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** <u>USB 3</u> - while USB 1 and 2 use the same cables and ports, USB 3 introduces extra signal lines. While USB 3 is backwards compatible with older USB specs (including the physical connections), you must use USB 3-specific cables to take advantage of the largest speed benefits it provides. For the standard size A and B jacks, a look inside the connector should be colored blue and have an additional 5 lines. For smaller connectors, such as micro-USB, the cables and jacks have a larger profile - basically an additional connector in parallel to the USB 1/2 variant. You can still use the older cables, but they only use about half of the jack.
* <u>Firewire</u> - this is a somewhat rare connection type that operates similarly to USB but faster (although USB 3 may exceed some Firewire connections). Some outboard audio interfaces use Firewire as its main method of communicating with the computer. It uses its own type of connector.
* <u>SPDIF, AES/EBU, or AES 3</u> - This is a protocol/format to transfer digital audio. Many digital devices feature this connection to deliver audio from the device to an audio interface on a PC/DAW. "''SPDIF" '' typically refers to the first two physical connections below, and the term is used frequently in the consumer device marketalthough also appears on most interfaces used in music production. ''AES/EBU '' usually refers to the last connection and is associated with professional audio production.
** <u>Coaxial SPDIF</u> - This connector is identical to a common RCA cable for transporting analog audio and video, but the cables themselves tend to have a different resistance. While you can often get a standard RCA cable to work, you may find it intermittently stops working - I recommend you use dedicated SPDIF coax cables. These cables use 2 wires for its connection and may be prone to electrical interference.
**<u>Optical SPDIF (TOSLINK)</u> - Optical cable uses fiber optics to transfer pulses of light to transfer a digital signal, typically audio. The benefits of optical cables is that there are no possibilities of electrical interference degrading the signal. In practice, the difference to AES/EBU (or even SPDIF) is likely negligible.
** <u>AES/EBU</u> - AES/EBU is the same format as SPDIF (or AES 3); however, the This term is typically reserved for when it uses a 3-line cable for a balanced (interference-cancelling) connection. Its connectors and cables appear near identical to a standard analog XLR cable, although a standard analog XLR cable may not have exactly the same impedance/capacitance as a dedicated AES/EBU cable, causing connection issues. Thus, like using RCA cables for coax SPDIF, it is preferable to use dedicated AES/EBU cables for an AES/EBU data transfer, although dedicated AES/EBU cables will work just as well as a regular XLR cable for transporting analog audio signals.
* <u>ADAT Lightpipe</u> - This is another format for transferring digital audio, and it uses the same TOSLINK optical cables as mentioned above.
* <u>RJ-45 (Ethernet)</u> - common networking cable for computers and similar devices (modems, routers). More and more guitar gear is using these cables to connect digital devices, particularly foot controllers. It is capable of transporting any digital information, but is usually reserved to MIDI or proprietary data formats rather than audio which more commonly use SPDIF or AES/EBU.