whats in the wall that connects my mics to the patchbay?

[miks]

hello,

im having trouble figuring out what equipment ill need to send audio from one room to another. I mean i plug my mics into the wall and then out of the wall into my patchbay and then into the preamp right?

Now whats in the wall that connects my mics to the patchbay? Is it another patchbay? Or an audio snake cable?

Also in a vocal booth what do i need for the singer to hear the musical recording and the singer to hear when i talk to them through the headphones? A mic amp? and patchbay?

Im building a home studio and im not sure what equipment connects it all together. Thank you

 

[tomtom]

Hi,

The "box" in your wall will have a serie of female (and ther could be male too) chassis xlr connectors. Those could be connected directly to your patchbay.
You could label them "lines" and could use them for any audio purpose (sending audio from / to studio or vocal booth)

Usually a patchbay has two rows. Top row is for outputs, bottom for inputs. There are many normalling options from there, but let's not get lost right now.

Connect your other equipment to your patchbay.

Now you can plug you mic in the wall, it's signal will travel to the patchbay where you can send it to your preamp's input.

In order for your singer to hear music, you will need to send a headphone mix to the vocal booth. Use two of the auxes of your mixer (left/right) to achieve a good headphone balance, send those aux feeds to your patch, through two of the lines that connect to the booth.
There, connect a headphone amp and you are set.

In order to make yourself heard, buy a mixer that has a talkback function. If you can't, put a microphone in the studio. Mix it with the rest of the music in the headphone feed. Don't forget to turn it off once recording, and be carefull with feedback.

I hope this helps

 

[miks]

thank you, but whats the 'box' in the wall called? their not called lines are they? Could you please give me some brand names so i could see what they look like? thanks

 

[Kurt Foster]

thank you, but whats the 'box' in the wall called? their not called lines are they? Could you please give me some brand names so i could see what they look like? thanks

They are usually custom fabricated, made with special wall plates and studio wire. Markertek has the parts.

http://www.markertek.com

http://www.markertek.com/SearchProdList.asp

http://www.markertek.com/SearchProduct.asp?item=WPL-3103&off=24

 

[miks]

thanks once again. sorry to be a pain but does this mean that i have to make one myself with the nuber of connections im after? if so does anyone have an idea of what parts i need to get one made? and plans on how to make them? thank you.

 

[Kurt Foster]

Yes, you have to assemble them yourself. Or you could find a studio tech in your area to come to your facility and do it for you.

These wall plates fit onto a standard gang electrical box's and come with the XLRs installed.. Once the electrical box's are installed in the walls, all you do is solder the wires and route them through the wall, to the box/wall plate on the opposite side of the wall and solder the wires to that plates connectors. An electrician or a carpenter can help with the insallation of the electrical box's if you need help.

Check the other 2 links I just edited into in my last post. They are links to the pages with the parts you need ...

 

[idiophone]

For safety's sake, I recommend not sending the wall lines to your patchbay if you can help it. It's better to send them to your preamps or board, then out to tape or DAW. This avoids putting phantom power across your patchbay, which can spark from time to time.

I'm told XLR patchbays avoid this, but they're pretty pricey. Most guys use TRS or TT.

I just got my wallplate custom made by Horizon after ordering it at Atlanta Pro Audio. I managed to order 24 of the wrong ends, and couldn't fix the order before it was too late. Taught myself to solder that night.....haven't stopped since.

 

[Screws]

I took the easy route. I bought 2 - 8 x 4 - 30' snakes (Sam Ash blowout for $35.00 each), attached them to the wall in two different places in the tracking area, clipped off the XLRs and wired them into the patchbays. This gives me 24 lines between control room and tracking room.

I hate to solder.