Wall Plate Installation

I have a two room basement studio that I would like to put some wall plates in. I am more into song writing and digital production, so I apologize for what is probably a trivial question. If I purchase a few wall plates with some XLR and 1/4" jacks, how are these wired between rooms? Can I simply put one on each side of the wall and solder the connections between the plates together? I have never soldered before, is this a simple enough job that I could learn on? I appreciate any advice. Thanks!

If I purchase a few wall plates with some XLR and 1/4" jacks, how are these wired between rooms? Can I simply put one on each side of the wall and solder the connections between the plates together? I have never soldered before, is this a simple enough job that I could learn on?

You can wire them depending on your needs. You can either go from panel to panel, or you can wire them from the panel to a harness/pigtales. Are you looking to make it basically a through the wall connection so you can disconnect, or will it be more hardwired and plugged into gear and left alone? Soldering, it's not really rocket science. The main thing is to stay consistant with your wiring, and beware of cold solder joints, and don't short any wires. XLR connections are: Pin 1 Shield, Pin 2 Hot, Pin 3 Common 1/4" connections are: Tip Hot, Ring Common, Sleeve Shield Typically if I'm using mogami cable, each wire is color coded in multipair cable. I'll use the colored wire as the hot (pin 2 or Tip) and the clear wire as common (pin 3 or ring), and of course the shield (BTW, w/ mogami you have a drain wire and lots of copper wires...cut off the extra copper and use the drain wire) And another tip for soldering, after you've prepped the cables (skinned off the coating), tin each wire and connector. Tin means to put solder on the tips of the wires and solder in the cups of the XLR connectors. It'll make life easier and it goes much faster. Hope this helps. Aaron :D

I actually have similar questions. I have been an engineer for a long time but I have always hired subcontractors to wire my studio. I am now stuck in a place where I have to learn how to do it myself. Basically I have run the wire from the control room to the main "live room" The wires are set up for 24 xlr inputs. I was wondering the best way to wire that and the best/cost effective plates to use or if there were 24 input plates out there. any and all help is appreciated. -zeke

I actually have similar questions. I have been an engineer for a long time but I have always hired subcontractors to wire my studio. I am now stuck in a place where I have to learn how to do it myself. Basically I have run the wire from the control room to the main "live room" The wires are set up for 24 xlr inputs. I was wondering the best way to wire that and the best/cost effective plates to use or if there were 24 input plates out there. any and all help is appreciated. -zeke

Greetings and Welcome to the site Zeke. If you check the sticky under this forum (Technical Resources) you'll find a few links to companies that make panels, etc. http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2086 Are you wiring to a patchbay, console, plate, outboard?? on the Control room side?

right now we're wiring a plate in the control room to interface with our mixer.

it's a 24 channel behringer, btw.

Any reason you're not going directly to the console w/ the wire (less connections, less money). ?? And a straighter path directly to the pre's. (unless you plan to use lots of outboard pre's??)

yes, we have a TON of outboard gear so it only makes sense. Not only that but before I could say anything my business partner had already spent a week running wire from the control room to the live room. So, since he's already done all that work I figured we might as well install the plates.

Gotcha. What kind of wire did you run?

i'm not 100% sure. this is my partner's project. I'm pretty sure it's mogami. He's probably does the sloppiest soldering job I've ever seen so I'm stuck with installing the plates.

Soldering is actually the easiest part of wiring. The time consuming part is the prep work. Here's a couple tips... -Depending on how you want to dress your wires, I typically cut the outter skin off of a 24 pair cable 18"-24". -Then I prep all 24 lines, stripping them. With Mogami, there's usually extra copper around the whole wire. Cut off the copper, but leave the Shield drain wire. Use that for you shield connection. -After stripping all the cables, tin each wire. -Next, put on shrink wrap on the extra exposed shield, and another piece around the end of the outter skin where you stripped. -Tin your connectors. -With Mogami, you have different colors on each wire. Usually a clear wire, then a colored wire and the shield. I typically use the colored wire for pin 2 (hot). The clear one on pin 3. -Next, heat up the solder you tinned on the connectors, slide in the tinned wire, let it cool, and it's all done. Goes quick.

Thank you so much. That was extremely helpful actually. Now, I'm assuming the shrink wrap on the exposed shield, hot, and common wires act as insulation/protection?

The shrink wrap around the shield keeps it from shorting out on anything else. The other piece of shrink wrap, keeps all the extra copper wires (that you trim off), from bumping up against a connector and shorting it out too. Back to the dressing for a minute, I typically will run the wires from one side or another. And will cut the wires to length for each connector. Give me a day or so, and I'll try and take a picture for an example.

Thanks a lot man. That would be a huge help to see some pictorial representation. cheers, zeke

Hadn't had the opportunity to get pix yet, but I drew up a quick diagram and maybe this will help some...

OK, here's a picture of a plate...

Hi there: This is Jeff in Mesa Arizona USA. Just joined forum. I've been asked to correct some wiring in a studio being constructed. Mutipair snakes from the control room are run separately to an isolation booth and to the main studio. The snake is from Conquest, mfd by Gepco (wouldn't have been my choice). Each channel is foil shielded, not individually jacketed, (I'd prefer they were jacketed). The outer jacket of the snake is removed back about 18", exposing 40 pr. of foil shields, some of which have unraveled. My inclination is to unterminate all the channels, rewrap the foil on each channel, secure it with tape if necessary, slide a large diameter piece of shrink over the outsdie jacket of the snake to act as a collar, slide narrower heat shrink tubes over each individual channel, leaving an inch or so of the conductors to be stripped for soldering, slide an individual piece of clear spaghetti over the last inch or so of the drain. This way, the drains are jacketed, the foil shields don't unravel or contact one another. This is very time consuming. I mentioned that the cable should have been individually jacketed multipair in the 1st place. Am I committing overkill? I am a believer in keeping shields and drains intact and individualized as much as possible. The studio owner thinks I'm too concerned. (His studio builder also used hardare store grade light dimmers, and is surprised that there's a buzz in the system!) What would you suggest as the best way to prep and terminate these cables? WHen would someone want to use multipair cables with channels that are only foil shielded, not jacketed? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks JEff