Hooking up my patchbay???

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mo-Kay
  • Start date Start date
M

Mo-Kay

Dragon Soul Productions
Hello all, I hope you can help me out on this one, since I've tried to figure this out, but couldn't....plus typing this out hahaha :-D

It's like this: I've bought a PX2000 Behri patchbay for my setup, so I'll be able to patch stuff for flexible recording and mixing.

The patchbay has 2 rows of in and outputs...
2x24 connectors front, 2x24 rear.


I'm a total schematic/mathematical/math logic retard, and although I've been RTFM, I couldn't figure out how I should implement this patchbay into my setup... So I'm kinda hoping on some expert help here.

This is my gear:
------------------------------------------------------------
DESK
Analog 24 channel studiomaster sessionmix.
mic/line input, insert&direct out on every channel.
4 aux sends, 2 mono returns, 2 stereo returns. No subgroups.
XLR output (+4dB) for recording, other output going to monitoring amp.

DAW
-Imac G5 running Protools M-powered
-Audio FW410. 2 in with preamps, 8 out (just counting analog)

SOURCES
-Mpc2000 8 outs
-Yamaha DJX stereo out. Midi
-E-Mu planet phatt, 6 out or stereo out
-Crumar jazzman analog e-piano, 2 out. No midi. Needs amplification.
-Yamaha SK10 analog stringbrassorgansynth, mono out. No midi
-planning on getting more midi stuff with either mono or stereo output.

OTHER:
-Sony turntable through phono preamp (for sampling purposes
-headphone amp

MICS:
-SP B1
-Rode NT2
-assorted dynamics
-getting a mic preamp
OUTBOARD
-dbx 266XL 2 channel compressor
-Korg kec42 2 channel compressor
-Vermona analog EQ 2 channel (sixties graphic)
-planning on getting some stereo multieffects, and maybe some more comps and EQs.
-------------------------------------------------
I figured I'd give you as much info as possible.

Now here's what I wanna do:
-I want my mpc2000 on desk inputs 1-8 permanently.
-FW410 outputs on desk inputs 17-24 permanently.


-be able to use ''safety compression'' when recording mic'd sources

-be able to choose to record the turntable the mpc or the DAW.
-be able to choose to record mic'd sources through the desk preamps, external preamp or directly into the DAW through the fw410.
-be able to record the analog keyboards into the DAW
-Be able to use effects/eq/compression on any channel I choose.
-make a headphone mix for performer(s)




I know this is a big read, but I'm kinda lost and since I've seen some pretty big setups on this board, some with patchbays....I hope one of you can tell me how to hook my stuff up. Ohyeah...should I need another patchbay or whatever...let me know too.


Many thanks :-)

Mo-Kay
 
Mo-Kay,

Do you have a studio/control room or is everything in 1 room? Also, when you get the mic pre you mentioned, how many inputs will it have?

Mike
 
1 room. and the mic pre will be a 2 channel one. I'll mostly will be recording 1 source at a time, maybe 2 so....
 
c'mon... I know those patching cracks are out there! Help a brother out.
 
With all the inputs and outputs you have, I suspect you will need at least one more patchbay to be able to connect everything. Especially if you buy more outboard.

Also, the one thing you won't be able to do is create headphone mixes with your patchbay. There are plenty of inexpensive headphone distributor boxes around though, so that should be no problem.

Another factor you need to consider is this: is all your gear unbalanced, balanced, or a combination of both? If it is a combination, which I think it is, then you should have a patchbay that accepts both balanced and unbalanced gear. The PX2000 is an unbalanced patchbay I believe, but they also sell balanced patchbays. I personally far prefer to use patchbays that allow both balanced and unbalanced connections.

There are many different ways to set up a patchbay, but the main thing you need to decide on a channel by channel basis is whether you should have it 1/2 normalled or de-normalled. When 1/2 normalled, the signal coming in the top rear jack is routed to the bottom rear jack without a patch cable in the front being necessary. This is great for saving on patch cables, but is only to be used when you have a connection that you will want made most of the time. The connection can of course be broken by patching cables into the front of those channels.

In denormalled setup, the routing between the rear connectors is broken and *has* to be made from the front using patch cords. This is how you would set up all your fx processors, outboard rack gear like compressors, eq, etc. This avoids feedback.

If you want your audio interface outputs to permanently be routed to certain channels on your mixing desk, that's an ideal situation for using a 1/2 normalled setup on those channels. That way the default routing will send the signal to your desk, and you can insert compressors and eq's easily wherever you want. You'd put the outputs of the audio interface into the top rear jacks, and the inputs of the mixer to the bottom rear jacks on the same cards.

You would also most likely want to connect the buss outputs of the mixer to the patchbay, as well as the aux sends and returns.

My patchbays are set up with the output of the gear like compressors going into the top jacks in the rear, and the inputs of the gear going to the bottom jacks in the rear.

Of *paramount* importance is labelling the front of the patchbays.

Hope some of this is helpful.
 
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