Finally Cleaned Up The Studio

Good times!

  
 Several times in the last year the thought had crossed my mind, but I talked myself out of it every time. I didn't want to start a big job like that and need to stop halfway through. I finally had the time slot so I went for it.
 
 I had a few other things I wanted to accomplish but they didn't quite happen. My rack interface has most of the I/O on the back. Why do they do that? I have  6 mic. inputs and 6 line levels on the back with  two mic pre amps  on the front with phantom power/compression/limiters. I wanted to bring all the stuff on the back to the front. GC tried to sell me a patch bay which I could have used for the 6 line levels. I could have went from XLR to line level on the rear mic pre amps but that seems to defeat the whole purpose and the cords would have amounted to the cost of a new interface at 15.00 each.  What I think I need is an inexpensive combination box if they make such a thing.
 
  The temporary compromise was to take my 12 channel Mackie mixer and hook it to two of the rear line level inputs. Now I can use a stereo pair from the Mackie with all the I/O it has.I use this for a keyboard patchbay and run two stereo pairs into it. The two front XLR jacks are still available for guitar work.Both keyboards are sending midi. One into the interface midi via on an old school midi jack and one sending midi through a usb connection. But I still have tons of unused I/O. The Mackie has send capability on the 6 mic. channels via TRS but the setup is kinda dorky because you need to "half click" a cable to get audio from it. I could then use an 8 channel analog  male to male TRS snake I had laying around for the other 4 connections, or I could send the stereo outs from the Mackie into two of the mic connections and use all 6  rear inputs from the mackie. That still leaves 4 open rear XLR connectors.
 
 As it is now I am ok if it's just me and I only record a channel or two at a time. I can plug guitars into the front of the interface or the Mackie. Not really an ideal way to do it though.

Starise
My rack interface has most of the I/O on the back. Why do they do that? I have  6 mic. inputs and 6 line levels on the back with  two mic pre amps  on the front with phantom power/compression/limiters. I wanted to bring all the stuff on the back to the front. GC tried to sell me a patch bay which I could have used for the 6 line levels. I could have went from XLR to line level on the rear mic pre amps but that seems to defeat the whole purpose and the cords would have amounted to the cost of a new interface at 15.00 each.  What I think I need is an inexpensive combination box if they make such a thing.

 
I built cables that went XLR from the units to TRS into the patchbay. Then I built front side TRS from the patchbay to XLR to accept mic cables or matching transformers.

Butt ewe doan 'ave X2a, doya?

 Bapu, that was one approach the GC guy was fond of. I had the connectors in my hand  until I seen how much they cost. I'll bet you were able to solder your own for much less $$. It is a good option, just seems to me as if the people making the patch bays should come up with some other ideas. I seen one patch bay that has 8 combi jacks that you can wire either TRS or XLR here. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=194501&Q=&is=REG&A=details
 
 Craig- Wow man, that is some setup you have there. Looks like it might have Spock scratching his head. Nice! It must have taken a lot of time to get all of that sorted out. It all looks so clean and well kept.
 
 I started thinking ( I know that gets me in trouble sometimes)...I would only use the additional I/O for side jobs or extra musicians which would be stationed 10 ft. away from my recording desk. That's 10 ft. of cord dangling from my recording desk times how ever many people are in there. A few mikes and a guitar setup and there would be black spagetti everywhere. Someone needs to go to the bathroom and the next thing you know they're laying sprawled over the floor with cords around their leg still having to major pee, or maybe they already went at this point. Might have taken a mike stand to the face on the way down.Not to mention what happens when a cord is yanked from an interface.
 
 Maybe I need something like an 8/4 snake. I could use the 8 XLRs on the snake maybe solder adapters to the other two XLR and plug them into the line inputs. I could take the additional sends and use them as headphone feeds to the vocalists. That way there would be no cords coming across the floor. Since this is over a basement I might even be able to drill a hole in the floor and run the wires underneath. Worst case scenario I could wrap the thing up and store it behind my desk until we needed it. I seen one snake that had a flat cable, making it easy to feed under a rug.

Starise

mmorgan
I use a Hosa PDR-369 Mic-in panel as a mic input (there's 12 XLR ins) with the outs routed to specific preamps and the preamps get routed to the RME. All of my pres (Great River MP-2NV, JDK MP-R20, UA 4-710d, Avalon U5 and Avalon AD-2022) have line ins on the front panel. If I use the line in it overrides the rear panel XLR in. Very convenient...lol
 
I also route a couple of the preamp outs to various and sundry things like Guitar amps, some reverb/delay units for playing in studio.
 
craigb: I hope you have those columns tied to the wall, last time I checked the PNW was seismically active. ;-)
 
Regards,

 mmorgan, you certainly have some nice pres in your chain. I'll check that Hosa box out as well. I don't have any outboard pres worth doing that with yet. Maybe one day. It is certainly nice to simply plug something in and play. Thanks for the info.

Hi Starise well the pres are a bit of mixed blessing. All of my old gear (pre DAW, dedicated HD recorder), guitars, amps, my beloved Lexicon reverbs and various and sundry items were borrowed with out my permission (read stolen).
 
It was at that time that I moved into the DAW world. At the time I wasn't sure just what the feck I was doing but I was learning. When I built the cabinets in one thing I knew I wanted was some really good preamps. So, thanks to the insurance settlement, I had a bit of reserves for good gear.
 
Good luck in your studio and remember: a clean studio is one source of an organized workflow. ;-)
 
Regards,

Starise, I think the important thing is to have your existing tools, whatever they may be, organized in a way you can get to them and use them quickly. So cleaning up a space is an important aspect of that.
 
I'm still in the same room but now it is just more organized so the tools I use are close at hand, wired up and ready to be selected to be placed in the chain. Today I wasn't recording at all, just practicing some walking bass lines on a guitar. I wanted to add a little ambiance and all I did was turn on a reverb and I was good to go. No trips to the basement! LOL.
 
Your comments about sitting in a chair, picking up a guitar and being able to stretch out and play are exactly what is required.
 
Regards,

I prefer to leave mine cluttered. My excuse is that it takes care of the standing waves created by parallel walls.... 

OP: regarding your TV
 
You say your PC only has HD connectors. You mean DVI?
Well then DVI and HDMI are electically the same and you can get DVI to HDMI cables on ebay for nothin then you can use the HDMI inputs on the TV.
 
My 28" monitor has a HDMI plug. I use that input driven fron DVI connectors on my daw.
 
Git 'er done.

I try not to do too much "cleaning up" since it then makes things harder to find.
 
And I never think to take any "Before" pics until I'm almost done.....