Mic cables: Into patchbay or into board

StevenW · Post by **StevenW** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:48 am

My studio in NYC was wired by the great Alan Fierstein of Acoustilogue and Sorcerer Sound, but, I confess, I was not playing close enough attention.

I am now upgrading my very nice home studio in Texas and cannot remember if the mics were wired directly into the board or if they came in through the patch bay.

However, I AM CERTAIN that in NYC we were routinely able to use the patch bay to send the mic signal into our limiters and whatever BEFORE the signal was sent to tape, and I want to do that again, and without degrading the signal or adding (much) noise. And I want to "go behind" my rig, plugging in cords, as little as possible (it's scary back there).

But if I bring the mic cable into the board first, how can I process that mic signal without creating an unduly complicated path and tying up another channel of my smallish analogue Soundcraft board?

Alan built us nice mic boxes in all of our rooms in the old studio, but I cannot remember: were those boxes wired into the board or into the patch bay? Maybe this is a problem with normaling that I just am not thinking through.

Any tips???? And thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Post by **Aaronw** » Wed Nov 08, 2006 3:50 am

Greetings and Welcome to the site.

I guess the first question is: Will you be using any outboard mic pre's?

Will there be more mic lines coming in from the tracking rooms than your current mic inputs?

If the answer is yes to either one, then you'll want to run through a patchbay.

If the answer is no, you can do either straight to the console mic inputs or a patchbay inline, normalled.

StevenW · Post by **StevenW** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:45 pm

Hey Aaron -- Thanks for the reply.

I have an Avalon preamp/comp/EQ that I live and die by. I am thinking of getting another one or similar, and my two Groove Tube mics have their own power supplies. I also have a respectable DBX 2-channel comp/limiter that I use often.

On this other issue, this patching and inserting issue, I feel like an idiot. I am planning to buy a Soundcraft M12, since I had a similar, but larger, Soundcraft board in the old days.

So, using a mic goes this way, right?

First, I DO plug the mics straight into the board, and then just leave them plugged in. I only keep five or so good mics around, and I like to have easy access to them, so that I can A/B them to find the "right" mic.

Then I use the insert points (there's one on each channel) to insert in my compressors, etc, into the signal bath before I send the signal to my recording device (either the Roland or the ProTools set-up that I'm considering)--right?

BUT I look at that single 1/4" hole for the insert point, and I cannot remember how you can send a signal back and forth to the compressor without two different cables, one for send and one to receive. What have I forgotten here? My brain is old... This was all easier when I just had a 1" 8-track Scully and a great tech to come and set this all up for me.

I downloaded the M-12 brochure, and it still doesn't make sense to me.

Does this make sense? Ha!

ssssteve

Post by **Aaronw** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:42 pm

Then I use the insert points (there's one on each channel) to insert in my compressors, etc, into the signal bath before I send the signal to my recording device (either the Roland or the ProTools set-up that I'm considering)--right?

Check the consoles manual for signal flow. Check to see where in the signal chain the inserts go in. If you want the straightest path to tape, I'd come straight out of the pre, into any outboard (if applicable), then straight to tape.

BUT I look at that single 1/4" hole for the insert point

Is this on the console (for inserts)??? If so, it's usually a TRS connection. Tip is send, Ring is return, Sleeve is shield/neutral/common.

stone_eufemia · Post by **stone_eufemia** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 8:40 pm

I have an M12 which i use for cue mixes only.

It has balanced direct outs on all mic channels and you have a switch on each to choose for it to be pre fader (post hi pass, insert and pre eq), or post fader, and i can't recall right now if there's an internal mood to make the prefader direct output post eq.

There's actually no need to go out of the unbalanced insert to tape, just use the balanced direct outs and use the switches on the board.

Hope that helps