I'm in the beginning stages of studio expansion/construction and wanted to get some help before we get too far into the project.
Here's the background:
We're building two new booths. One will be annexed to the control room (kinda) about 20 feet from the control desk. This will be a small, dead booth, for vocals, voice over, guitar amps, etc. The second will be a large, live sounding room for drums, acoustic instruments, etc. This will be 50-100 ft from the control desk.
What I need help with:
I want to get both booths wired with mic cables, but don't know what the best way to do it would be. I don't know if I should run a bunch of XLR cables straight from the rooms to the outboard preamps, or if I should use 'stage box' type things (see: http://cgi.ebay.com/8-Channel-100-Foot-XLR-Send-Sub-Snake-Cable-New-8x100_W0QQitemZ110044518056QQihZ001QQcategoryZ41461QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
I'd like to have at least mid grade cables. I'd also like to have the following run into each room:
Small Room: 4 mic cables, 1 headphone plugin , 1 cable to plug from guitar amp head (in control room) to plug into guitar amp cab (in booth).
Larger Room: 10-12 mic cables, 1 headphone plugin , 1 cable to plug from guitar amp head (in control room) to plug into guitar amp cab (in booth).
I've never done this before, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Suggestions for additional cable that I may want in the booths down the road is also appreciated, as I'm sure there may be something I'm missing.
Thanks!
Tags
Comments
When you build the stud walls for your rooms, make provisions to
When you build the stud walls for your rooms, make provisions to have a 3" dia PVC pipe installed running along the length of one of the walls. This should give you enough room to run snakes through the wall so as to not compromise the soundproofing integrety of the wall. Don't just poke a hole straight through the wall.
I would suggest buying a snake without hardware on the ends for as many feet as you need and cut it for the two rooms. Then buy the XLR connectors and solder them yourself.
If you buy a premade snake with connectors, it's going to be nearly impossible to snake that much bulk through the wall.
When shopping for wire, find the most flexible type in your price range. It's easier to snake, and easier to solder. I like Mogami for these features. See if they have a type for your budget.
We had problems with running headphone lines next to mic lines, maybe someone will give better advice for that. (we eventually got one of those multi channel headphone systems that connect with ethernet cables. This seemed to work just fine.)
Hope this helps