Studio wiring

Drew_TNBD

Hey all,

We're building a new studio now our office has moved. We have a 32 channel XLR box which we're wiring up with 24 male XLR's and 8 Neutrik combi jacks. The aim for this is to go to our rack, so we can patch any microphone in the live room to any preamp that we want - flexibility. Trying to decide whether to go from the XLR box to a bantam patchbay or stick with XLR patchbay. TRS isn't an option really as we want phantom power.

Thoughts on how to nail this??

Danny1969

I have 46 inputs appear from my live room to 46 outputs in my control room. Then I can patch using short balanced cables any of the 46 into the 32 mic pres I have available on the desk

I built it, looks like this

The 1\4 patch at the top is for aux sends and headphone feeds, using one of those off the shelf you can send aux 1 to headphone 7 easily for example which is handy

IanSavage

As long as you're not re-patching while the phantom's engaged, I'm sure you could get away with TRS; of course, I wouldn't unless I could guarantee that it was only people who knew what they were doing working the patchbay.

ecc83

I would NEVER put phantom power on anything but an XLR3.

I know the Beeb have gotten away with it for years but then they don't tend to allow monkeys around the kit?

Dave.

Danny1969

I wouldn't use a 1\4 for any vital signal either, it's a shit connector. Just wire the inputs from your room to 24 male XLR'S and then wire a bank of 24 female XLR's to the inputs of your pre amps. Then just patch any number to any number like the old telephone exchange. It's simple and idiot proof and doesn't rely on any switched connectors or crap 1\4 jacks

ecc83

Danny1969 said:

I wouldn't use a 1\4 for any vital signal either, it's a shit connector. Just wire the inputs from your room to 24 male XLR'S and then wire a bank of 24 female XLR's to the inputs of your pre amps. Then just patch any number to any number like the old telephone exchange. It's simple and idiot proof and doesn't rely on any switched connectors or crap 1\4 jacks

That is an extreme position. There are millions of jack connections in use all over the world all the time working perfectly.

Virtually every record you ever heard and ever WILL hear was sent though several, maybe a score of jack contacts and patch leads.

Dave.

Cirrus

Four score and seven jack connections ago our amplifier set forth into being a new signal, conceived in distortion and dedicated to the proposition that all signals should arrive at their destination input unaltered.

Drew_TNBD

So we're going straight to the back of a bantam patchbay with the inputs normalized to the outputs, which will be connected to our Focusrite interfaces (which will connect to an RME Raydat interface) giving us all our inputs. We can then optionally break the connection to use other preamps if we need/want to. We've also got an XLR patchbay in the rack, which we'll wire to the bantam as well, so if we want to connect a microphone to a preamp - or anything else for that matter - inside the control room as opposed to the live room, we'll have that option too.

mike257

How many mics are you likely to want in the control room at any one time? My old place had a bunch of XLR to Bantam patch leads for patching mics and visiting gear straight in from the control room, might save you some rack space and a couple of hours of soldering if thats the only purpose of the XLR panel!

Drew_TNBD

Not sure really, but I don't mind the soldering. Doesn't take that long.