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I decided I'd start this thread with a joke, but then realized it's not funny, so I dropped it.

I decided I need a patchbay in my studio. The place isn't really a studio, just a place with some equipment, but I can't just crawl around the mixer/gear and plug/unplug stuff, hopefully it'll help me do some more recording.
I don't have much outboard gear and right now I have only 12 inputs and outputs in my recording device. But I figured I'll leave the required space on the patchbay for future upgrades.

My board is a Soundcraft S6000 and my recording interface is a MOTU HD192.
I know that the current patchbay layout is "over ambitious" and it probably looks ridiculous, but I see how much time it's taking me to do this one, I don't feel like going all over it again just because I didn't leave some space.

anyhow, here's an excel sheet with the layout.
(This isn't like a signal flow diagram, it's just the patchbay labels sheet)

How does it look?
how much mults should I have or leave place for?
Which ins and outs would you normal?
I thought of normalling the mic lines to the console preamps. Making it half normal isn't such a cool thing, if I use an outboard pre and turn on the phantom power, it'll get to the onboard peramp and fuck it up.
So I'm guessing the full normals is the way to go. But then I loose the "multing" capabilities I can have with half normal. I was thinking of making some of the mic lines half normal and some full normal to the onboard mic preamps. would do you think?
The S6000 Line out is will be half normalled to the Motu Ins.
I'm debating between normalling the Motu Outs to the monitor inputs or to the S6000 line in. It might be a good thing to normal it to the monitor inputs, that way when I want to hear whatever I had recorded, I don't need to patch the motu outs to the monitor ins. Also, connecting it to the mixer's inputs might be a bit dangerous - if the tracks I'm playing are in record enable mode and also monitor the input signal, I'll probably get a nasty feedback. I'm sure it can happen.

Any suggestions, encouragements and discouragements are welcome.

thanks!
eliya

Kinda makes your ass look big. Maybe with a belt...

edit: true, it makes my ass look big. I thought it would be a good thing to make my ass look big until it's actually that big. It's better than buying tight pants which I might need to replace in a few months. While it might not be true with clothes(buy the pants you need now, replace them afterwards), it seems more correct when laying out a "studio"(in quotes 'cos it's not really a studio).
It's not a commercial studio or anything, but I might get to record more than just myself/the bands im playing with there. I believe it's easier to leave space for future upgrades and needs than to rewire almost everything.

Of course, I've never designed the layout for a patchbay or anything like that, I know that some people here did, so I thought it would be a good thing to ask them before I reach my hand to the soldering iron. If it's an overkill, I'd like to know why, because it seems to me that rewiring the stuff is going to be an exhausting task.

Someone please help Eliya cos' he's a good fellow!

It looks fine. Just do it.

I'd maybe add the patch bays progressively depending on what you feel you need, but if you reckon what you've got there suits you then go ahead.

Consider putting together a polarity reverse channel or two.

= Justin

Justin from Queens wrote:Consider putting together a polarity reverse channel or two.

= Justin

Thanks! I will.

What do you think of the normalling scheme? I guess it's something I can always add after it's all wired up. So I think I'll just start doing it and see which normals I should add or remove as time goes by.

eliya wrote:I thought of normalling the mic lines to the console preamps. Making it half normal isn't such a cool thing, if I use an outboard pre and turn on the phantom power, it'll get to the onboard peramp and fuck it up.

And for other reasons as well.

So I'm guessing the full normals is the way to go. But then I loose the "multing" capabilities I can have with half normal.

This isn't anything to worry about. Just fully-normal them, and read up on how to properly ground the whole shebang.

The S6000 Line out is will be half normalled to the Motu Ins.
I'm debating between normalling the Motu Outs to the monitor inputs or to the S6000 line in.

How many channels does the console have? How many inputs/outputs does your interface have?

Thanks for answering Matthew!

matthewbarnhart wrote:

eliya wrote:I thought of normalling the mic lines to the console preamps. Making it half normal isn't such a cool thing, if I use an outboard pre and turn on the phantom power, it'll get to the onboard peramp and fuck it up.

And for other reasons as well.

what other reasons(I'm asking out of interest)?

matthewbarnhart wrote:

So I'm guessing the full normals is the way to go. But then I loose the "multing" capabilities I can have with half normal.

This isn't anything to worry about. Just fully-normal them, and read up on how to properly ground the whole shebang.

Thanks, I did make some reading on the subject and I'm going to do some more, greg posted a great link on tapeop message board about that subject.

matthewbarnhart wrote:

The S6000 Line out is will be half normalled to the Motu Ins.
I'm debating between normalling the Motu Outs to the monitor inputs or to the S6000 line in.

How many channels does the console have? How many inputs/outputs does your interface have?

24 Input channels(with direct outs) and 16 busses.
My interface is MOTU HD192 that has 12 in and 12 outs.

thanks again!
eliya

My only comment would be to start small. That's a whole lotta patchbay points you got there and you don't even have any outboard yet? If you can afford it, get a patchbay with punch down so you can change the normals and move stuff around easily without having to break out your soldering iron. Do you have outboard preamps yet? If not, just plug the mic cables straight into the board for now and add that bay when you need it. I understand planning for the future and all, but it seems like a bit of overkill to me.

We're trying to stretch a 96pt TT bay for our setup now and it's super tight, bordering on impossible, but if you have a particular workflow in mind, you can be creative on how you use the real estate. Unless you are bringing in other people to engineer, it only really needs to make sense for how you work.