Wiring & Patch Bays for relative newbie

J

Jeroleen

New member
I asked this in another area but that may not have been the right place for it. Anyway, I am using a Mackei 24-8 Mixer & MOTU 2408. I have two 24 channel stereo patch bays. How should this all be connected. do I use the channel inserts, if so, when and what for? How should I connect the patch bays? right now one is connected to the mic/line inputs of the mixer on the bottom row and the top is either the direct outputs from instruments or just open. The second patch bay has the outputs from the bus sends on the Mackie going to the inputs of the 2408 and the outputs of the 2408 going into the tape returns.

One other qustion is this. If I wanted to make this set-up a fully functional 24 tracks, do I need to add additional 2408's or would i be better of with the Alesis 24 track hard disc recorder (or the Mackie)?

I thank all for thier help on this wonderful board.
 
With my system, I have all the channel inserts and the main stereo buss inserts brought up to the patch bay and normaled through. Also the channel direct outs and the eight sub master buss outs. The inputs to my ADATs are in the patch bay as are the analog inputs and outputs of my 2408.
Of course all my outboard gear inputs and outputs are in the patch bay as well. The sidechain inputs and outputs of my compressors are also normaled through the patch bay. The line level outputs of all the mic preamps are there.
To make a long story short, anything I could possibly ever want to patch or rearrange is in my patchbay. YMMV.
 
This is interesting because I'm just now getting to the point where I think I might be needing a patch bay. Anyway, I had an idea how I wanted to do it, and its nice to see my idea was right. Hey, score one for me!

Jeroleen, there was a book out a while ago that I think is out of print, but it has a fantastic section on patch bays. Its by some English bloke by the name of David Mellor and its called "How to Set Up a Home Recording Studio - Project Studios Too!". I highly recommend finding it used if you can.
 
Thanks guys. I think I saw something by one of you guys regarding HOSA cables. I have HOSA cables but this is mostly be default. Where I purchase my equipment, for the most part, it appears to me they stock only HOSA cables and to make a short story long, I purchased what was available out of convenience and ignorance. Now that I have seen indications to the contrary, I wonder if I should discontinue this practice and if so, in favor of what? IOW..what type of cables are recommended?
Oh yes, one really important question. For the inserts I notice that a "Y" jack is recommended. A "tip" and "ring" configuration so that outs and ins are on the same input/output. Are you using this and, if so, is the "y" connector pre patch bay or post patch bay (I guess post patch bay would have the "y" connected into the patch bay).

P.S. I apologize in advance for any terms of art used improperly or out of context. I am learning
so I guess no apology is needed however, it is a measure of my appreciation for the time more experienced people give when they answer my questions. I know you all are busy and I therfore appreciate your help immeasurably.
 
Altough I don't use a patchbay for wiring my mixer, I could Imagine that one Y cable and one Stereo jack-jack should be cheaper than one Y cable and two mono jack-jacks.
Using the later one can easily connect two or more devices in the insert, daisy chaining these. (if this is a usefull feature, I don't know, but it is possible that you want to use a seperate compressor and a seperate limiter)

Hope this is helpful,

EZP
 
OK, Buce or TR,

I am psyching myself up to start making up snakes to my patchbays. So far, the concept of running direct outs from the console and tape returns from the recorder through the p/bays isn't a problem......actually makes sense.

The dumb questions come now..........TR, you said, "With my system, I have all the channel inserts and the main stereo buss inserts brought up to the patch bay and normaled through. "

Question..........normalled through to where?

I guess I am trying to visualise the signal flow for different components............. Outboard gear, (effects, compressors, etc) I would presume, just have their ins and outs terminated at a p/bay waiting for something to be plugged in. Does the same apply to inserts, i.e; are they terminated in the top row of a p/bay? What connects to the corresponding jack in the bottom row.

Any help to clear this up in my head would be appreciated.

Regards,

ChrisO :cool:
 
When I say they're normaled through, I mean they're normaled through to theirselves. The jack frames in patchbays can be configured where if nothing is plugged into them, they are a closed circuit, as in the case of a channel or main buss insert. In other words, when a channel insert is wired to a patchbay and nothing is patched to it, it's just a piece of wire looping out and right back into the channel strip. The circuit is only interupted when you plug something into the patchbay. Doing it this way makes it not only convenient but neat and tidy when you want to put something like a compressor on only one channel as the insert patching is only inches from the compressor patchpoints. Am I making any sense here?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong..........TRS jack in console insert, 2 mono jacks at the other end of the cable..........one jack in the top row, the other jack in the corresponding bottom of the p/bay, with a normalled circuit in the p/bay. This will still work with half-normalled too?

:cool:
 
Yup, sure will. And half-normalling gives you a freebie mult/insert steal there, too.

If you wanted to be *really* anal about it, you'd connect ring to sleeve on the insert-send jack with a 150-200ohm resistor, so that your single-ended insert send would actually act like a pseudo-impedance-balanced output (one that would work happily with either a single-ended TS or balanced TRS load). But I'm pretty anal, and even *I* don't bother with that! You shouldn't need that at all unless you have a lot of RF/EMI problems from a *really* noisy electrical environment...
 
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