Designing a patchbay is mainly to suit your needs. Whether you would like it normal, half-normal or through. Yes you can have both mic and lines hooked up to the mackie and there should be a switch to switch between with the mic/line switch. I don't know about the 003. As far as a good source, it is mainly up to the user. Everyone likes them different. Brands vary on how the are normalized. Top to bottom or bottom to top. I personally like the Switchcraft TTEZNSP9625. The DSub makes life a lot easier. If you don't have the budget or the need for 96 connections, the ULTRAPATCH PRO PX3000. Pretty cheap but gets the job done. Just don't use phantom power with a patch cable, only use in a normal setting. it might take you a few times of rearranging but you'll get it to where you like it and it works well for you.

Unlike some other mixers at this level, the Mackie D8B has a top-panel switch on channels 1 - 12 for selection of mic or line input, so it should be OK to wire those mic inputs to your studio XLR sockets and the line jack inputs to the patch panel. Because of the switch, it would not be possible to use both inputs at once, even if you wanted to. Channels 13 - 24 are line input only, so the jack inputs for those channels could be taken to the patch panel anyway.

The Digidesign 003 Rack+ has outwardly a similar arrangement using front panel switches to select mic/line.

One thing to be aware of in this type of unit (the Mackie D8B and the Digidesign 003 Rack+) is that that the line inputs are simply attenuated and put through the mic channel electronics. You get the colour of the mic circuits even when using line-level inputs, and this is not always desirable.

I have never seen a book on patchbay design. I guess publishers think there is not much of a market for one.

Thanks Mohog Audio and Boswell for your words of wisdom,

I'm coming along in my patchbay design; your comments have allowed me to move on.

Switches

are the trick.....how obvious....couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Boswell........a follow up on your comments?

One thing to be aware of in this type of unit (the Mackie D8B and the Digidesign 003 Rack+) is that that the line inputs are simply attenuated and put through the mic channel electronics. You get the colour of the mic circuits even when using line-level inputs, and this is not always desirable.

If not

line-level inputs

what would you suggest or have in mind, i.e.,

more desirable

?

Thanks again for the insights....every little bit helps :)

Are you talking about a mixer or an interface here? Most low/medium class mixers attenuate the line inputs and put them through the microphone channels. With interfaces, you can be a bit more selective. For example, the RME FireFace800 has 4 microphone input channels, but when using the 8 line inputs, these are direct and are not routed through the microphone circuits.

Mohog eluded to this, but I might go into some more detail...

You can technically put your mic pre inputs on your TRS patchbay, BUT there is one instance in which you should be careful - using ribbon microphones.

If you have phantom turned on and you connect a ribbon microphone to the regular XLR mic input, the ribbon cannot be damaged because the 48V DC will be applied to both pins 2 and 3. No movement of the ribbon!

On the other hand, if you were to accidentally leave phantom power on whilst connecting your ribbon microphone to the TRS patchbay, a momentary short can (probably will) occur between earth and the tip or ring and earth. In this case the 48V DV WILL be seen by the ribbon and it may stretch it beyond where it is comfortable, damaging the microphone permanently.

I personally think it is more convenient to have your mic pre inputs on a dedicated panel of XLR connectors.

Best of luck with the install... putting a patchbay in your studio will be one of the best things you every do for it!!