Insert jack question

[Stogie_D]

Mornin all, I'm looking for an answer to a insert question with no luck after much searching. Thought I would pose it here with you electronics folks. I have recently upgraded my analog studio & have run every piece of outboard gear through patchbays. Access to the rear of the mixer is, as usual, a pain. I have put a 16 channel insert snake from board to the Compressor / EQ rack patchbay. At this point, I HAVE to have each channel I'm recording on inserted through a processor wether I'm using it or not to get signal. I just leave them in bypass mode. What I would like is this - a TRS jack I can plug into the patchbay that loops the signal back to the board, ie, eliminates the need to go through a bypassed processor. As a TRS is send / return, can I wire the send to the return inside the jack & call it a day. If I have not explained this in a understandable manner, please ask for more.

Thanks all,
D.

 

[Steenamaroo]

I'm not 100% sure I understand, but I think I do.
There are several way you can use a patch bay, and one of them is pretty much using it as a set of M-F extension cables.
Setting up like this is exactly the same as using the insert points on your gear, except convenient.

So, you either plug in your insert cable (which is connected to send/return on your processors), or you unplug it. No need for bypass etc.

Is that what you were asking?

 

[ashcat_lt]

If you are actually running TRS from the insert point to the backside of the patchbay (and presumably splitting to dual TS on the front side?), then yes. Just take a plug (not jack) and short the T to the R. Jam it in there and it will go right back to the board.

If you are actually using an insert snake, though, then you're splitting the TRS to dual TS on the back side of the patchbay, and essentially patching TS (even if using TRS cables) on the front side. In that case, you could just use a patch cable to connect the send point to the return point.

But let's talk about normaling. Is it normaled at all right now? If not, why? Think quick about how you are most likely to use this thing more often.

Will you want the outboard gear on certain inputs more often than not? Then half-normal the patchbay so that the insert send always goes directly into the input of that outboard thing and then the output of that goes straight into the insert return. Then when you want to bypass the outboard crap, you use the patch cable like I mentioned above.

Or would you rather have those inserts bypassed most of the time, only occasionally patching in the outboard? Then I'd just have the sends half-normaled to the returns, with the outboard gear down the line somewhere. With nothing plugged in the send goes right back to the return and when you want to add the outboard you patch in specifically.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I have put a 16 channel insert snake from board to the Compressor / EQ rack patchbay. At this point, I HAVE to have each channel I'm recording on inserted through a processor wether I'm using it or not to get signal.

Just to be clear, the snake is TRS on one end connected to pairs or TS at the other, right? Or is it just a TRS-TRS snake?

If you're using the first of those two then it's just a matter of configuring the patch bay's normalling function. No jumpers or special TRS plugs needed.