Dumb patchbay question

[famous beagle]

Ok, I warned you!

I've used patchbays (and use them now), but I only ever use the "thru" method (rear jack straight to corresponding front jack).

I know that the "normal" mode will act this way as well if things are plugged into rear jacks 1 & 2 and front jacks 1 & 2.

But I can't figure out what the other configurations of "normal" mode would be used for (or "half normal" for that matter).

I know there have got to be some common uses, but I've just never come across any for my purposes. Or maybe there have been, but I just haven't been taking advantage of them?

Clue me in please!

 

[MOFO Pro]

Direct Outs on your mixing desk routed through Normalized patch bay to your recording interface. Signal will route normally with bay empty... but you insert or patch channels at will, then tear it all down by just pulling the patch cables...

"There are no stupid questions... Only stupid people"

 

[WhiteStrat]

Ok, I warned you!

I've used patchbays (and use them now), but I only ever use the "thru" method (rear jack straight to corresponding front jack).

I know that the "normal" mode will act this way as well if things are plugged into rear jacks 1 & 2 and front jacks 1 & 2.

But I can't figure out what the other configurations of "normal" mode would be used for (or "half normal" for that matter).

I know there have got to be some common uses, but I've just never come across any for my purposes. Or maybe there have been, but I just haven't been taking advantage of them?

Clue me in please!

Here's how I use mine: in normalled mode (I think it's normalled--I'm not in the studio now) I can go straight through like you do, but that get's messy with a lot of connections. So I have my "default" connections made all the time on the back. For example, the main outs of my tascam interface (they'd go right to my monitors without a patchbay)--these main outs go into 1 & 2 A (the top row) on the back. My monitors go into 1 & 2 B (the bottom row) on the back. Now without any patch cables on the front, my tascam goes right into my monitors. I can use patch cables on the front to interrupt that signal and send it to headphone monitors and back to monitors.

I use the same approach to have my regular preamps lined up to ins on the tascam--again, no patch cables on the front for regular use. If I want to interrupt the signal and go to a compressor or fx--then I use patch cables out front.

 

[famous beagle]

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh. I see.

Cool ... I'll have to look around to see if I can use mine that way.

Thanks!

 

[Whale Bone]

Searching "half-normalled" turned up this:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=267142&highlight=half-normalled

There's a good diagram of everything but normalled, which behaves as mentioned above. The important distinction is that in a normalled config, plugging into either front jack will interrupt the signal, as opposed to half normalled, where you can tap the top (typically the output of something) without interrupting its path to the rear, bottom jack (typically somethings input).

I think I've also seen the 'split' config, from the other post, referred to as reverse-normalled. and non-normalled would be no internal paths, just straight rear to front connections.

 

[WhiteStrat]

Direct Outs on your mixing desk routed through Normalized patch bay to your recording interface. Signal will route normally with bay empty... but you insert or patch channels at will, then tear it all down by just pulling the patch cables...

"There are no stupid questions... Only stupid people"

You said it so much more concisely than I did. (And when I hit reply, there were no responses, so we must've been answering at the same time. I should've waited a few.)