Signal Chain Advice Needed

[zocochico]

Hi All,

I recently picked up a couple of mic preamps and want to hook them into my system with the ability to not have to patch a bunch of stuff all the time. I am assuming a patchbay may solve the problem but need a second opnion.

Here is my typical chain for doing a vocal track: I plug my AT4050 into Focusrite TwinTrak w/phantom and go out of that into the line in on the back of my Firepod.

Last night I tried the following chain and it seemed to work fine but I'm not sure if it's "correct". I plugged the AT4050 into cahannel 1 xlr on the front of the Firepod using it's phantom power. I took the "pre amp" out line on the back of the firepod into the external preamp (in this case an Aphex 207). Then I went out of the Aphex and back into the line in on the back of the firepod. Everything seemed to work fine.

What I want to do is basically have the ability to plug my mic into the firepod and use a patchbay or something to choose which preamp I want to run through. Is this even possible or correct? Is there a better way that I am not thinking of? Also when I do drums if I want to use all the external preamps is there an easy way to do that without a lot of patching?

Thanks!

 

[heroics321]

your current method is somewhat redundent, as you're running the mic through one preamp into another. the best bet is going to be an xlr patch bay. you would hook up all of your preamps to the rear of the unit and your mics to the front. you'll also save some life on your pre's jacks. things to watch out for: (1) connecting mics while phantom power is on (2) cheap patch bays.

 

[zocochico]

Cool, thats the advice I was looking for. I didn't like the idea of going through the firepod pres even with the gain all the way down. It just seemed bad. Off to look for a patchbay. Thanks!