If this is in the wrong forum I apologize. Im new to outboard gear and using it in a studio setting. I am looking for some tips/advise on wiring my gear up.
Here’s what I have:
2 channel preamp / channel Strip
2 channel 30 band EQ
2 channel Compressor/Limiter
6 channel Headphone amp
8 input Audio Interface
48 pair TRS patchbay
I know most don’t use an EQ in their rack anymore. At least that’s what i’ve been told by others. I have it, so I want to wire it up anyway.
Should I just simply wire ins/outs to the patch bay. If so what mode should I have the PB set to (have all 3 options on all pairs) ?
Should I wire the Pre and Comp together and then to the PB on one channel and separately on chan 2 of each ?
And the one that really has me baffled is the headphone amp. Would like to have it setup so when recording each output is on a separate input so each instrument/track can hear themselves when recording (have an ART Head 6 so they can adjust the mix on each HP input for more of the
Mix or more of themselves). My Audio Interface has TRS outs for each input, do I snake them all to 1-6 on the HP amp ? Will that accomplish what I’m looking to do ?
Sorry in advance for sounding like a noob, I've been a guitar player for over 40yrs ,play the drums, bass and piano too. Have all the instruments and Started recording about a year ago with really good results and I want to expand my tools and sound possibilities. I usually use PT or Waveform. Been doing more in PT since acquiring a PreSonus Faderport 8. Waveform doesn’t recognize the control surface and I really hate the Keyboard/mouse ballet
Any and all input and advice is greatly appreciated. Don’t bash me too hard for my inquiry. Outboard gear in a studio setting is new to me. Back in the day for live use, we just daisy chained our gear together and let her rip.
Best way to wire up my studio rack
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 35 posts since 16 Jun, 2016
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
No mixer?
Do you expect that the majority of the time that a certain pair of interface outs are gonna be wired to your monitor speaker inputs?
The config called "normalled" where each vertical pair of patch points, if you don't plug anything in the front, then whatever goes in to the top rear jack, "normally" comes out the bottom rear jack.
Analyze your thangs and anything you think will "normally" be wired a certain way almost all the time, then set em up normalled so the signal goes where you expect most of the time without having to plug anything into the front of the bay. Saves on spaghetti clutter.
But maybe when you want to hook up an iPod or radio to your speakers, you can easy plug into the front to auto temp disconnect the interface from the speakers and temp connect the iPod to the speakers. Just an example.
There is "full normal" and "half normal" and I would need to look up the difference to make sure I remember which is which.
The one I generally liked, if you plug in to the top front the back connections stay normal connected but you tap off a split out of the top front, like an "instant Y cable". But if you plug into the bottom front, it breaks the rear connection and whatever goes in the bottom front comes out the bottom rear.
So if a pair of interface outs are top rear normalled and the speakers are bottom rear normalled, you can temp hear your iPod on the speakers plugging into the bottom front, breaking the rear normal connection. Disconnect the iPod and you are back to the normal routing.
If you put the EQ on a pair of not normal slots, EQ in on rear top and EQ out on rear bottom. You could patch from the top front of the interface-speaker normal to the top front of the EQ inputs (2 patch cables) then 2 patch cables from bottom front of the EQ out to the bottom front of the speaker input normal, if you want to temp wire up the EQ to your speakers. Or if you like it thataway maybe leave the four patch cables connected most of the time.
If you decide most of the interface outs will normally connect to the headphone mixer, maybe those are good candidates for normal connections.
If the interface outs need a semi permanent split, you can normal one part of the split with rear connections then tap off the other half of the split by plugging into the top front jacks.
I would probably put compressor and preamp on separate not normalled pairs and just wire em however with front patch cables. But tis a matter of taste. If you think the preamp output will almost always go to Comp input you could normal them that way. If you think the Comp output will most always go to the interface input 1 and 2 you could normal it that way.
Anything you don't know whether it will have a most of the time default normal connection, you can hedge your bets putting them on non normalled pairs and make connections with front patch cables. Later on you can change it to something else after you get more experience in use.
It is near impossible to think out every wire ahead of time and get everything perfect the first time. Experience helps but it's the same as writing software, no matter how much you plan ahead, future revisions will still be needed.
Do you expect that the majority of the time that a certain pair of interface outs are gonna be wired to your monitor speaker inputs?
The config called "normalled" where each vertical pair of patch points, if you don't plug anything in the front, then whatever goes in to the top rear jack, "normally" comes out the bottom rear jack.
Analyze your thangs and anything you think will "normally" be wired a certain way almost all the time, then set em up normalled so the signal goes where you expect most of the time without having to plug anything into the front of the bay. Saves on spaghetti clutter.
But maybe when you want to hook up an iPod or radio to your speakers, you can easy plug into the front to auto temp disconnect the interface from the speakers and temp connect the iPod to the speakers. Just an example.
There is "full normal" and "half normal" and I would need to look up the difference to make sure I remember which is which.
The one I generally liked, if you plug in to the top front the back connections stay normal connected but you tap off a split out of the top front, like an "instant Y cable". But if you plug into the bottom front, it breaks the rear connection and whatever goes in the bottom front comes out the bottom rear.
So if a pair of interface outs are top rear normalled and the speakers are bottom rear normalled, you can temp hear your iPod on the speakers plugging into the bottom front, breaking the rear normal connection. Disconnect the iPod and you are back to the normal routing.
If you put the EQ on a pair of not normal slots, EQ in on rear top and EQ out on rear bottom. You could patch from the top front of the interface-speaker normal to the top front of the EQ inputs (2 patch cables) then 2 patch cables from bottom front of the EQ out to the bottom front of the speaker input normal, if you want to temp wire up the EQ to your speakers. Or if you like it thataway maybe leave the four patch cables connected most of the time.
If you decide most of the interface outs will normally connect to the headphone mixer, maybe those are good candidates for normal connections.
If the interface outs need a semi permanent split, you can normal one part of the split with rear connections then tap off the other half of the split by plugging into the top front jacks.
I would probably put compressor and preamp on separate not normalled pairs and just wire em however with front patch cables. But tis a matter of taste. If you think the preamp output will almost always go to Comp input you could normal them that way. If you think the Comp output will most always go to the interface input 1 and 2 you could normal it that way.
Anything you don't know whether it will have a most of the time default normal connection, you can hedge your bets putting them on non normalled pairs and make connections with front patch cables. Later on you can change it to something else after you get more experience in use.
It is near impossible to think out every wire ahead of time and get everything perfect the first time. Experience helps but it's the same as writing software, no matter how much you plan ahead, future revisions will still be needed.
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- KVRAF
- 2564 posts since 2 Jul, 2010
I have a mixer-less setup with a patchbay and agree with everything JCJR said. The setup allowing for splitting is "half-normalled" and I don't really see any advantage over this for full-normalled so most of my patchbay is half-normalled.
Just in case you didn't know already, the convention is to have outputs on the top row and inputs on the bottom row.
I have half-normal connections between my main outs and monitors, so for troubleshooting I can send something direct to monitors or split off from main. Then I have other soundcard outputs half-normed to sampler inputs, and synth outputs half-normed to soundcard inputs.
There are a couple of fx processing loops in my setup that don't have a "usual" position, so I have these un-normalled with the output above the input. If they were normalled it would create a feedback loop!
So for your setup I would suggest:
Main outs half-normed to monitoring
Preamps half-normed to inputs
Outputs half-normed to headphone amp channels
EQ with isolated in/out (one above the other)
Compressor with isolated in/out (ditto)
If you frequently like to record through compression, consider rearranging that so it norms to an input.
You *could* set up the EQ in between you main outs and monitoring, but I'm not sure I trust graphic EQ in that position. Live sound people may have a better idea of how to use that responsibly.
Just in case you didn't know already, the convention is to have outputs on the top row and inputs on the bottom row.
I have half-normal connections between my main outs and monitors, so for troubleshooting I can send something direct to monitors or split off from main. Then I have other soundcard outputs half-normed to sampler inputs, and synth outputs half-normed to soundcard inputs.
There are a couple of fx processing loops in my setup that don't have a "usual" position, so I have these un-normalled with the output above the input. If they were normalled it would create a feedback loop!
So for your setup I would suggest:
Main outs half-normed to monitoring
Preamps half-normed to inputs
Outputs half-normed to headphone amp channels
EQ with isolated in/out (one above the other)
Compressor with isolated in/out (ditto)
If you frequently like to record through compression, consider rearranging that so it norms to an input.
You *could* set up the EQ in between you main outs and monitoring, but I'm not sure I trust graphic EQ in that position. Live sound people may have a better idea of how to use that responsibly.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 35 posts since 16 Jun, 2016
Thanx for the input. My thoughts for the eq were to use it only when needed as an insert or patched into the chain. Most of the time I use a plugin when eq is needed on a particular track. Just figured since I have one in the rack it might as well be accessible. If I had it lined thru my monitor outs I really won’t be listening to a true version of my recordings yes ?
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
Yes don't norm hook up the EQ to the monitors unless you want it that way. I just gave the EQ connection patched thru the mains as a concrete example of patching a non norm box into a norm connection.
Imrae gives good advice. I habitually connected non norm inputs on top and non norm outputs on bottom. And the opposite for norms, norm outputs on top and norm inputs on bottom.
Imrae's convention probably makes more sense putting all outputs on top. It made sense to me the other way for non norm but whatever makes sense and is consistent.
My "mixed direction" between norms and non norms didn't look real odd because usually i would have the non norms grouped on a different patch bay than the norms. Or at worst, all non norms in one section and all norms in the other section of a bay.
Imrae gives good advice. I habitually connected non norm inputs on top and non norm outputs on bottom. And the opposite for norms, norm outputs on top and norm inputs on bottom.
Imrae's convention probably makes more sense putting all outputs on top. It made sense to me the other way for non norm but whatever makes sense and is consistent.
My "mixed direction" between norms and non norms didn't look real odd because usually i would have the non norms grouped on a different patch bay than the norms. Or at worst, all non norms in one section and all norms in the other section of a bay.
