ANALOG STUDIO
SETUP
Basic Overview of Recording
Studio I/O
Studio Layout
 Recording studios require literally miles of cable in order to
connect all of the facilities’ equipment.
I/O
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The I/O of a studio can be broken down into three areas:
Control Room I/O
Machine Room I/O
Studio/Iso booth I/O
Control Room
Machine Room
Recording Console
I/O
Tape Machine I/O Mic Inputs from
Studio and Iso booths
Outboard Gear I/O – including
Time Based and Dynamics
Effects, outboard Mic Pres’s
Monitor Amplifier/ Speaker level cue
Cue amplifier I/O outputs for
headphones
DAW interface
I/O
Studio/ Iso Booth
The Control Room w/ Patchbay
All of the I/O in a
studio is wired to a
patch bay for ease of
operation and
efficiency in routing
signal. Patch bays
are either attached to
the console (as
shown) or are in a
separate rack.
Speakers
Mixing Desk
Patch
Bays
Producer’s Desk
Sound
Diffuser
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Signal Routing and Patch
A patchbay is set up as pairs bays
of rows
The top row is usually an
output row, the bottom an
input.
I/O from gear, mic panels, etc
are wired to the backs of the
bays.
The patchbay connects a point
on the top to the point directly
beneath it.
This is referred to as
“normalled”.
The diagram to the right shows
the most widely used
configuration for a patch bay The half-normalled connection.
3 Types of Patch bay
Connections
1. Non normalled or open
2. Fully Normalled
3. 1/2 Normalled
Non Normalled
• Used where you don’t want the
two rows to
connect.
• Most commonly used for
outboard gear to avoid
feedback.
Full Normalled
• Generally only used for the mic
line and mic preamp input rows
• To avoid one mic being
connected to several preamps
at once.
Half Normalled
• The most common row, used
for all rows except the mic
line/mic pre and outboard gear
rows. All the line level
I/O (except for outboard gear)
is connected on half-normalled
rows.
Half vs. Full Normalled
• Half: When a patch cable is
plugged into the input (bottom)
row the connection from top to
bottom is broken. Not true for
the output (top) row - if a cable
is plugged into the output row
the connection from top to
bottom is maintained.
Half vs. Full Normalled
• Full: When a patch cable is
plugged into the input (bottom)
row the connection from top to
bottom is broken - just like half.
However, if a cable is plugged
into the output (top) row the
connection from top to bottom
is also broken.