Patchbay wiring questions.

[googacky]

Hello, I'm in the middle of a rewire of my studio and it may be because I'm very tired or because I'm electroni-tarded, but I have a few questions on how to wire some things. FYI, I'm running phantom power through the bays since I have tie lines wired (start yelling at me now) and I'm using what I understand is called a "telescoping ground" system in which all the sheilds are lifted at the input connector of each piece of gear (except mic amps). I'm using TT patchbays with punchblocks. Anyway...

1. I'm wondering how I should wire in my console inserts. Since I'm lifting my shields at the input I'm supposing I'll take the tip and shield to the output and just connect my ring to the input. This somehow seems philosophically unsettling to me though I can't intellectually rebuke it.

2. I'm running side chain inputs and decided to half-normal them so I can have the possibility of multing the signal and crushing something it having an uncompressed version pop up on a different channel. This makes sense, right? I'll be wiring these in the same fashion as I'm wiring my inserts.

3. I have a few pieces of unbalanced gear (RNCs) and I'm wondering how to properly incorporate them into this telescoping shield system.

4. I'm a bit unclear on the normaling situation to make sure the phantom behaves itself. I'm under the impression that I just need to full normal the tie lines to my console pres. Did I get that one right?


All the materials I have at hand to reference all this stuff are a bit dense for the feeble electronics decoding part of my brain. If someone could give it to me in Duplo I'd love you forever.

[rockstudio]

For Phantom power to function through the bay, you just need to make sure you normal the points as well as jumper the shields on the same points, since there are no normalling lugs for the shield.

[googacky]

Wouldn't the sheild normals need to break as well to avoid ground loops?

[rockstudio]

Not necessarily. I don't know about your "telescoping ground" Method, but in most patch bays you will see the ground lugs for many channels bussed together, or in some cases jumpered from top row to bottom row. It is debatable whether or not to buss all of your grounds, however you have to at least buss or jumper the ground lugs on your mic inputs for phantom power to function without using a patch cable.

here is a little guide from Whirlwind.[/url]

happy soldering!

[sparechessroom]

wondering what you are using for a console as well and what kind of wiring that requires. i just built a patchbay for a ghost which uses ground compensation as a trade off for properly balanced outputs, but only in about 1/3 of the outputs... the others were properly balanced... with the added pain of the direct outs from each channel being unbalanced as direct outs, but ground compensated balanced when you select the botton that makes the direct outs actually be the group outs for whatever # the track is in banks of 8... i.e. direct out 14 coud be unbalanced ch 14 direct out, or group 7 output as a ground compensated output... making it impossible to do a telescoping gound scheme. the telescopic method is a great idea, but i think it really does not work reliably for home studios where you are going to have a bunch of things that are pro and therefor wired the way you think it is going to be, and mixing that with all kinds of devices that acheive affordable results in some way that is actually sort of hidden becaus it is also kind of electroni-tarded and they do not want people to think that they are anything less than an amazing peice of gear worth every penny of the hype that is selling them... though i do concede that it is hard to make $ at this stuff, but i am alsways blown away at what you find out about these semi pro devices when you get into them. this is most relevant to patchbay wiring and taking advantage of some of the tricks of the trade as far as wiring goes. i think the best thing to do unless you are using mostly pro gear, would be to wire it straight up point to point, half normals as they would be ,nothing fancy, and then go through your gear when it is done and connected and resolve any ground issues individually and lift only those, but on the jack,not the bays. as far as connecting unbalanced gear, this would also be done at the jack not the bay, and you would connect the low or - signal wire to the shield... you need to make sure you know the pin outs for all your rack gear... many things are still made pin 3 hot. you also may need to know which of your gear are electronically balanced which sometimes need attention when connecting them to an unbalanced device's input which will basically short half the electronically balanced signal to ground resulting in about 6db less signal, and sometimes potential damage to the electronically balanced device, as opposed to transformer balanced outpur which can drive about anything... including my car. this also applies if you have a pultec eq and drive that with an unbalanced output that may not be able to get good signal into the pultec or other 600ohm device. don't feel bad, even when you are not electronically challenged, this stuff is still infuriating, and confusing. as for the mic inputs... i think these need to be full normalled... the grounds bussed together i am not sure needs to be there for phantom to work without patch cables, but it is possible. i think that totally depends on what the mic pre is in and if you are talking about having a global 48v supply like on some older neves, or if you are using a console with individual 48v on the channels. if you are putting the 48v on the patchbay, i would not do this at all unless it were individually assignable. i have toasted cheaper electronically balanced external mic pres a few times by bringing them into a studio that had 48v on the patchpoints, being told by an assistant to plug the output of the external pre into a wall panel and next thing you know you are feeding 48 volts into the output of of something without knowing it until it is too late. it always makes a lot of sense after the dust settles, but patchbay planning should account for this possibility, and try to make things as simple and understandable as possible. with little special rules times however many patchpoints you are doing, this can add up to a very confused session.

good luck