Patchbaying a pre amp or not

[Matt1422]

Hey

So I am have trouble setting up my gear rack to work with my M-Audio Ultra 8R. I have all the in/outputs patched to my patch bay including my 8R interface. The problem is when I want to mic something I have Unplug all the cables going to the imput of the 8R and the other problem is when I patch the mic thought gear on my patchbay there is no way to send it back to the imput of my 8R because there is a mic in it. I was think a work around would be buying a xLR patchbay and a mic preamp but if I do this I would be sending the mic signal through two preamp cause the 8R is a A/D converter and Preamp.

Any ideas?

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hey,
I may not understand you correctly, but it sounds like you are (trying to) plug devices in line before the preamp.
Ie. mic->effect->effect->preamp.

Most effects are designed to work at line level, so this isn't the way to do it.
Ordinarily you'd have the mic straight into the pre, and then use inserts or effects send/return on the interface to put effects in the loop.

Your 8r allows for one loop as far as I can see.


Really, most multichannel interfaces aren't designed for convenient patching of hardware.
If you're planning to do this on multiple channels, a little mixer with direct outs (into the maudio line inputs), or standalone preamps with line outputs would be the way forward.

That way you'd be patching gear in post preamp at line level, where it's designed to operate.

 

[Matt1422]

So what you saying is that i need a mixer with pre amps or a stand alone preamps and patch the out put of the pre amp to the 8R. I found a pre amp i want to buy, its the Focusrite OctoPre Mk II but can i use it with a XLR Patch bay if i buy one ?

 

[Steenamaroo]

So what you saying is that i need a mixer with pre amps or a stand alone preamps and patch the out put of the pre amp to the 8R.

If you want to put inserts on more than one channel, yes.

I found a pre amp i want to buy, its the Focusrite OctoPre Mk II but can i use it with a XLR Patch bay if i buy one ?

Certainly. The xlr patchbay would serve purely as a set of extensions.

The line outs would go to the line ins of the 8r.
If you do that via a TRS patchbay, then you could conveniently patch gear in wherever you want.