Recording rig

I have been setting up a new recording rack in my studio. It has been a long time since I did any serious recording so I’m kind of re-learning things like patchbay configuration.

I have an old M-Audio ProFire 2626 set up on a SFF PC in this old Grundorf rack case.

I’m setting up two mic pres and a compressor so that I can run my Sure SM7 through the 1173 clone and into the RNC compressor. I want this set up by default and the ability to multi out to one of the mic pres in the 2626 for a control group.

I kind of debated a few things like what kind of cabling to use and. how to route the mics. I don’t think I’m going to use tie lines for most of the mics, I will just plug them into the patch bay. I’m on the fence about that though since I’m wanting to split the signal a few ways to experiment with different preamps and setups. This means I should run the mics in the back of the patch bay effectively using the “tie line” pattern of patch bay setup.

Another thing that I’m exploring is the use of ethercon cabling to run analog signals around the room. I also have some boxes that run lightpipe over cat5. That should be interesting. I also bought a Behringer mic splitter so that the other users of the studio can still have their mics running into the snake and back to the PA system.

I’m not sure if this is all too complicated but it’s been a fun project to take my mind off other things in life. I like the sound of the Golden Age pre-73 Jr mic pre and I’m excited to get to try out a few variations of things with my new rig.

I’m using a Behringer TRS patch bay. I’m hooking up my audio interface so that I have 4 of the outputs available on the front and 4 of the mic pres. Seems like probably enough. I’m also going to have 4 of the line ins available but two will be normalled to mic preamps.

I have 16 more mic inputs on the front via ADAT-connected ADA8000 units. I’m not sure how I’m going to be using these exactly. I kind of want to mod one of my units to just take ethercat connections. Otherwise I have to route a bunch of cables to the front of the rack.