XLR and TRS wall panel wiring

C

clong89

New member
I have ten pair XLR and TRS female wall sockets on a panel. I want to wire them so that I can use either TRS or XLR ( not both) per pair. Can I just piggyback off of them? That is, simply couple XLR pins to TRS pins with small wires then to the channel in the snake? Seems like it would work to me. Also, for the end that returns in the CR; should I terminate that with a wall panel or just a fan?

Clong
 
You should be able to.
I would do one then check to make sure there is no grounding issues. If not forge ahead.
 
Clong,

You won't have any issues doing the wiring that way... just inform other users not to use both at the same time. ;)

Wall panel or fan is really up to you. You know your situation in your CR better... Remember, the more contact connections - the more chance of connection problems. - Pick your poison. (keep the connectors clean) That said; Straight in is always best, but if you are going to change those connections from time to time, you should probably route them to a patchbay (get a good one).

Cheers,
John
 
Wiring "parallels" as you describe is a pretty normal solution inside studios and should work fine.

At the control room end, a wall box is less common--though less because of any fear on reliability but more for convenience. In the ideal world you'd go for a patchfield with normalled connections into your mixer. This gives you the option to re-patch if necessary. However, I always had a policy to keep mic level and line level on different parts of the patch field--how this would work given your parallel XLR/TRS connections in the studio might be more problematic. If you plan to use it that way, perhaps a fan going straight into the mixer might be safest.

Bob
 
Look at your TRS jacks. Many of them (most?) have "normally closed" contacts: when there's no plug inserted, each of the ring and tip contacts touches its own little flange. If so, you can wire the XLR and TRS jacks in series, with the XLR at the "far" end. If you do it right, when there's no plug in the TRS jack, it will simply pass both signal lines coming from the XLR. When a TRS is inserted, it will break the contacts and disconnect the XLR.

Headphone jacks, particularly on consumer equipment, are very often wired in a similar manner, so that plugging in headphones mutes speakers. It's also more or less how insert jacks work: instead of connecting the normally-closed contacts for tip and ring to something else, you connect them to each other.

Or, of course, you can just be careful about what you put in the jacks.
 
bdenton said:
Replace your XLR's with Neutrik combo jacks.

Use the TRS for studio headphones...
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the replies. I have done some more thinking and ended up going with this guy's option. I have more options and it's cleaner. I also bought this patchbay:

XLR PATCH BAY

Seemed like a great deal. Any experience with this one?

Clong
 
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