How to route cables for live studio - please advice

[robo]

Hello!
I have a small home recording studio, where my drums is permanently miked. The mics signals go directly to another room into 2 x M-Audio Profire 2626, connected to a PC with ProTools. That is fine for recording: 14 slots are taken by the drums, 2 slots are left free for any other use (vocals, guitars, etc.). You can see a view from my throne.

When we reharse, we use the same room. In the room, I do have a Behringer XENYX 2442FX, connected to a PowerPlay headphone amplifier (we play with headphones). The mixer (16 inputs) has basically the following inputs: 1-guitar, 2-bass, 3-vocals, 4-bg vocals, 5-bg vocals, 6-bg vocals, 7-drums (stereo, returning from the Profires).

That works good enough for reharsal, a little less for recording decent live studio, especially for the drums (which is a bit lagged).

My question is: is there a way to improve the live studio recording quality without too much hassle?

For example, I though of adding a couple of patch bays: the most important mics of the drums would be miked to the bay (snare, kick, overheads...) and:
1-routed to the profire when I record
2-routed to the mixer when we play/record live -> I could use 5-6 mixer channels for this (or even get a bigger mixer so ALL is mixed).

Would this work or is it a waste of time (i.e., spend more time setting the drums via ProTools)?

I do have another drum kit I could use for live studio (a 6 piece DW), but there is not much room in the studio to set a second drums up and be comfortable.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Roberto

 

[Bobbsy]

Personal opinion? Patch bays are never a waste of time and could work really well for you.

One detail though--I've always been a stickler that microphone level signals should NOT go through the jack style patch field. We'd use XLR panels for studio mics and the more normal jacks (a or b gauge) for line level sources only.

If you're handy with a soldering iron, just get a pile of 19" rack panels punched for XLR, a bag of bulkhead connectors, a cup of coffee, some good radio and make them for yourself!

 

[ashcat_lt]

Seriously? 14 channels for you and only two for the whole rest of the band? Fucking drummers!

If you'd like some real help for your problem we can find you a counselor.

 

[robo]

Seriously? 14 channels for you and only two for the whole rest of the band? Fucking drummers!
If you'd like some real help for your problem we can find you a counselor.

Excuse me, but what is your problem?

My drums is miked permanently through 14 microphones. Two slots (more slots can be opened of course) are more than enough to record any stereo signal: the guitar player (bass player, singer, even a keyboard player) can record all guitars needed in the song in subsequent takes, which is not really useful with the drums.

And FYI, the mics are: 1 kick, 2 kick, 3 snare, 4 hihat, 5 tom1, 6 tom2, 7 tom3, 8 tom4, 9 tom5, 10 tom6, 11 overhead1, 12 overhead2, 13 percussion, 14 snare2.

 

[robo]

Thanks Bobbsy,
when I wrote patch bay I should have written "XLR patch bay" really. 2 8-channel units would do.
I am not really into soldering, so I guess i would pass that option!

 

[robo]

Personal opinion? Patch bays are never a waste of time and could work really well for you.

One detail though--I've always been a stickler that microphone level signals should NOT go through the jack style patch field. We'd use XLR panels for studio mics and the more normal jacks (a or b gauge) for line level sources only.

If you're handy with a soldering iron, just get a pile of 19" rack panels punched for XLR, a bag of bulkhead connectors, a cup of coffee, some good radio and make them for yourself!

Actually, I have given this a second thought - what if I add a THIRD Profire 2626 and remove the mixer altogether?

I could plug all the instruments into the sound cards, and still get the returns from them to feed into the Power Play (both the mixed signal AND the individual signals to be used as AUX in the musician's self mix - the power play can do that so that, for example, the guitar player has a further mix of the band mixed signal and his guitar).

I should get an XLR pacth bay anyway, though, I guess (BTW, any good brand to recommend? Switchcraft, MAMBA, ART?)

Pros:
- mixer removal
- no plug in / out of cables when we change from reharsal to recording

Cons:
- the control room is not manned, so we will be likely to record ALL the session everytime > disk intensive?
- lag from ProTools?

Any advice on this?
Thanks!
Roberto