplifies matters for us with "Instrument", "Line" and "Speaker" labeled connections. Otherwise, someone in the band will have to stay sober. 🙂
And this, folks, is why I'm a drummer. But hey, on a serious note, I've always looked at impedance as it compares to a water dam. If the dam is high and strong, it impedes water flow, my "amplifier" doesn't have to add much water to the lake to keep the water full. If the dam is small, flimsy or even broken, there is low impedance, the water flows freely around it, and my "amplifier" has to work incredibly hard to keep the lake level high.
As a general rule yes, place buffers at the beginning and the end of your signal chain but if you have vintage style Fuzz or Wah pedals in the beginning of your signal chain (which is recommended to have as early in the signal chain as possible) then the input buffer should go after these. This is due to exactly what Mr. Gallagher said here about it being desireable to have low impedence inputs on your pedals - vintage style pedals like Fuzz's and Wah's are high impedence so these are very sensitive and doesn't like buffered signals. They want to "see" your guitar signal as early as possible, unaltered and not buffered.
Goddamn Mitch...I thought I understood Hi-Z and Low-Z just fine... and I think I still do....but goddamn, my eyes just glossed and all i was hearing you say was the word "impedance' over and over. I think i even heard a sentence in there made up entirely of you saying "impedance, impedance, impedance" ...... but damn...i can't get mad at that smooth, buttery voice of yours...
This def would have benefitted from *any* sort of visual aid. Too much info and too fast for the people most likely to benefit from this kind of conversation. This assumes a LOT of prior knowledge.
I've heard the word 'impedance' for many years. Like other words in electronics, it makes more sense once one looks at the root of the word 'impede'. Still confusing though!
Water. Replace electricity with water and it's easier to understand because you have direct experience with it. Imagine you have a 1 gallon bottle of water, and you empty it through a drinking straw. It's going to empty in a couple of minutes. Now picture it emptying through a garden hose. It will empty much faster, in 10 - 15 seconds. The hose lets more water pass through, so it has a higher current. Current is how much water is passing out of the jar each second. In electricity, current is the amount of electricity passing through your circuit. It's called amperage and is measured in amps. Now why is the water emptying? Gravity. So the weight of the water in the jar is pushing the water out. With either the straw or the hose, the water in the jar is pushing the water the same amount. If this was electricity, the "weight", or the pressure pushing the electricity through the wire is called voltage. So current is the amount of electricity passing through the circuit, and voltage is the pressure pushing that current. The straw is much smaller than the hose, so only so much water can pass through it. So the small size of the straw is resisting the water's effort to pass through it. The larger hose provides less resistance to the flow. So resistance is a measurement of how hard it will be for the water(electricity) to flow through your straw(circuit). Resistance in electricity is measured by ohms and is also called impedance (a higher resistance impedes the flow of electricity). So with the same weight(voltage), if you decrease the resistance by using a larger hose(circuit path), you will get more current. we know the gallon jar will empty quickly either way, so if we set it up such that a certain amount of water is coming into the jar to refill it as it empties, we have a never-ending supply of water, so we can keep the weight of the water constant. This now represents your power source - a never ending supply of electricity. But if the hose lets the water out faster than the jar is being refilled, the weight of the water will drop, and so it will push the water out with less force. So if your circuit has a too low resistance, it will allow electricity to flow through the circuit at a higher rate than your power source can provide, causing a drop in voltage in the circuit, which means the circuit will not perform well because it depends on a certain minimum voltage. Hope that helps.
@@kilroy2517 ...., causing a drop in voltage)... can you say off the top of your head what is typically used to "regulate"/ not cause the electrictity to flow so freely throught ac circuit.? is it a transistor? or something else, thank you, hope my quesiton makes sense....
Nice mitch...thank you. Always a great thing when you educate yourself about a particular subject. Again thank you for the explanation. Got me lookin at all my pedals now....lol
Hi, thanks for your interest! “Loading down” in this context means connecting a source of electricity (or audio) to an input whose impedance is too low. Mitch used the example of a wall outlet with too many appliances connected to it, but another audio example would be running too many passive speakers off a single output on a power amp - each added speaker reduces the impedance and potentially “loads down” the signal. Here’s another resource for more info: www.whirlwindusa.com/tech-articles/high-and-low-impedance-signals Hope this helps - feel free to contact me directly with any further questions, and thanks again! Caleb Lowrey, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1620, caleb_lowrey@sweetwater.com
Sir, you talk so fast it is very hard to understand what your trying to tells us. It like your reading a book to fast to understand what your reading about. You should slow down and even draw a circuit on a white board and explain what your talking about. Your reading something so fast it almost sounds like Spanish talk .
That is not correct. High impedance isn't just resistance to AC current flow, it's a resistance to ANY change in the amount of current flow. It doesn't have to be an alternating current. If you just ramping UP current flow or ramping DOWN current flow, high impedance will resist either. It does NOT have to be alternating the current up and down, it resists ANY change in current flow, UP, DOWN or ALTERNATING.
Feed your brain! Mitch Gallagher breaks down impedance and its impact on your signal.
Is this why some pedals don't play nicely in some amplifiers effects loops? 🇦🇺
@sweetwater you lost me at no visual representation please use graphics.
If there is any possibility of impedance that makes this guy speak littlie bit slow would be undoubtedly brilliant
you can slow down the video reading speed at 0.75 and it's quite audible
@@Zigotoy_3234 This was magic haha
Sweetwater sets the standard.
Imagine if all companies followed this business model.
Thankfully the audio world simplifies matters for us with "Instrument", "Line" and "Speaker" labeled connections. Otherwise, someone in the band will have to stay sober. 🙂
Ha
lol
Lol 😅
As an electrical engineering student, this was a great explanation. Thank you.
And this, folks, is why I'm a drummer.
But hey, on a serious note, I've always looked at impedance as it compares to a water dam. If the dam is high and strong, it impedes water flow, my "amplifier" doesn't have to add much water to the lake to keep the water full. If the dam is small, flimsy or even broken, there is low impedance, the water flows freely around it, and my "amplifier" has to work incredibly hard to keep the lake level high.
As a general rule yes, place buffers at the beginning and the end of your signal chain but if you have vintage style Fuzz or Wah pedals in the beginning of your signal chain (which is recommended to have as early in the signal chain as possible) then the input buffer should go after these. This is due to exactly what Mr. Gallagher said here about it being desireable to have low impedence inputs on your pedals - vintage style pedals like Fuzz's and Wah's are high impedence so these are very sensitive and doesn't like buffered signals. They want to "see" your guitar signal as early as possible, unaltered and not buffered.
Thank God for DI boxes. Whoever invented those things was a genius!
Thanks, I'm definitely more confused.
😂
Absolutely, unequivocally, inarguably perfect. Worldclass badass.
Colonel Sanders you are my hero! I've been trying to understand this for a while, and after three watches of this video, I think I've got it.
No one does it better than Mitch!
Goddamn Mitch...I thought I understood Hi-Z and Low-Z just fine... and I think I still do....but goddamn, my eyes just glossed and all i was hearing you say was the word "impedance' over and over. I think i even heard a sentence in there made up entirely of you saying "impedance, impedance, impedance" ......
but damn...i can't get mad at that smooth, buttery voice of yours...
I wish there was some sort of diagram or maybe audio example to go along with this video
This def would have benefitted from *any* sort of visual aid. Too much info and too fast for the people most likely to benefit from this kind of conversation. This assumes a LOT of prior knowledge.
I still don’t really get it. Visual aid might help.
Good explanation of a complex subject. Thanks Mitch!
Thanks for the info!
Amazing depiction of knowledge
You are really up on your info!
I think you are a great teacher and would be a good friend to have
Better explained than my electrical engineering class.
Nice but I need some graphics… 😢
I've heard the word 'impedance' for many years. Like other words in electronics, it makes more sense once one looks at the root of the word 'impede'. Still confusing though!
I usually see the term in regards to headphones. So low-impedence headphones are easier to drive and get loud?
Exactly. High impedance headphones may need an amp to get loud.
Hi MajorSeventh. Here's our video specifically about headphone impedance:
th-cam.com/video/0Ki_-reu4PE/w-d-xo.html
And we're back to the original question. What is low impedance vs high impedance in instrument signals.
Don't get me wrong, I know it. But with the way he read it so fast off the teleprompter, you must have known it well to be able to follow him.
Thanks man, keep up the good work!
I finally understand. Thanks!
Great job, and I still don't get it! 🤓
I'm gonna try watch this again in half speed! But this current vs voltage thing... ... ...
@@thesebdav8602 Funny! Me too!
Water. Replace electricity with water and it's easier to understand because you have direct experience with it. Imagine you have a 1 gallon bottle of water, and you empty it through a drinking straw. It's going to empty in a couple of minutes. Now picture it emptying through a garden hose. It will empty much faster, in 10 - 15 seconds. The hose lets more water pass through, so it has a higher current. Current is how much water is passing out of the jar each second. In electricity, current is the amount of electricity passing through your circuit. It's called amperage and is measured in amps.
Now why is the water emptying? Gravity. So the weight of the water in the jar is pushing the water out. With either the straw or the hose, the water in the jar is pushing the water the same amount. If this was electricity, the "weight", or the pressure pushing the electricity through the wire is called voltage. So current is the amount of electricity passing through the circuit, and voltage is the pressure pushing that current.
The straw is much smaller than the hose, so only so much water can pass through it. So the small size of the straw is resisting the water's effort to pass through it. The larger hose provides less resistance to the flow. So resistance is a measurement of how hard it will be for the water(electricity) to flow through your straw(circuit). Resistance in electricity is measured by ohms and is also called impedance (a higher resistance impedes the flow of electricity). So with the same weight(voltage), if you decrease the resistance by using a larger hose(circuit path), you will get more current.
we know the gallon jar will empty quickly either way, so if we set it up such that a certain amount of water is coming into the jar to refill it as it empties, we have a never-ending supply of water, so we can keep the weight of the water constant. This now represents your power source - a never ending supply of electricity. But if the hose lets the water out faster than the jar is being refilled, the weight of the water will drop, and so it will push the water out with less force. So if your circuit has a too low resistance, it will allow electricity to flow through the circuit at a higher rate than your power source can provide, causing a drop in voltage in the circuit, which means the circuit will not perform well because it depends on a certain minimum voltage.
Hope that helps.
@@kilroy2517 Thanks, and the water analogy is helpful.
@@kilroy2517 ...., causing a drop in voltage)... can you say off the top of your head what is typically used to "regulate"/ not cause the electrictity to flow so freely throught ac circuit.? is it a transistor? or something else, thank you, hope my quesiton makes sense....
Nice mitch...thank you. Always a great thing when you educate yourself about a particular subject. Again thank you for the explanation. Got me lookin at all my pedals now....lol
Quick and easy explanation. But what do you mean by loading down electronics? Loading down with what?
Hi, thanks for your interest! “Loading down” in this context means connecting a source of electricity (or audio) to an input whose impedance is too low. Mitch used the example of a wall outlet with too many appliances connected to it, but another audio example would be running too many passive speakers off a single output on a power amp - each added speaker reduces the impedance and potentially “loads down” the signal. Here’s another resource for more info:
www.whirlwindusa.com/tech-articles/high-and-low-impedance-signals
Hope this helps - feel free to contact me directly with any further questions, and thanks again!
Caleb Lowrey, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, (800) 222-4700 ext. 1620, caleb_lowrey@sweetwater.com
Good explanation
The best man to learn from
set to 0.5 speed and it makes more understandable
Really would like the narration to be a little bit slower.
thank you Mitch.
I thought you explained it very well
So glad you made this plain! 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆
Isi just me or is everyone getting dizzy. 😵💫
Does it make sens to plug my Hardware synth straight into my ADC ? with TRS cable. Thanks
lol I thought I understood impedance before this. I didn't know a lot.
Sir, you talk so fast it is very hard to understand what your trying to tells us. It like your reading a book to fast to understand what your reading about. You should slow down and even draw a circuit on a white board and explain what your talking about. Your reading something so fast it almost sounds like Spanish talk .
That is not correct. High impedance isn't just resistance to AC current flow, it's a resistance to ANY change in the amount of current flow.
It doesn't have to be an alternating current. If you just ramping UP current flow or ramping DOWN current flow, high impedance will resist either. It does NOT have to be alternating the current up and down, it resists ANY change in current flow, UP, DOWN or ALTERNATING.
I... fucking... love... his shirt...
👏👏👏👏👏
Dammit, I will never understand electricity:(
Too much info without images will make noobs crazy.
Now that makes a lot of practical sense .