Patchbay Advice

[ddageek]

Originally Posted by Mondial Music

You should not connect mics or mic signals to the patchbay as mics sometimes would require 48v and you do not want that running through the patch.

Your right!

Unless of course the patchbay grounding is set up for phantom! (this where those expensive earn the respect of those who own them)
or your phantom is applied after the patchbay!
take a look at the patch bays that come with say an SSL or API you think in highend room someone is going to patch the pre amp in a rack directly to the mic line????
No they use a patachbay set up for just this situation !

[Dizzi45Z]

Originally Posted by Mondial Music

You should not connect mics or mic signals to the patchbay as mics sometimes would require 48v and you do not want that running through the patch.

Really... Your probably right. But I've seen lots of different studios patch their mic signals through their patchbay (including myself). I've never had any problem either.

How in the world would you patch a mic line from a room into a specific preamp without hardwiring certain preamps to specific mic lines?

Is this the consensus of everyone? --- To not connect mics or mic signals through patchbays? If so, then why do so many people do it?

[Steffmo]

Obviosly its NOT the consenus.

When we did my current bay we discussed it at length and finally decided to do it. Its been fine for 6 years now with no real incidents.

If you follow general good studio practices (like don't be changing patches with the mains at 120 db, or patch into pre BEFORE connecting a non buffered ribbon mic to the wall) you should be ok.

Many top shelf studios have mic inputs on the bay.

[crosscutred]

My desk doesn't even have P48 onboard, the desk patchbay (bantam, moses and mitchell) doesn't get phantom at all.
The mic tie lines to the CR are all xlr and the Phantom is supplied to the mics from between the bantam patchbay and the xlr tielines using standalone phantom power units.

I would recomend M&M, my 1/4" trs bays are also good - the usaul problem with the 1/4" is the patch leads not the bay itself.

Learning to solder is the best way, it's not hard and saves thousands.

[DarkSky Media]

Originally Posted by Dizzi45Z

How in the world would you patch a mic line from a room into a specific preamp without hardwiring certain preamps to specific mic lines?

To answer this specifically, most studios that don't put mic lines through regular (bantam or TRS etc) patchbays have separate XLR bays to assign mic lines to pres. That's what I do here, FWIW.

It does make some sense. Mic cables that carry P48 aren't supplied with bantam or TRS connectors for good reason. You can do it for convenience - if you don't mind managing (and living with) the risks.