John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Hi folks, this is my first post in the wiring area of the forum,
I have read all the rules etc and spent a lot of time reading over posts here and i just seem to be confusing myself more and more.
my last post in the building section entitled http://www.johnlsayers.com/phpBB2/viewt ... =2&t=13207 will bring people up to speed on the design plans etc.

the basic plan is thus,,
A two storey retro build with a control room and vox booth upstairs and a live room downstairs.
my original plan was to keep the cabling real simple.

i was planning on buying three of these small multi core cables
http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_sssnake_ms ... ekabel.htm

One cable was to go into the vocal booth and two were to run to the live room downstairs.
I had planned to use the xlrs for mics (obviously) and the trs sorta dual purpose for carrying instruments from live room to the cr and headphone mixes from cr back to live room and booth.
very basic and cheap.
however with all my reading on the site i have begun to fear that this may be a very bad idea indeed due to issues with interference from wires carrying amped (headphone) singnals contaminating the mic signals.

I have in the last few days totally fried my mind with a huge volume of info from sound on sound and gearslutz etc (and here to) so much so that i have come to the point that i feel i will never understand electrical wiring enough to CARRY OUT SAFELY AND FUNCTIONALLY soldering up of my own patchbay and wall plates etc (also plan on moving the studio in two years so permanent wiring is not really needed)
Also when i was a child i had a very bad electric shock and kinda have a fear of doing any wiring more serious than a standard ac plug or guitar cable, which doesnt really help my cause either, plus i never was much of a one for school either and so have very bad maths into the bargain. (oh the fear)

Really what i need is an all in one cheap ass, safe and functional solution which doesnt involve me putting anyones life at risk with dodgy wiring!!!
help please

You seem to be talking about two types of wiring at once: electrical and signal. If you don't feel comfortable with electrical wiring, and indeed if you are not qualified / certified to do it, then don't even THINK about trying to do it yourself! Hire a qualified electrician to do it. That really is your only option. Electricity is dangerous stuff (as you already found out, as a child!). Don't play with it.

But signal cabling is a very different matter. There is little danger in doing that yourself, especially if you are handy with a soldering iron. If not, then a good, simple alternative is to just go with ready-made snakes (like the one you linked to). They are already wired, with a stage box on one end (that you can frame neatly and attach to the wall), and pigtails on the other end, that you just plug directly into your equipment or patch panel. They already have good shielded conductors, so interference and cross talk should not be an issue.

The toughest problem with that, is getting the damn cables through the ducts between rooms, and then sealing the ducts! But that is (arguably) much easier and faster than trying to solder dozens of connectors by yourself, if you are not familiar with soldering.

My 0.02, FWIW!



- Stuart -

your two cents worth is very much a welcome one stuart!!
I will try to distinguish a bit what i meant,
there is no way i would even consider trying to wire mains ac!!!! (i can smell the smoke allready!!)
the little that needs doing (star ground) will all be left to a pro (good buddy Delian)
really my main worry with the audio cabling is phantom power, and where it should and should not go (like the patchbay and back into my 01x)
I am what you might call a plug and play kinda guy, or have been so far at least.
i can see i need to think more on this!!
hmmm