Console.. I should look before I leap!!

[thegeek]

So I am in a major transition from a small 16 channel ITB mixing rig to a 32+ channel OTB rig... and I'm possibly in over my head.

I should be receiving my Soundtracs MRX withing the next couple of weeks and I am in need of some hookup advice... I am picking up a Pro Tools Mix|24 system from a guy I know... its a solid deal and give me plenty of power for my needs.

But I'm not sure how I should be hooking everything up... I know I'll go from the "tape outs" to the PT interfaces but from there where do I go? I plan on using the console to mix and PTs as more a smart tape machine. I have limited outboard gear right now but will be adding pieces as time goes on but in the meantime plug ins will be used.

[Dakota]

But I'm not sure how I should be hooking everything up... I know I'll go from the "tape outs" to the PT interfaces but from there where do I go? I plan on using the console to mix and PTs as more a smart tape machine. I have limited outboard gear right now but will be adding pieces as time goes on but in the meantime plug ins will be used.

However you patch the board i/o with the recorder i/o, if it's fixed as one routing, you'll run into bottlenecks where it'd be better to patch differently for different jobs. For example, sometimes you want to get individual board channel outs to PT, sometimes you want the board group outs to get to PT. Sometimes you want a PT out to go straight to the board, sometimes you might want it to go directly through outboard comp or EQ before it gets back to the board (insert-ish). Etc. It's a pain to pull snakes at the back of an interface and board to re-rig for every new idea to test. Too slow. No fun.

Which means patchbays, which I highly advise you do. Plan them to "normal" for the routing you'd use most often.

A well planned patchbay puts the joy in OTB.

[firby]

Hello.

I am in the same position as you. Here it is Logic with 24 channels of I/O and a Trident 24 desk. There is not yet a patch bay in this studio. How I did it was to route the groups to the computers INs and route the computers outs to line ins on the board.

This is a good setup for me as I can do routing on the board via groups. Since I rarely, if ever record 24 tracks of groups I have the Highest numbers of group inserts connected to compressors.

Ok. So in this fashion I can record compression on a group, I can do parallel compression by sending to master L+R and then also assign to a group, so signal goes to Main L + R and a group with a compressor attached to it that returns through the group fader to Master L + R.

On the auxes I have my delays and verbs, and a permanent attached headphone stereo monitoring channel.

A patch bay will give great functinality but for now, I don't sweat it.

Regards.

[ricey]

A well planned patchbay puts the joy in OTB.

hear hear! my experience totally, an i'm working with 12 digital outs and a 16 input desk. i have 12 channels of compression, 2 tape machines (8 & 2 track) 4 effects - pretty modest overall, but adding two 96-point bays has been an incredible thing, i can connect anything to anything and there's room to grow. changed the game.

[Ryan Silva]

I just started to use a small format mixer for semi-out of the box mixing, and I too am feeling the need for a patch bay.

I use Nuendo>Lynx Aurora16>Toft ATB.

Now the ATB has quite a bit of routing internally, but I?ll put it like this: I have Meter Bridge for the console and it sits in a box because I still need to get to my inserts wayto often.

Yep time for a patch bay.

Seems to me the cables end up costing 1000% more than the bay itself, but hey what you going to do.

[JohnDavisNYC]

i would go so far as to say going OTB WITHOUT a patchbay is kinda like going to OTB without some crack or a 40oz...

patchbays just make everything work...

john

[thegeek]

yeah... I'm adding a bay.. I just have to figure all this shit out...

[ricey]

my fav:

http://patchbays.com/Shorti_quickswitch.htm

not cheap. and with the SHORTi connectors in the back, you're solder-free and can make easier revisions to your layout as it grows...changing the normaling or ground scheme is also cake.

[akg414]

I have Pro Tools Mix Plus and a Mackie board.

When I do use the board, I just go from the Pro Tools (888-24) into my tape returns on the board. Pro Tools will send the signal really hot, so you might want to be running them through any on-board mic pres.

I've had success with that set up. Mind you, that's a really simplified explanation of my signal chain - because I have everything patched to my patchbay in a way that allows me to connect to my ADATs (if need be) or to my board, or Pro Tools, etc...

Hope this helps. If you need any questions, PM me.

[jason_tsh]

I had a Soundtracs MRX 34, and it had a builtin patchbay, which simplified things a lot. It had space to wire up most of my outboard to it, and then when I needed more space I added a few rackmount patchbays next to the console.
Patch out of your Pro Tools into the tape returns.
Those tape returns are automatically then routed to the corresponding Line Inputs on the first 8-16 channels. You just press "line-in", and you're ready to mix.
This only works if you've got nothing plugged into the line input on each channel though.
You'll figure out the rest by pressing things, twisting things, and getting some stuff wrong.
I usually kept the first 8 channels as dedicated returns from my PC or tape machine though. And used channels 9-30 for feeds from the liveroom, and 31-34 for FX returns.
There's lots of different ways you can do things, but I prefer to keep it simple.
Good luck.

[thegeek]

Mine is a 40 channel version which doesn't have a patchbay. I wish it were the 32 channel version with the patchbay because my PT setup only has 32 ins. But I suppose the extra 8 channels will be good backups.

[brew]

PM me a list of every IO on the desk, or better a PDF of the manual/install guide with this info, and I'll send you some patch suggestions.