Studio Project - Connector Panels
Here’’s a project I just finished…Run a multi-pair cable from upstairs to downstairs and attach connector panels on both ends.
This type of project is pretty common in home studios. You want to track in an isolated area of the house and have the control room in another room. You can always run long mic cables between the rooms, but for a much more professional look you”ll want to do it right and use custom connector panels on the walls.
This particular studio is located on the famed Music Row here in Nashville. It’’s a carriage house type of structure, an apartment behind a house where a publishing company is located on Music Row. There are probably 200 other studios just like this one within a sqare mile of here!
Downstairs is where the control room is being set up…
Upstairs is where the musicians will play…
After the studio owner told me where on the walls he wanted the connector plates, I located the studs in the wall. I cut a small hole and fed a fish tape up to be sure there was no fire blocking or any structural obstacles that would prevent pulling the wire. Fortunately there wasn”t even a subfloor behind the wall between upstairs and downstairs, so I didn”t have to drill through anything.
The cable pull went smoothly and I was now ready to attach the cables to the connectors.
I built this soldering station using a Panavise and a Weller WLC100 soldering iron.
The panel layout was as follows…16 XLR connectors for mic lines, a 1/4″ TRS connector for a line level feed or a return, another 1/4″ connector for a speaker line, and four cat-5 connectors for the cue system. I used Mogami 2934 for the 16-channel cable and Belden 9451 for the TRS line. I also ran a spare length of 9451 for future use or to use as a pull wire for future cable pulls.
I had the panels made by Whirlwind. They do fine work and deliver quickly. After emailing a simple sketch of the panel design to a local Whirlwind dealer, I had the finished panels within two weeks.
The panels were made to fit in between the studs in the wall so after soldering the XLRs and TRS connectors and punching down the cat-5 connections, the panels were ready to screw to the wall.
Now setting up for a recording session will be even simpler and the studio has a more professional look to it.
Cost: Panels = $500, cable = $100
Time: 3 hrs
Have you attempted a project similar to this? How did it turn out? Leave a comment and let me know about your studio projects.