Patchbay question

[jbroad572]

I am going to be receiving a projectmix in about a week or 2 and have just now started giving a patchbay some thought. I know it would be convenient, so I won't have to plug and unplug from the back of the projectmix. It has a total of 8 preamps and that's all I will be using for the time being. I will be doing mics and also DI for bass, guitar, and keyboard. I will only need 8 inputs, but I'm sure they don't make patchbays with that few inputs. One of my questions is, on the back of the projecct mix there are both xlr and 1/4" inputs options. It'd be simple to just do 8 1/4" to 1/4" cables, but what about my mics? Should I just get the xlr to 1/4" cables? How will that affect the whole balanced, unbalanced deal? The connections on the projectmix are balanced.

Stupid question... will phantom power still work through the TRS connections?

[Adam P]

The 1/4" inputs are going to be line level, not mic level. You'll need to plug the mics into the XLR inputs. You could use a patchbay for mics, but its most likely far more trouble than its worth at this point. If you had several tracking rooms with 10-20 mic lines coming from each, it would be useful, but as it stands I wouldn't bother if I were in your situation.

[jbroad572]

Ok, no problem, I suppose I will dedicate the first 4 mics to xlr cables and just keep them plugged in. I'll keep the other 4 for DI, that should be sufficient for me.
Thanks!

[Adam P]

That's what I would do, or maybe even look into an inexpensive 8-channel snake with a stagebox, so that all of your mic inputs are in one place thats easily accessible, and you can plug in mics or DIs at your discretion without much difficulty.

[jbroad572]

Am I looking at something like this....
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-8x4x30-XLR-1...QQcmdZViewItem
Guessing this on the lower end of the pricing spectrum?

[Adam P]

Exactly, if you choose to go that route. That price seems reasonable. The most important thing is a quality cable, and quality connectors like Switchcraft or Neutrik.

[punkin]

I second that...a snake for the mic's to the Pre's.

If you use the pre's as DI's from time to time, then a patch panel makes sense if your gear is rackmounted and tough to get to the back if that's where the instrument jacks are located. Also, if you don't have enought inputs on your DAW to permanantly dedicate to the mic pre's, a patch panel comes in handy.

The ideal situation IMHO is to have a DAW input for every mic pre and a patch panel for the instrument inputs to get at the mic pres with. Patch panel is also a must if you plan to do any outbaord processing or re-amping.

[MOFO Pro]

One thing to look out for when you're pulling your instrument in's back to a patch bay... many instrument input jacks switch the mic input off when plugged into...

[punkin]

Oops...you're right! Forgot that during my synaptic distrubance...it's a scheduled event...you'd think I would know when to expect it by now