A patch bay question specific to my situation. Long confusiong questions..

[scottboyher]

A patch bay question specific to my situation.

I have a balanced patch bay (TRS) and I have an 8-channel TRS snake coming from the inserts of my Yamaha MG16 to the back bottom first 8 channels of the patch bay.

I have a compressor with the Y-cable inserted in the patch bay (TRS END) at the back top channel and it is set for normal so that the signal always goes through the compressor.

Now I have a sound card that only has a stereo in and a stereo out because I only record by myself one track at a time.

I have the soundcard output going to tracks 7 and 8. The inserts for 7 and 8 go to the back bottom of the patch bay.

I do this because when I record vocals or something it goes through track one and through the compressor to compress it a bit going in.

But then I can patch 7 and 8 (during playback) back in to the compressor or a different compressor on channel on of the patch bay. This allows me to compress the vocals using my RNC, or other outboard gear.

The problem is that most of the time there is nothing plugged in to the patch bay on channel 7 and 8 except the inserts from the mixer. This does not allow me to hear what is coming back out 7 and 8. I have to get behind the mixer and unplug the snake from channel inserts 7 and 8 for them to work.

Now I really like this setup because it gives me a lot of flexibility with my outboard compressors and pre’s.

I guess I went this route because I didn’t want to buy a bunch more cords. All I needed was the TRS 8 channel snake and a few patch cords.. Most of the stuff is in “normal” mode because it doesn’t need to be changed.

So on mixer channel one the insert goes straight out to the patch bay that is normal and goes through the compressor and then back to the insert of the mixer.

Is this bad practice?

And to get sound on 7 and 8 is it as simple as plugging a patch cord into back top 7 and 8 and around to front top 7 and 8? Will that complete the circuit?

Does anyone else do things this way? Do I even make sense?

I have searched and searched but there was nothing on this particular situation. Most have to do with multiple inputs into a recorder from the mixer. I only have one.. I am only interested in utilizing outboard gear more easily.

[ellery]

Here is one way

When you plug a cable into an TRS insert jack you break the signal chain. the normal flow of an insert is board-->TIP--> Effect/comp-->ring-->board. So what you need to do is get a trs connector and solder the TIP and RING pin's together. if you need a photo i will post one.

[Farview]

You have misunderstood how to hook up your patchbay.
For inserts: Take the 'y' cable and plug the TRS end into the insert on the board. The ring end goes to the bottom back of the patch bay, the tip end goes to the top back of the same channel of the patchbay. The patchbay makes the loop when it is normaled.
The compressor should be hooked to the patchbay with instrument cables. The outputs to the top of a channels the inputs to the bottom. The channels are non-normaled.
You patch the compressor into the inserts by taking a patch cable and patching from the top of the insert channel to the bottom of a compressor channel and from the top of the compressor channel to the bottom of the insert channel.