New Studio - wire plan help!

[pearlsnap]

Ok, so I am trying to plan everything I can before the build - knowing Mr. Murphy is hard to defeat. Late this year we plan to build on our land a new house and studio/shop/apartment. The S/S/A will be a 50'W x 125' L x 14' T metal building on slab.

I have been reading this forum for some time, Rob's book several, and I think I have a good plan on the design/construction, however the wiring of the mics, etc....is killing me. Maybe I am just getting overwhelmed? I mean I am an automation specialist by trade and have been a musician and recording for nearly 15 years now...

So how would you all wire this up...and please remember I am a rookie still at this.

Studio will be a Control Room, Live Room, and 3 ISO's. My idea of where to place the mic inputs:

LR = a bank of 16 near the control room wall - two banks of 8 in the far corners.
ISO 1 = a bank of 4
ISO 2 = a bank of 4
ISO 3 = a bank of 6

These would all - some how - make their way back to a patchbay in the CR and I could select which one were being used (and with my equipment now - use 16 of them at once).

As far as equipment in the CR - which I would love to get a board later on - so maybe I need to keep expansion in mind at least up to 24 channels in at once if needed. Here is what I have now:

Digi 002 R Black Lion Audio Sig. Mod.
Presonus digiMax LT
Presonus ACP 88 (Jensens in it)
SSL Duende Mini
Presonus Eureka (mod w/Jensens)
Furman HDS-6 for monitoring
Command 8 Controller


I definitely want patch-bays - because I know they make life easier - and as I add more equipment (Pre's, compressors, etc.) I can patch them in no problem - but have no clue how to wire all this.

I would also like to keep the guitar amp heads in the control room - and the cabs in ISO 2 - how would I wire this up - or is this not a good idea?

Sorry if I rambled - I am at work and trying to think about all this is killing me. That's why I turned to the greatest group of people I know.. Thanks John for the forum and place to share all this knowledge.

The picture will look as if some of the double walls are missing, but they are there...just the only copy of the pic I had with me.

[adam]

Hi!

I'm not an expert, but here's what I've planned out for comparison. I've ended up with 60 mic lines coming in to a patchbay in the control room. I'm putting multiple wall plates in to reduce cable clutter as much as possible.

Live Room A - 16
Live Room B - 4
Live Room C - 4
Vocal booth - 8
Guitar Iso - 4
Control Room A - 4
Control Room B - 4
Control Room Desk - 4
Hallway - 4
Lounge A - 4
Lounge B - 4

I'll also have a Speakon patchbay in the control room with pairs of speaker cable running to all other rooms. These are run separately, away from mic runs, to minimise interference.

Also an RJ45 patchbay in the machine closet where the 30 Cat5 cables will terminate, with 2 coming in from each wall plate and a few extras around the place. They're for HearBack mixers, LAN and phone.

The one thing I've left out is Midi, but I intend to make up Midi-XLR cables which should be fine for my short runs.

To summarise, I recommend going for overkill! Best to put conduit in if you can, so you can pull more in future. An extra couple of hundred dollars now might save you thousands later on.