Patchbay Use and Studio Wiring

Hi, I have the following equipment that I want to wire up to a mixer and patchbay... :

Sound sources:

DX7 Synth

Dave Smith's Evolver Synth

TR707 Drum machine

Emu Sampler (all stereo in's and out's)

Hardware:

Compressor

Reverb

FX

A 48 point Behringer Patchbay........ 16 channel, 4 buss Mackie Mixing Desk (1642VLZ PRO)..... and

A Lovely Dell Computer

I basically want to hook up everything in my studio to the patchbay so that I can link any item (drums,sampler,synth) through my processing hardware (compression, reverb, FX) that I have rackmounted..

So... Do I just hook all the ins/out of everything up to my patchbay, including all my mixer channels, to get his versatility in my set up? I have a nagging feeling it's not that simple.. I don't have much money to throw around, and have pretty much finished my stuido, but wiring everything together in a logical fashion is bruising my brain.. Do I really need to attach the in's and outs of my 16 channel mixer to the patchbay too, in order to get the best out of it? I'd appreciate any opinions offered, thanks in advance!

  Memorex Meridian said:

Hi, I have the following equipment that I want to wire up to a mixer and patchbay... :

 

Sound sources:

DX7 Synth

Dave Smith's Evolver Synth

TR707 Drum machine

Emu Sampler (all stereo in's and out's)

 

Hardware:

Compressor

Reverb

FX

 

A 48 point Behringer Patchbay........ 16 channel, 4 buss Mackie Mixing Desk (1642VLZ PRO)..... and

A Lovely Dell Computer

 

I basically want to hook up everything in my studio to the patchbay so that I can link any item (drums,sampler,synth) through my processing hardware (compression, reverb, FX) that I have rackmounted..

So... Do I just hook all the ins/out of everything up to my patchbay, including all my mixer channels, to get his versatility in my set up? I have a nagging feeling it's not that simple.. I don't have much money to throw around, and have pretty much finished my stuido, but wiring everything together in a logical fashion is bruising my brain.. Do I really need to attach the in's and outs of my 16 channel mixer to the patchbay too, in order to get the best out of it? I'd appreciate any opinions offered, thanks in advance!

Nah theres an easier way than that, use the insert's and sends on your mackie, I'm not sure exactly what the 1642 has in terms of inserts and sends but I have a 1402 (i think) and that has enough to easily make setup simple, so im sure your 1642 is even more flexible!

First I would plug in all your effects units compressors etc to the end (right hand side) of your patchbay, so the input is the top, the output on the bottom, you can label them with comp In, comp out on etc. on bottom and top respectively. Then the basic way would be to wire the inserts of your desk to the left hand side of the patchbay, using stereo jack to split stereo jack leads. work out which is output and which is input (i forget wether its tip or ring, they're normally labeled on those sort of jacks).

Then you have the first half sorted, you just use patch leads to attach the desired insert to the desired effect, for example if you want compression on channel 3 then have a patch lead on the upper row going from insert 3 to comp input, and one on the bottom row from comp output back to insert return 3.

You can do the same for sends, only this time attach the sends 'send' to any spare columns you have on the patchbay, and wire them up in the same way. You need to set the patchbays behavior to the correct setting (normalled? I always forget which, should be easy to work out when looking at the diagram.)

You want the one which has an uninterupted signal path if nothing is plugged in to the front sockets.

then you can have your synths etc plugged permanently into certain mixer channels and wire them up accordingly.

do the 4 busses have insert points as well? if so you could just use the inserts on them and simply send the thing you want to add an insert to to one of the 4 groups.

you could have the returns of things like reverb coming back to a spare mixer channel so you can apply eq etc as well, rather then using the inbuilt send returns.

if you attach your monitors to control room out and the main outs to inputs 1and2 on your soundcard or whatever's conveniant then you can easily record things to disc once you are happy. use control room source to controll what goes back to the computer, for example with alt3&4 (i assume your desk has this) and main mix set to control room source you will hear everything on all channels all the time, but only stuff which DOESNT have the alt3&4 button pressed will go back to the computer. so to record a drum track with reverb on a send effect just press the alt 3&4 button for all chanels apart from the drum's and then just press record in your daw. To record a whole mix once you are happy make sure all the alt3&4 buttons are not pressed.

Im not sure if your desk has them but if you have direct outs then you can attach these to your soundcard to easily record insert effects on channels without having to 'mute' all the others.

if you want to play guitar or synth into the computer and add a vst effect then hear it back all you have to do is make sure control room source doesnt include 'main mix'. set the synth to go to main mix so that it heads into the computer but you dont hear it, then return it on another mixer channel with alt 3&4 pressed so you hear back the synth only after it has passed through the vst effect. you wont be able to do this, add an insert and then record the result in real time, however, unless you either record the synth part first then add the insert effect or use direct outs on your mixer.

This is the setup I used for ages on my little mixer and it worked great, with your bigger one there are even more options! Ive probably said loads you know,i have a tendancy to ramble but i hope it helps. basically yeah, it is that simple as long as you get your mixer setup sorted, if you have your speakers coming out of main outs and your control room going to the computer things get a bit frustrating with mackie desks.

Cheers for the advice man.. My internet's been down, or else I would have thanked you earlier, but thanks very much!