What the hell is a patchbay after all?

pisces7378

New member
Sorry for the ignorance here, but I have been hearing more and more about how patch bays are used in studios. It has always puzzled me why the Ins and Outs on most digital audio interfaces are located on the back panel. However I must ask… what the hell is a patch bay?
I assume that it is a couple of rows of ¼ in. jacks that can be positioned in a convenient location acting as a central connector point between the things being plugged into it’s face panel, and whatever piece of gear it is connected on the other side. But… does that mean, that if I have a 24 input audio interface, I will need to go get 48 ¼ in. cables and plug them into the 24 ins and the 24 outs. Then take the 24 cables plugged into the ins of the interface and plug them into the outs of the patch bay’s rear panel, and do the opposite with the outs?

Jesus this is hard to imagine in my head without having all the gear. Ya see, I am going to be getting the Mackie 32 Channel / 8Bus mixer and I am thinking about the MOTU 24i audio interface / PCI card system. However I am having trouble envisioning how they will work together. How will I record a set of drums with 8 drum mics? The mic cabels will go into the mixer’s ins… and then……? Please fill in the blank. And I know how rediculas this question is… but I have only done track by track midi and audio recording up until now, and 24 track audio interfaces and 32 channel mixers are a jump for me.
 
Patch bays are a MUST. I currently have three 52 point and three 44 point patch bays in my rig and I can't imagine life without them.
 

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Thanks guys...

Uhmmm but I have seen what they LOOK like before.

How are they made?

What do they do?

With regards to me above mentioned system plans, where would one be intergrated?
 
Well, Bruce and Track rat know this stuff way better than I do, but the core reason for having a patch bay is to have quick access to all those devices and mixer connections that YOU THINK YOU MIGHT CHANGE. It's no fun crawling under a console desk. And yet, at least on a amateur level, you don't need or even want to have EVERY jack on every device mirrored on a patch bay. I think the best example would be your auxillary sends and returns on a mixer. Most small (i.e. not high-end pro) mixers support only 2-4 auxillary sends and returns. But lots of guys own more signal processing devices than this. So to make it easy on yourself you have your sends and returns mirrored on a patch bay, along with the ins & outs of your favorite processing devices. So when you want to change devices, you just flip a few short patch cables and you're done. The smaller your mixer, the more important a patchbay becomes.

About the only real advice I can offer is that for a patch bay to be most effective, you need to put some thought and planning into it. Look over your mixer carefully, list all the signal processing devices you have (or may buy soon), plus any other devices (keyboards etc.) and draw out a flow chart of what you need & want to be able to do. THEN wire it up.
 
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