Help Wiring Midas Venice...

[borntoplease]

okay. so im getting a midas venice 320. im trying to figure out how much cabeling i will need. you'll have to forgive me. im taking audio classes right now, but i just finished audio I. we havent really gotten to the back of the board and wiring and what not... mostly learning signal flow and mic placement and all that jazz... so if someone could help me figure out what cabeling i will need that would be great.
the specs are on this web page, in a pdf format, so it takes just a moment to load...
http://www.midas-venice.com/downloads/venice-specs.pdf

i am going to a patch bay... then to an alesis HD24... as far as outboard gear, i dont have a lot... set on a kurzweil rumor, 6 channels of RNC compression... thats about it for now...

oh, and if anyone knows a good place to buy cabeling cheap in bulk let me know.

so... if anyone out there can help me that would be awesome!!

[Massive Master]

Depending on how much you want to get into this, you'll need more than one patchbay and a crapload of cabling. Line I/O is a 48 point bay all by itself. Inserts are another 48 pointer. The HD 24 is another. Aux busses, groups, stereo outputs... Figure $100 per patch bay (Neutrik would likely be the best value) and around $250 for cabling each bay if you stay mega-cheap.

If you just 1-to-1 a lot of the board and HD24, you can avoid a lot... Insert cables can live on the boxes and be plugged manually to save more... There's a lot of room to go either way.

Hosa 8x8 snakes are quite good (if not stressed) and very cheap. Probably not as cheap as making them yourself, though... Actually, maybe they are...

[xstatic]

OK wiring.... If you want the Alesis HD24 on a patchbay.... The cables will need to be at least 10 feet long for "some" flexibility. Just for the Alesis alone you will need 6-10' long TRS-TRS snakes, and one full patchbay. Now you will need another patchbay to go from the Midas direct outs. Thats another 3-15' TRS-TRS snakes. You will also need to get the Alesis Outputs to the line inputs on the Midas. Thats another 3-15' TRS-TRS snakes.

If you decided not to do the patchbays, you could save on the cost of both the patchbays, and cut your cabling in half. I personally would go without the patchbays (for ow at least) and get better quality cabling than HOSA. Especially if you have to plug and replug things. The plastic molded HOSA cables seem to damage very easily.

[borntoplease]

okay... so here is my question... if i dont have a patchbay, how do i get say reverb on channel 6? i've never used outboard gear w/o a patch bay so im not sure how it would work... would i have to plug and un-plug the gear everytime i used it? anyway... thanks for the reply... oh, one more thing. if im only using compression and reverb right now, do i need more than one patch bay? if i only use one patch bay do you think you could guess at a total cost of cabling? i wasnt really wanting to spend more than 1k on cables...

[xstatic]

The thing is... a Venice is not that large of a console. It is really easy to reach over and just change a patch. Technically, this is a more "pure" connection anyways. I would run the direct outputs of the channels straight into the inouts on the Alesis. Then run the outputs back to the line inputs on the Midas. Just make sure you aren't using the line input and the mic input on the same channel at the same time.

As for FX, on the back of the venice is 2 balanced TRS (1/4") outputs labeled FX 1 and FX 2. These are both permanently post fade aux sends. I would run the FX 1 output to the input on your reverb. Then run the output of your reverb (both Left and Right) to the inouts of the first stereo channel on the Venice. For compressors and gates and such, I would use standard TRS insert cables. The TRS end goes in the insert jack on which ever channel you would like the comp/gate inserted, the other end of the cable will have two mono 1/4" plugs. The one labeled "tip" goes to the inout of your comp (or whatever outboard unit you are inserting), and the end labeled "ring" goes to the output jack on your outboard unit. For a small setup like this, I would not use a patchbay at all. First, it reduces the cost by not having to buy patchbays. Second, it cuts the amount of necessary cabling in half. Third, you also don't have to buy patch cables. You should be able to fully cable both the Alesis HD24 and all of your outboard units for about $500 with quality cables, about 2/3 of that with cheapie HOSA cables, and considerably more than that for really nice cables. At lot of this also depends on length of the cables as well.

[borntoplease]

thanks man, youve been a huge help!! not only in this thread, but in the ghost vs venice thread i started a while ago... at least i think that was you. so i think i wont go with a patchbay... maybe later on when i start doing "bigger" projects i will get one, but until then it sounds like it wont be too big of a deal
thanks again

[borntoplease]

oh yeah, what cable falls in that range of better than HOSA, but not outlandish?

[xstatic]

Check your Pm's, I sent you a message.