John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I've got lots of help reading this forum since I'm in the process of building my own little studio. The control room is almost done but I have been thinking about something, don't know what it's called so I didn't know what to search for.

Lets say that I got a control room and a live room next to each other and want to hook up lots of cables between these rooms, for amps, mics etc. I'd like to be able to connect the cables straight into the wall and the same on the other side. Is this called a patchbay? If not, what are they called and where can I find them?

/thanks

Well,

That's a fairly vague question.

What are your plans, how do you need to use the wires, are connecting to a console, going into a DAW, going to mic pre's, and what type of wiring are you running or plan to run?

Typically a patchbay is a central point in the control room, that almost every wire (if not every wire) comes to, from every point in the studio. Meaning...all connections from a console, tape recorder (tape or digital), mic lines, outboard tie lines, monitors, etc, etc, etc.

Or are you asking about this sort of thing that would actually go in the wall?

http://www.rcicustom.com/index2.htm

wicked_s wrote:I've got lots of help reading this forum since I'm in the process of building my own little studio. The control room is almost done but I have been thinking about something, don't know what it's called so I didn't know what to search for.

Lets say that I got a control room and a live room next to each other and want to hook up lots of cables between these rooms, for amps, mics etc. I'd like to be able to connect the cables straight into the wall and the same on the other side. Is this called a patchbay? If not, what are they called and where can I find them?

/thanks

I'm in the middle of implementing exactly what you're talking about.

As Aaron said, what you're referring to is not a patch bay per se, instead I'd just call them wall plates. People use them to pass all sorts of signals from one room to another.

The important point to remember when installing them is to not overly affect the sound islolation between the two rooms. Plenty of discussion on that elsewhere in these forums.

I'm using PVC pipe between my double walls. The pipe will enter one wall, take a 90 degree turn, travel a few feet, and come out the other wall. I'll custom build wall mount boxes to hold the XLR and 1/4" connectors.

Hi all:

Aaronw, When you said:

" Meaning...all connections from a console, tape recorder (tape or digital), mic lines, outboard tie lines, monitors, etc, etc, etc."

Did that mean that XLRs using adapter cables (XLR to TRS) would be OK too? What about the phantom power in a situation llike that? I believe that Beringer cautions against anything but line level signals through a patch bay.

Thanks

" Meaning...all connections from a console, tape recorder (tape or digital), mic lines, outboard tie lines, monitors, etc, etc, etc."

Typically any analog signal.

Did that mean that XLRs using adapter cables (XLR to TRS) would be OK too? What about the phantom power in a situation llike that? I believe that Beringer cautions against anything but line level signals through a patch bay.

Believe it or not, lots of consoles (the real analog desks such as Neve, SSL, API, Trident, etc) have their mic tie lines running through a patchbay. For lots of consoles, phantom is ALWAYS on, but also, it's a switch on the module/channel for many. The main thing to consider is, plug your microphone in last after you've made any patches on the bay, and try not to patch it into some poor piece of gear, it may not like the 48v.

As some have explained here, they've blown capsules on mics if you patch (especially ribbons) while the mic is plugged in.


You can have patch cables from XLR to TT for patching in additional gear, etc.