Patchbay hookup, please help!

B

blind_sublime

New member
Hi,
It seems that I've acquired enough gear over the last 2 years for my home studio, that my cabling is turning into an all-out 'cacoon' behind my daw... I've read up about patchbays and such, but due to my ignorance seem to be missing some piece of information. What I want to be able to do is quickly be able to route various mics through various preamps in a reasonable manner. I'm not sure how to do this without some sort of combo XLR-TRS type patchbay? My setup is as such:

5 mics (all requiring phantom power) with XLR out connections
4 different preamps with XLR ins, and various assortments of XLR & TRS outs
All going into an RME Fireface (TRS Ins).

What kind of patchbay can I use to set this up? At some point, I'd like to get some 'insert' based equipment as well (ala rack compressors), but for now, this is the bare bones setup. This all came to a head last night as our bands singer wanted to "go down the line" with several mics and preamps , and I was having an anuresym behind the desk hooking and re-hooking things around...

Thanks for any help!
-b.sublime
 
blind_sublime said:
Hi,
It seems that I've acquired enough gear over the last 2 years for my home studio, that my cabling is turning into an all-out 'cacoon' behind my daw... I've read up about patchbays and such, but due to my ignorance seem to be missing some piece of information. What I want to be able to do is quickly be able to route various mics through various preamps in a reasonable manner. I'm not sure how to do this without some sort of combo XLR-TRS type patchbay?
Click to expand...

Generally, you unplug the mic and plug it into the preamp you want to use, then patch the preamp into wherever its output needs to go using the patchbay. I'm assuming the preamp XLR connectors are all on the front, no?
 
If you were wanting to stay xlr all the way, you'd have something like this in your rack. The output(backside) of the first port would go to a particular pre. If you wanted to use that pre, you'd plug into the appropriate port. Next port, same thing.
 
Not a good idea to send phantom power through a TRS patchbay.

Line level signals okay.

Too easy to shoot phantom at a line input and fry a piece of gear.

I guess if you had a DEDICATED XLR patchbay that you only used to pass mic signals........ but I wouldn't mix-and-match signals through a TRS patchbay.
 
c7sus said:
Not a good idea to send phantom power through a TRS patchbay.

Line level signals okay.

Too easy to shoot phantom at a line input and fry a piece of gear.

I guess if you had a DEDICATED XLR patchbay that you only used to pass mic signals........ but I wouldn't mix-and-match signals through a TRS patchbay.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, didn't think of that. What would be the issue?
 
A couple issues.

First, if you have a "live" mic input with phantom enabled, every time you patch a TRS cable you're shorting to ground while patching.

Second, let's say you're half in the bag and your singer wants some reverb on monitors for the next take and you fuck up and patch +48volts of phantom into the input of your reverb.

Oops!
 
c7sus said:
Not a good idea to send phantom power through a TRS patchbay.

Line level signals okay.

Too easy to shoot phantom at a line input and fry a piece of gear.

I guess if you had a DEDICATED XLR patchbay that you only used to pass mic signals........ but I wouldn't mix-and-match signals through a TRS patchbay.
Click to expand...

c7sus, you got me thinking. I'm just about to finish my patch set-up. I have 8 inputs from my live room directly to my #1 XLR patchbay. Also on #1 XLR patchbay are 8 lines going directly to my ProjectMix I/O inputs 1-8. On #2 XLR patchbay my pre-amps, sytek comp, 160, RNC, EQ's, LexMX200, and others I/O's all balanced. So to build my chain I made FXLR-FXLR cables to patch from #1 to #2 (processors) and back into #1(to PMix I/O). Did I do this fucking right or did I just waste a shitload of time? I thought if I kept everything balanced all the way, I was good to go. I should have posted this on my own.
 
I think a seperate patchbay for the mics if you really need it is ok. I have worked in some large studios that have had such a patchbay , well away from all the line level stuff.That was a completely different patchbay.
Then again , the least number of points of contact on a signal ( i.e connectors )
the better shape it stays in , especially a weak mic signal.
 
Sorry -- quick question -- if I've got a mic requiring phantom power going into a Firepod with +/-48 enabled, can I then use the output to connect to a balanced (or unbalanced) patchbay?

If I should not, how do you recommend mics that require phantom power be connected to a patchbay? You say via a separate patchbay, but then how would this be connected to the DAW. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks in advance.
 
So the general consensus seems to be the only effective way to have a patchbay between mics and different Pres would be via an XLR patchbay, especially with phantom power? The reason why I want to have an "intermediate" place to switch connections, is b/c all my pres are in a rack connected to my mixing desk, with connectors in the back. Everytime I want to try something different now, I have to physically move the desk, and get a flashlight and go through the connections in back. Not really a big deal, but a pain in the but, when you're trying to try different flavors tracking something, with a singer/guitarist/etc... waiting a few minutes inbetween connections. Ideally I was hoping I could have some sort of 'front panel' with all my XLR mics and pres there to swap in 'near real-time'. Hope that makes sense.
 
Each of my preamps has its own xlr cable for input (so I don't have to go behind racks), each of the outputs go to a patchbay. All of my effects (verb, eq, comp, etc) are in the patchbay for input and output
 
Big Kenny said:
Each of my preamps has its own xlr cable for input (so I don't have to go behind racks), each of the outputs go to a patchbay. All of my effects (verb, eq, comp, etc) are in the patchbay for input and output
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's what I meant.

And every studio I've ever been in outside of the one in my garage( :o ) has xlr wall plates for patching mic's to the console or whatever. It's basically a small patchbay, right?
 
Personally for XLR inputs in the home recording type environment, an XLR snake works great. You keep that plugged into your pres, and just connect the mics to the numbered inputs in the recording room.

Then you can patch the line level outputs from your pre into your patchbay, and have them 'normalled' or whatever you call it to to your recording channels or patch them in to outboard gear from there...

Works for me, anyway.
 
That's exactly what I do. I have a 24 channel stage snake (box at one end, fan at the other). The fan ends get plugged into all the input channels of my mic pres, which are all on the back of the units (and hard to get to when racked). I just plug a mic into the appropriate channel of the snake box and I'm good to go.

The preamp outputs I have connected my regular (TT) patchbay. From there I can route each preamp channel to whatever recording input I want.
 
The danger is in having phantom power activated when accessing a patchbay. A simple workaround might be some way to ensure phantom is off.

I suppose one way would be to have a dedicated XLR bay (Hosa has modules like this with three connectors) for mics and the ONLY source of phantom power being the preamps which are all in one spot.

Another way is to use a mixer as a patch bay. Control phantom power at the mixer. Mixer's trims are down / off. Output to the outboard preamp (always with the outboard phantom off) is at click one of each channel insert and from the outboard pre to the DAW (again, phantom always off). Each channel would represent a dedicated preamp "flavor", rather than a dedicated mic.

If you have enough aux sends, that will let you use balanced TRS connections to the preamp as well.
 
Last edited:
Treeline said:
The danger is in having phantom power activated when accessing a patchbay. A simple workaround might be some way to ensure phantom is off.

I suppose one way would be to have a dedicated XLR bay (Hosa has modules like this with three connectors) for mics and the ONLY source of phantom power being the preamps which are all in one spot.

Another way is to use a mixer as a patch bay. Control phantom power at the mixer. Mixer's trims are down / off. Output to the outboard preamp (always with the outboard phantom off) is at click one of each channel insert and from the outboard pre to the DAW (again, phantom always off). Each channel would represent a dedicated preamp "flavor", rather than a dedicated mic.

If you have enough aux sends, that will let you use balanced TRS connections to the preamp as well.
Click to expand...

I'm not gonna lie, that seems like a whole lot more work than just having a box patchbay with a fan at the end to connect to the pre's. Plus, there's always that chance that someone doesn't have smaller mixing board to dedicate just to phantom power mics. Or, if they do, that it's still enough channels. Just throwing it out there, good idea if you've got the gear though! :D ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top