patching my components in an effecient way

[fabfour1257]

i'm in the process of putting together a small home recording studio, and need some help in patching everything together.
the equipment i'm using is:
YAMAHA MD8 8TRK. DIGITAL RECORDER
PEAVEY MARK III SERIES 12 CHANNEL MIXER
PEAVEY M-2600 MARK V STEREO POWER AMP
(don't have any monitors for mixing yet. hoping to
get a pair of Tannoy)
BEHRINGER DSP1024P VIRTUALIZER PRO (effects)
BEHRINGER MDX2200 COMPOSER PRO (2 channel compressor)
really i'm just trying to get an idea of how many patch cords i'm going to need, and if a patch bay would be a good idea in this setup? (if it is i need a little help getting familiarized with that also) also i 'm really wanting to be able to plug all of the sources into the mixing console first, and then into the 8 track recorder. can i do this by running a 1/4" patch cord from the post or pre send in each channel of the mixing board, then into each track input on the MD8? any help would be greatly appreciated
also are there any books, or articles pertaining to this that i could get that would be a help?

 

[6gun]

this is one of those questions that could be very difficult to answer without seeing the console/recorder being used. sounds like you could probably get by with one 48 point bay, 6 eight channel snakes and minimal 12" patch cables. if you get a bay that has switching for parallel, half-normalized, normalized, and open connections, all the better. if you get twisted around setting it up, consult a local shop. knowing which connections to normalize and leave open can be confusing at first. hope this helps somewhat.

 

[vicevursa]

If you need a more info on hooking up to a patchbay I consulted Behringer for the answer. Look at the manual. It's pretty good and it helped me out...